Stories from Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Caraway City Council heard a report from Monica Jeffers, site director of Caraway St. Bernards Senior Life Center, at the Thursday meeting. Jeffers said they are not sure when the center will be able to open for in-house meetings and they are still delivering food to the homebound. Hot meals are picked up daily at the center...

Leachville Mayor Rodney Robertson and council members expressed their appreciation to the voters for approving a one cent city sales tax at the Monday, June 15 meeting. Mayor Robertson said the vote passed by 79 percent (151 yes votes to 40 no). The tax will help with needed upgrades. One fourth will go to the fire department; one fourth will go to the police department; and half will go to capital improvements...

At the COVID-19 press conference on Monday, Blytheville Mayor James Sanders reminded everyone to continue to practice physical distancing and handwashing, as the number of positive cases continue to increase. Sanders said, “In the state of Arkansas last Wednesday the positive number of COVID-19 cases was 10,368, there were 3,087 active cases, 7,116 recoveries and 165 deaths.”...

    The Mississippi County Quorum Court’s Finance Committee briefly met Monday, unanimously approving three issues to send to the full court.     The first was a policy prohibiting the use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies against individuals engaged in non-violent civil rights demonstrations. ...

During a two-hour meeting Monday night, the Osceola City Council approved a measure establishing hiring and firing practices for the Osceola Police Department. Meeting for the first time in city hall since the pandemic in February, the council read the ordinance all three times — by title only — and unanimously approved it...

Gary Michael White, 75, of Dardanelle passed away June 8, 2020. He was born in Marked Tree Dec. 28, 1944, as Gary Michael Jones and was adopted on Oct. 23, 1950, by the late William Clarence, Sr. and Lue Tishia (Jones) White. He proudly served in the United States Army where he retired as SSG Gary White. He went on to later work and retire from Tyson Foods where he worked as a security officer. He was a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Marked Tree...

John Eric Hawkins, 34, of Monette, passed from this life Sunday, June 14, 2020, at the NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro. Born in Osceola, he was a 2003 graduate of Buffalo Island Central High School and was a lifelong resident of northeast Arkansas. ...