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🔥 Burn Ban / Wildfire Alert 6 min read Sebastian + Crawford Counties, AR Sebastian County's official burn-ban notice. County officials say outdoor burning remains prohibited until hazardous dry conditions improve. Image: Sebastian County Government. Hey Fort Smith — the heat warning may be over for the night, but another problem has gotten worse across Arkansas. As of Wednesday evening, all 75 Arkansas counties are now under burn bans because of extremely dry conditions and growing wildfire danger. State forestry officials say Arkansas has recorded more than 300 wildfires since Aug. 1, and they're describing this as the worst fire season they've seen in more than a decade. For us locally, this isn't just one of those statewide warnings that doesn't really apply here. Sebastian County's burn ban remains in effect, and Crawford County has also been operating under a countywide burn ban. Sebastian County's official order pr...

🏛️ Downtown Fort Smith 6 min read Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR A visualization of the proposed reconstruction of Fort Smith's original fort at Belle Point. Image provided by the National Park Service and published by Talk Business & Politics. Hey Fort Smith — there's a pretty unusual fight developing over what could become one of downtown's biggest historic attractions. Fort Smith businessman Carl Corley has offered to spend up to $3 million of his own money to reconstruct the city's original 1817 fort at Belle Point. The National Park Service has rejected the proposal. And Corley says he isn't done pushing. For more than six months, Corley and local preservation advocate Phil White have been working on a plan to recreate the first Fort Smith inside what is now the Fort Smith National Historic Site. White says they tracked down archival information, measurements and building details they believe would allow the fort to ...

✈️ Fort Smith Airport 6 min read Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR Fort Smith Regional Airport. Image published by Talk Business & Politics with its Fort Smith air-service coverage. Hey Fort Smith — everybody wants more flights out of our airport, and airport officials say they're actively trying to make that happen. But there's one number working against them right now. Fewer passengers are boarding flights at Fort Smith Regional Airport so far in 2026. Airport Director Andrew Meyer gave Fort Smith directors an update this week on efforts to recruit more airlines, destinations and commercial flights. Fort Smith currently has one commercial airline — American Airlines — and one nonstop destination, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. July passenger boardings at FSM totaled 5,769. That's down 3.1% from 5,954 in July 2025. From January through July, the airport recorded 34,853 passenger boardings, down 1.5% from 35,393 during ...

🚔 Public Safety Update 5 min read Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR Fort Smith Police Officer Kyle Newman. Official Fort Smith Police Department photo. Hey Fort Smith — there's a meaningful new development in one of the biggest public-safety stories our city has dealt with this year. The Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has determined that four Fort Smith police officers were legally justified in using deadly force during the May 17 shooting that critically wounded Officer Kyle Newman and ended with the death of 27-year-old Joshua Keller. The officers identified in the prosecutor's determination are Newman and Officers Billy Marts, Dawson Tabor and Ryan Grayham. That decision comes after an Arkansas State Police investigation into the officers' use of deadly force. The investigation was eventually forwarded to the Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney's Office for legal review. That review has now been completed. ...

👶 Local Childcare Opportunity 5 min read Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR Fort Firefly is now open at 5400 Euper Lane in Fort Smith. Official Fort Firefly image. Hey Fort Smith — if your work schedule doesn't fit the usual Monday-through-Friday daycare setup, this one is actually worth knowing about. Fort Firefly is now open at 5400 Euper Lane in Fort Smith and is enrolling families in phases. The early-learning center is designed for young children from infancy through age 5, but the bigger difference is who the program was built around. Military families. Veterans. Police, firefighters and EMS families. And other working families dealing with early mornings, evenings, rotating shifts or schedules that don't neatly fit traditional childcare hours. That last part is what makes this more useful than another random daycare opening. A lot of Fort Smith households don't work a clean 8-to-5 schedule. We've got hospital workers p...

