Category Archives: Business

Growth Brings Jobs, Citizens

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by Austin Hyslip
Courtesy of A-State Department of Media

The town of Jonesboro is growing at an exponential rate. Big retail companies are moving in as well as new developments being built. Newk’s Eatery owner Wade Quinn said he has noticed the growth.

“Jonesboro is growing and they’re not a small town anymore, so with that comes opportunities,” he said.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the Jonesboro population has grown over 6,000 people in the last five years. Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce Cari White said it’s because people are able to find jobs in town.

“When you have people moving in to either go to school or work, whether it’s in the healthcare industry or our manufacturing industries, the housing market goes crazy as well as retail,” she said.

The market is booming and businesses are opening faster than ever. White said it’s all a domino effect.

White said another contributor is the town itself isn’t able to build large-scale buildings all on its own. The amount of workers that were needed to construct NEA Baptist caused quite the growth a couple of years ago.

“When your community gets the largest project in Arkansas being built in your community … when NEA was built, it was the No. 1 largest investment in Arkansas in one fell swoop. Now you’ve got to consider everybody who came in to work on that,” she said.

The future of Jonesboro is also on an upward trend. The Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce projects that the town will grow to around 75,000 people in 2017.

Sightings, Schools Slow Costume Sales

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by Kirsten May
Courtesy of A-State Department of Media

JONESBORO — Halloween is just around the corner, but one scary figure has been getting a lot of attention for months: creepy clowns. ASU TV’s Kirsten May looked at how sightings reported across the nation might be impacting sales at a local costume shop.

“A few of them said, ‘No, I wouldn’t be a clown if my life depended on it, because I don’t want to get shot or arrested,'” Golden Grotto manager Anthony Eveland said.

Eveland said the increased attention to creepy clowns over the past few months has not been good for costume sales.

“Last year we sold all of them. This year we’ve sold a few. I don’t know if it’s because the ban of all the schools,” he said.

And it’s that ban on certain costumes — including clowns — that is frustrating to some parents. Amber Sales said buying costumes for her two sons who love scary movies is a little bit harder this year.

“He was kind of upset because he doesn’t get to do the clown. Because he can’t wear it to school, and there’s been messages put out all over Facebook and social media saying that if you’re dressed up like a clown, you’ll get arrested. So, we don’t know which parts are real and which ones aren’t, so we just aren’t going to test it,” she said.

Sales’ sons are in elementary and junior high in the Jonesboro School District.

She said a note sent home said masks and fake weapons were not allowed, which she understands. But Sales does not like the school restricting the type of costume a child can wear.

“It’s like a parent has to spend $100 per kid just to get them what they want for school and after school,” she said.

Sales also said she believes most of the reported clown sightings aren’t real, just something to get attention on social media.

In the end, Eveland said the store will do fine this Halloween regardless of how many clown costumes stay on the shelf.

“No, no, no. We don’t depend on just clowns,” he said.

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