Stories from Saturday, January 25, 2020

OSCEOLA— The Osceola City Council held its ninth budget meeting Wednesday night, spending 2 1/2 hours pouring over the numbers and passionately discussing potential budget cuts. Facing a Feb. 1 deadline to have a balanced budget in place, Osceola is considering five percent cuts from all departments and a 10 percent cut from general administration...

Aaron Fleeman announced his bid for election to the Mississippi County Quorum Court as Justice of the Peace, District 1. Fleeman is the son of Danny and Teresa Fleeman, has lived in Manila all his life, and continues to live in Manila with his wife Adrianne. ...

Mississippi County Finance Chair Michael White reviewed the end of the year budget and discussed several requests from the Great River Economic Development Foundation at the Monday meeting. Justice White commended officials for doing well on the budget closing the year as close as possible...

Buffalo Island Central Superintendent Gaylon Taylor announced the total receipt of $278,961.28 from Nabholz Construction for over budgeting of new school construction cost during the school board meeting Thursday. “We received $99,135.19 for the elementary building in Leachville and $179,826.09 for the high school in Monette,” Taylor said. ...

Blytheville Mayor James Sanders has set the city council committees. He noted the only change was moving Councilwoman Vera James from the Finance Committee to the Parks and Recreation Committee and Councilman John Mayberry to her Finance position. Mayor Sanders noted in September, James asked to step down from the Finance Committee and be replaced by Mayberry. A week later, according to the mayor, James asked to stay on the committee...

With a 4-2 vote Tuesday night, the Blytheville City Council shot down a proposal to require council members to attend at least four meetings a month to receive full compensation. Councilman Matt Perrin presented the resolution to amend the current council’s rules of order and procedure to add that compensation will be based on participation...

Gosnell City Councilman David Blount has resigned as the city’s Ward 1, Position 2 representative. Blount sent an email to Gosnell Mayor Teresa Walker on Friday, Jan. 17, informing her of his decision. “I have decided that I am going to go ahead and resign from the planning commission and the council,” the email reads. ...

A Mississippi County Sheriff’s Department deputy was shot in the groin when his handgun apparently accidentally discharged in his pocket while putting a pair of glasses in his pocket at Dr. Scott Johnson’s office in Blytheville around 1:34 p.m., Thursday...

Blytheville police are searching for Devon Rainey in connection with the murder of 23-year-old Kevondre Williams in August. According to Capt. John Frazier, Rainey has a warrant for first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. On Thursday, 26-year-old Mariah Diamond was arraigned on the same charges in Chickasawba District Court in Blytheville...