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Mississippi County officials looking at merging seats

Arkansas is one of ten states that that have multiple courthouse seats in some counties.  The average per county is two courthouse seats, typically one of the northern district and one for the southern district.  Mississippi County is looking at the possibility of merging those county seats.  The Sun newspaper states one of the main reasons for this possibility is the mounting utility and maintenance costs for both aging courthouses in Blytheville and Osceola.  County officials have been exploring the possibility of building a new courthouse, but there has been some backlash to that proposal.  The main reason is that both courthouses are on the National Register for Historic Places.  Some fear that both courthouses would become unkempt eyesores if they are not being used.  County officials say maintaining both aging courthouses is putting a strain on a tight county budget.  Officials say they are in the very early stages of discussing what to do next with the courthouses.

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.