Blytheville, Arkansas

quarter-cent sales tax. Another key area of focus is citizen safety. “While we’re constructing our new justice center, we’re working with a company called SkyCop,” Sanders reports. “They place cameras in strategic areas of our town to monitor both ingoing and outgoing traffic, as well as our shopping areas, and even, in some cases, our residential areas, so people can feel safe because the areas are being monitored by cameras and fed back to both the police cars and the justice center. We understand that the city’s duty is not to be a thermometer to gauge the safety issues, but to be the thermostat to set an atmosphere of growth and safety for our constituents.” “Downtown is another area that we’re concentrating on,” Sanders continues. “We have an active downtown commission, and we’re working collaboratively with the people downtown to make our city more attractive and get people to invest in our downtown.” To that end, the city has cleaned up its “Downtown Patio,” a former dilapidated business that is now used as a venue and meeting space; it is planning a complete facelift for the Ritz Civic Center on Main Street; and it will repaint is famous Downtown Arches. Blytheville is also working on its streets. The city has spent funds on drainage work and has recently repaved several key thoroughfares, including McHaney and Franklin Streets. “We’re trying to move in a different direction and utilize our tax dollars to work on the quality of life issues in our city,” says Sanders. “Growth usually stems from major transportation opportunities, which Blytheville is blessed to have many of. We have two airports, the Mississippi River, BNSF railway, Interstate 55, as well as Federal and State Highways. So, our intent is to draw people from the growing areas outside our city into our industrial and downtown areas, so that they can experience what all Blytheville has to offer.” “I hope that people know that we are a very community-based city,” says Wyatt. “We are working hard to develop our community and improving the BLYTHEV I LLE , ARKANSAS