White River community still planning to ‘Celebrate America’

BATESVILLE — Citizens Bank announced last week that “Celebrate America,” its annual celebration of our nation’s independence, will proceed as planned on Saturday, the Fourth of July, along the banks of the White River in Riverside Park in Batesville.

This will be the 23rd consecutive year that Citizens Bank has hosted “Celebrate America,” which is considered one of the most spectacular Independence Day celebrations in Arkansas.

Major co-sponsors for the event again this year are the Batesville Daily Guard and WhiteRiverNow.com High energy live entertainment will begin at 7 p.m., featuring JADED, a powerful band of master musicians from Kennett, Missouri whose playlist runs the gamut of country, rock, pop and R& B.

JADED has performed alongside such acts as Sheryl Crow, Trent Tomlinson, David Allan Coe, and Black Oak Arkansas.

The “Celebrate America” festivities will be topped off at 9:15 p.m. by one of the region’s premier fireworks displays, filling the sky nearly overhead from the staging area in Kennedy Park, located directly across the river from Riverside Park. The fireworks will be choreographed to music that will be played in the park and also broadcast on radio station KWOZ-FM, 103.3.

“As much as any time in recent years, Citizens Bank believes it is important for everyone to have the opportunity to gather together and commemorate our nation’s independence,” said Micah Beard, Market President for Citizens Bank in North Central Arkansas. “We and all of our generous sponsors invite you to join us on the Fourth of July to “Celebrate America’.”

The Arkansas Department of Health strongly encourages certain COVID-19 Coronavirus precautions be followed protect the safety and well-being of everyone attending the event.

Due to the virus, food vendors and children’s activities will not be available this year, but families can bring picnic baskets.

Alcohol and glass containers are not allowed in the park.

The Health Department also suggests that everyone wear masks or face coverings to prevent the spread of the infection. Family groups are advised to sit together, and distance themselves from other family groups by six feet or more.

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FAYETTEVILLE — Customers at a Walmart in Arkansas will no longer use cashiers in checkout lines.

A Fayetteville Walmart is only offering self-checkout as a test for the retailer.

While the store no longer has cashiers, self-checkout hosts are at the front of the store to help customers.

They will also check out a customer's groceries if they prefer it.

Depending on success of the idea, the company mayl roll out the checkout system to other stores across the country.

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JONESBORO — As the number of new coronavirus infections begins to level off in most of the state, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he may consider taking a regional approach to moving to the next stage of reopening the Arkansas economy.

Statewide, Arkansas had 358 new cases of COVID19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, bringing the total since March to 8,425. The death toll rose by 9 to 151, although Health Secretary Nate Smith said roughly half of the deaths had occurred earlier in nursing homes that hadn’t officially been recorded. Three new deaths were attributed to Lawrence County.

Nine new COVID-19 cases were attributed to Craighead County on Thursday. And Kelly Damphousse, chancellor of Arkansas State University, disclosed seven studentathletes across three sports have tested positive for coronavirus. He said none of the students exhibited symptoms when they were tested.

Both Damphousse and Hutchinson said positive tests on campus were to be expected.

“Of course, you’ve got to recognize this is a fairly large number of athletes who will be coming back for training and they’re coming from different cities across the country,” Hutchinson said during his daily press briefing.

The governor said other college campuses will have the same experience. He said each school has plans in place to deal with it.

Hutchinson commended Damphousse for immediately notifying the public.

Hutchinson said the northeast, central, southeast and southwest regions of the state were showing signs that new infections were in a downward trajectory, while the northwest corner has seen large jumps. He said 65.4 percent of the new cases came from the northwest region, where there were 111 new cases in Washington County and 92 in Benton County. The northeast region accounted for just 8.7 percent of the new cases and was declining during the past three days.

In the past, the governor has insisted on moving to Phase 2 on a statewide basis.

“We’re going to continue to look at this by region, recognizing that we have different epidemics and different time frames in Arkansas,” Hutchinson said. “And while we’ve kept our state together and there’s a lot of wisdom in that, we want to make sure that we are looking at the regions separately and giving good counsel and advice in each of those regions as we fight this virus.”