A steel processing center is coming to Osceola. In conjunction with the opening of the $1.1 billion Big River Steel Mill, local and state officials announced the 2016 opening of The Material Works Limited. Yesterday’s announcement means a $20 million investment in Osceola, with at least 45 new jobs at the center. The 110-thousand square-foot facilities will be an “advanced flat rolled toll processing center”. Construction will start in the spring and it is expected to be fully operational at the same time that Big River Steel will open in 2016. Big River Steel’s construction will involve at least two thousand construction jobs and at least 500 people will be employed.
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.