© 2024 KASU
Your Connection to Music, News, Arts and Views for 65 Years
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Groundbreaking set for Big River Steel

Groundbreaking ceremonies for Big River Steel take place September 22.  The Blytheville Courier News says the event is invitation-only, and is expected to host numerous dignitaries, including Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe.  Construction on the $1.3 billion project is expected to take at least two years.  Once built, at least 500 workers will be employed, averaging salaries of $75,000.  The project is moving forward, despite attempts to stop it from Nucor Steel in Blytheville.  Nucor has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming the company is violating the Clean Air Act.  The project is being financed in part from $125 million in state bonds and $14.5 million from Mississippi County, through an economic development sales tax.  More information is available here.

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.