Newly elected Stuttgart Mayor Norma King Strabala presided over her first city council meeting Tuesday night.
The first meeting of the Stuttgart City Council under newly-elected Mayor Norma King Strabala was held Tuesday, May 4. All members of the council were present at the meeting.
The council’s first business was filling Strabala’s former city council seat, Ward 2 Position 2, which was vacated when she was sworn in on April 26.
Ward 2 alderman Kyle Noble nominated local businessman David Leech to fill the remainder of Strabala’s term. Noble said she had spoken to Leech, who is willing to serve out the rest of the term.
Stuttgart Police Department vehicles will receive new computers over the summer.
The Stuttgart Police Department will be stepping into the 21st century of reporting with the upcoming addition of computers to patrol cars.
Police Chief Mark Duke recently announced the department received a 90-10 grant from the Arkansas State Police Highway Safety Office to add computers with the necessary software to write and print citations and work incidents and offenses from their cars.
“Right now, (our officers) are taking down the necessary information on paper, and coming back to the station to complete their reports. We are still using the big citation books with multiple copies for citations,” Duke said. “It’s a very outdated way of filing reports. This is technology we’ve never had in Stuttgart.”
This week marks the sixth anniversary of Stuttgart resident Miranda Michelle Owens’s disappearance.
Owens is described as being 5’6″ tall and weighing about 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing brown square-framed glasses and bright colorful clothing.
The day Michelle disappeared remains unclear
Owens, who was known to her family and friends by her middle name Michelle or “Chelle”, was 40 when she went missing in April 2015. Stuttgart police officers reported seeing her at East 13
th Street and South Main Street near the Kwiki Car Wash on April 21, 2015, after she was initially reported missing. Her family members have said they do not believe the woman police saw on April 21 was Michelle. The last time family or friends heard from Michelle was on Sunday, April 19, 2015. Her younger sister, Katherine Johnson Walker, said she believes something happened to Michelle on April 19.
Family and friends of missing Stuttgart woman Miranda Michelle “Chelle” Owens gathered with members of the community at the stage in downtown Stuttgart Monday evening for a balloon release in Michelle’s honor and to show their refusal to give up on her case.
Michelle was last heard from on April 19, 2015. An $8,000 reward is offered to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for her disappearance.
Anyone with information can contact Stuttgart Search and Rescue (SAR) Team by calling 870-456-1570 or the Stuttgart Police Department at 870-673-1414.
(Photos by Melissa Cason)
I miss her so much : Family of missing Stuttgart woman holds on to hope 6 years later I miss her so much : Family of missing Stuttgart woman holds on to hope 6 years later UP NEXT
After six years without a promising lead, the family of missing Arkansas woman Michelle Owens isn’t giving up hope that she’ll someday be found.
Owens was 40 years old when she went missing in Stuttgart in April 2015.
“God’s going to bring her back one day, Owens’ mom, Betty Johnson, said. I don’t know when, but she’s going to come home. I miss her so much.”