RISON - For the latest episode of the Free Range Conversations podcast, Mayor of Rison Charles Roberts gives listeners a glimpse at upcoming construction plans for Rison.
During the episode with hosts Britt Talent, Roy Phillips and Douglas Boultinghouse, Roberts gives updates on the water tower renovations, plans for replacing water lines and re-paving Main Street in Rison.
“We’ve finished the aesthetics part,” Roberts said, referring to the repainting and design of both water tanks in Rison.
The water tank near the Cleveland County courthouse was sandblasted and repainted with “Ris❤n” featuring a gold heart in place of the letter o.
The second tank, located in Veterans Park, was redone with a scenic design featuring trees, deer and a sunset under the city name.
“Now we’ve got to do the technical part,” Roberts said, explaining a back-order of water pumps and generators have delayed upgrades to the city’s water wells.
The new upgrades will address past issues of faulty back-up generators that once caused the tank to run dry following an ice storm.
“We'll have brand new water pumps to fill up our brand new tanks that have been sandblasted down to metal and with new coatings that are approved by the state health department,” the mayor said. “Our tanks are clean and beautiful, inside and out. We'll have new pumps, new backup generators, and a new skater system.”
Roberts shared that a new alert system will notify the city of any future issues that can be addressed before causing major problems.
The upgrades are decades overdue. According to Roberts, the last time a major infrastructure had been upgraded was in the 1990s.
Once completed, the City will have a brand-new water distribution system that has been modernized.
The wastewater treatment plant is also in the beginning stages of a revamp with a $3.9 million renovation project the mayor expects to be complete by August of this year.
New water lines are also on the mayor’s agenda.
Working in phases, Roberts said the City will start with the oldest pipes and work towards the newest. The projected area includes Main Street from Rison High School to Well Road and eastward.
As pipes are replaced, the street will also be repaved.
“We know there will be improvements as we go,” he said. “If we see a culvert that needs to be replaced, we'll replace that.”
Roberts said some culvert repairs are already on the schedule as the City has held off on doing work to the pavement at this time because the new pipes will be going in soon.
Construction on the new pipes is slated to begin by March 1.
According to Roberts, after pre-construction meetings are held in early February, work could begin at the end of February. The year-long project is scheduled to be completed by February 2026.
The Mayor said residents should see the multiple benefits once the new lines are in place, such as more efficient water pumping to the meter, and city employees spending less resources on repairing leaks and more time toward more positive application to time and effort.
Leaks from the old and fragile pipes over the years have been so frequent Talent joked that they had been named according to where they happened.
Phillips, a long-time city employee, used to help with repairing the leaks and said fixing one leak would put pressure further down the pipe causing another leak.
Roberts said Utilities Manager Joe Freyer once took out one of the pipes that ran across a street approximately 24 feet.
“That one pipe had 13 patches on it,” he said. “Basically one every other foot.”
According to Phillips, he believes the last time the streets in town were paved dates back to the 1990s.
All of the water infrastructure and road improvements in town lead the Mayor to another topic in the conversation - residential and business development in town.
Roberts shared that some have invested in the community with plans to put in more housing opportunities.
“Our population would go up if we had more housing,” he said. “We've got so many good things happening in our small town. And so if we increase the number of people in town, we will increase the amount of goods and services.”
The Mayor credits organizations like Rison Shine Community Development, Inc., for being an instrumental and positive influence on the city and county.
On behalf of Rison Shine, Boultinghouse shared that the group is in the process of pursing grant opportunities to fund some beautification efforts in downtown, including park benches, flower pots, flags and more.
Boultinghouse said Rison Shine has also served as a mediator of sorts to connect people with the Mayor Roberts or individuals in town.
“We get requests from time to time from people looking to bring a business to Rison, so we try to put them in touch with someone who can help make that happen,” he said.
Throughout the podcast, Roberts and the hosts discuss other possibilities for Rison and features they would like to see such as a community center/safe room, as well as potential investors that have been looking into properties.
The episode is streaming now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and ClevelandCountyHerald.com