🏫 Fort Smith Schools 4 min read Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR Wayne Haver, longtime Southside High School principal, receives an Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Patriot Award in Fort Smith in 2015. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Hannah Dickerson / DVIDS. Hey Fort Smith — we lost somebody this weekend whose name became almost inseparable from Southside High School. Wayne Haver, the longtime former principal of Southside High School, has died, his family announced Sunday. Southside also publicly remembered Haver and the impact he had on generations of students, teachers and staff. If you didn't grow up around Fort Smith schools, the numbers explain why this one means so much to people around here. Haver spent 48 years with Fort Smith Public Schools. He started at Southside in 1970 as a business teacher. Four years later, in 1974, he became an assistant principal. Then in 1982, Haver was promoted to principal. He s...

🌡️ Extreme Heat Warning 5 min read Fort Smith · Van Buren · River Valley, AR Current National Weather Service Tulsa heat graphic for eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Image: NWS Tulsa. Hey Fort Smith — this is a real change from the heat forecast we posted earlier, not another repeat of the same advisory. The National Weather Service has upgraded Fort Smith, north and central Sebastian County, and southern Crawford County to an Extreme Heat Warning for Tuesday, Sept. 8. The warning runs from noon until 8 p.m., with heat-index values potentially reaching about 112°F. Northern Crawford County remains under a Heat Advisory through 8 p.m., where heat-index values could still reach around 106°F. So the River Valley is basically split into two different levels of dangerous heat today. Fort Smith and southern Crawford County are in the higher-level warning area. Northern Crawford County remains in the advisory. Either way, it's going to be da...

⚠️ Extreme Heat Warning 5 min read Fort Smith · Van Buren · River Valley, AR National Weather Service Tulsa heat graphic for western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, updated Saturday morning. Hey Fort Smith — the heat situation got worse since this morning's update. The National Weather Service in Tulsa has upgraded part of the Arkansas River Valley to an Extreme Heat Warning, with heat-index values expected to reach as high as 110° to 112°F Saturday afternoon. The warning includes north and central Sebastian County and southern Crawford County and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Saturday. And this isn't a one-afternoon thing. Another Extreme Heat Warning is already scheduled from noon until 7 p.m. Sunday for the hardest-hit portion of the Arkansas River Valley. That is a meaningful change from the Heat Advisory that was in place when we posted our earlier weekend weather update. A Heat Advisory is still active for surrounding portions of wes...

🏦 Local Business Update 5 min read Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR Simmons Bank. KATV file image published with its report on the bank's newly announced branch closures. Hey Fort Smith — here's a local business update worth knowing if you bank with Simmons. Simmons Bank plans to close a Fort Smith branch on Dec. 4, 2026, as part of a larger shutdown of 26 branches across the bank's six-state footprint. Six of those closures are in Arkansas, and Fort Smith has been specifically identified as one of the affected markets. But there's one pretty important detail Simmons customers around here don't have yet. The public announcement does not identify which Fort Smith branch is closing. So if you see somebody posting a specific address online right now, don't automatically treat it as confirmed. Simmons' current official branch locator shows three full-service branches in Fort Smith. Fort Smith Albert Pike is at 4200 Rog...

💧 Water Alert 5 min read South Fort Smith · Sebastian County, AR Water-conservation image published with KNWA/FOX24's coverage of Fort Smith's Phase II restrictions. Hey Fort Smith — this one actually affects what people can do at home this weekend. All City of Fort Smith water customers south of Zero Street are now under mandatory Phase II water-conservation measures through the end of Sunday, Sept. 6. The city says a 24-inch reinforced-concrete water main along Arkansas 45 was struck Wednesday, causing significant water loss. The main itself has been repaired, but reservoirs serving the southern part of Fort Smith are still low. The temporary restrictions are meant to give those reservoirs time to recover while keeping enough water available for normal household use and essential services. And there’s an important distinction here. Fort Smith and several surrounding water systems have already been under a voluntary conservation request be...