RISON - From severe weather and the "bird flu" to school projects and political announcements, news for the first half of 2025 ran the gamut. Here's a look back at some of the stories from January to June:
January
Outgoing President Joe Biden signed legislation on Jan. 4 to officially rename the U.S. Post Office at Kingsland as the Kingsland "Johnny Cash" Post Office. Arkansas Fourth District Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Hot Springs) first introduced legislation in February 2024 to rename the post office after Kingsland's most famous native son All nine justices on the Cleveland County Quorum Court were formally sworn in by County Clerk Brandy Herring before the start of the court's regular monthly meeting. Eight of the nine justices were returning while new District 8 Justice Jeffrey Smith is starting his first term. He replaces Johnie Brewster, who did not seek re-election and has since moved outside the county.
County Judge Jimmy Cummings told the quorum court that he had purchased a used dump truck and cross belly dump trailer to help speed up moving material for road repairs.
Frank Wilson of the Staves community is among six inductees added to the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame. Wilson began planting pine trees with his dad more than 70 years ago and started Wilson Brothers Lumber Company in 1972, followed by several logging companies and other timber industry enterprises.
Sleet and freezing rain that fell Jan. 9-10 knocked out power in some areas, closed schools and caused treacherous driving conditions along local roadways as the first winter storm of the season passed through Cleveland County. Sleet amounts ranging from about one-half to one inch were measured from the storm.
The Woodlawn School Board approved Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hancock's decision to let contracts with Meinco Wastewater Systems of Bryant for managing the district's wastewater system and Harbor Environmental and Safety, the engineer for the project, expire. Both had been working with the district's wastewater system since 2018 to get it into full compliance with Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) regulations. The board approved hiring Joe Freyer, who serves as the utilities director for the City of Rison, to maintain the system while Hawkins-Weir Engineers of Little Rock submitted a bid to conduct studies and do the ADEQ reports on behalf of the district. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Department was investigating a rash of car thefts that resulted in two vehicles being recovered south of Rison and another still missing. Sandra Coleman, 50, of Rison, who operated the Main Street Cafe in downtown Rison, died in a traffic accident Jan. 15 along Hwy. 79 in Jefferson County just north of the Cleveland County line, according to Arkansas State Police.
Mainline Health has announced that its new School Health Center on the Rison School campus will be opening soon to provide one-site care for students and staff in an on-campus setting.
Two commercial poultry farms in Cleveland County had chickens test positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) resulting in the flocks at both farms being euthanized, said Dr. Dustan Clark, Arkansas Extension poultry veterinarian for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture (UADA).
Carl Jones, the former Woodlawn High School basketball after whom the WHS Sports Complex is named, was honored between the girls and boys varsity basketball games against Magnet Cove on, Jan. 28.
Former Kingsland City Council member Karen Wiscaver was selected by her council members to replace Sharon Crosby as the new mayor of Kingsland. Crosby officially resigned the position on Dec. 31. Meanwhile, the city council also approved the appointment of Nadriona Russell as the new recorder/ treasurer for the City of Kingsland, a position that has been vacant since the resignation of former Recorder/Treasurer Tleatha "Tootie" Spencer in October 2022.
February
An estimated crowd of about 200 people were on hand Feb. 1 for the Rison Booster Club's induction of the inaugural class of the new Rison High School Sports Hall of Fame held at the White Hall Community Center. The first class consisted of legendary college and high school football coach Jimmy "Red" Parker, All-State football and basketball player Havis Hyatt, former Arkansas Razorback All-Conference football player George Walker, long-time Rison High School athletic and community supporters Ray and Roy Martin, and the 1950 state championship football team.
The Cleveland County Quorum Court wanted a better idea of how much the cost would be to fulfill a request by Deputy Prosecutor Eric Marks to add a shared staff person with two other counties to help file circuit court cases. His request was met with some resistance from some county officials and justices of the peace.
Mayor Charles Roberts asked members of the Rison City Council as well as utilities director Joe Freyer to begin compiling a list of unsightly properties around town as he intends to act on an ordinance from 2000 that allows the city to issue citations and fines to those who are in violation of the ordinance.
Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hancock said the Woodlawn School District had to sanitize elementary and high school classrooms again to help combat the spread of illnesses across the campus.
The Cherry Cemetery near Rison became the 14th property in the Cleveland County to be added to the National Register of Historic Place. The Cherry Cemetery, also known as the Temperance Hill Cemetery, is located about 5.5 miles southeast of Rison along Mt. Elba Road. It was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 5, 2024, according to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (AHPP) website.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation that will ban the use of cell phones at school with the beginning of the 202526 school year after the socalled "Bell to Bell, No Cell Act" was approved by the legislature. In addition, the state Senate also approved SB59 that provides free breakfast to students. The program is being funded through medical marijuana tax revenue.
C&L Broadband Connect, a new internet service provider owned by the C&L Electric Cooperative, has been "preliminarily chosen" to receive about $940,000 in federal funding to provide fiber optic internet service to three "census blocks" in Cleveland County, according to David Vondran, CEO/general manager of C&L Electric.
A polar cold front that plunged temperatures below the freezing mark for more than two days led to icy road conditions that forced local schools and businesses to close on Feb. 19. New Kingsland Mayor Karen Wiscaver identified the first property she intends to have cleaned up in an effort to begin earnestly enforcing the city's existing ordinances regarding the unkempt properties. Also, Linda Burns was selected to finish out Wiscaver's term representing Ward 2, Position 1 on the Kingsland City Council.
March
The Cleveland County Quorum Court approved a motion to fund one-third of the cost a new staff member within the prosecutor's office by a 5-2 vote during its March meeting. The new staff person will be dedicated to processing criminal cases for Cleveland, Calhoun and Dallas counties to expedite the time those cases go to court. With eight of the nine justices of the peace present for the meeting, there was one abstention.
County Judge Jimmy Cummings recommended to the Cleveland County Quorum Court that the county seek another round of bids after the first round of bids for three building projects came in much higher than expected. The bids were for a 30 foot by 60 foot building to store the county's electronic voting machines; a 24 foot by 24 foot building to house the solid waste transfer station office; and a cover to go over the two compactor binds at the transfer stations.
Rison Mayor Charles Roberts told the Rison City Council that he is working on letters that will go out to the owners of unkempt properties in the city, but acknowledged that the state legislature is working on legislation now that could impact the way local governments address those properties.
The Woodlawn School District decided to have three polling sites open in the May 13 school election to decide a three-way race for the Woodlawn School Board as well as a 2-mill tax increase to help fund new construction of the career and technical center as well as expanding the school cafeteria.
The Woodlawn School Board approved hiring Zach Meyer, who has been serving as the assistant principal for both the high school and elementary this year, to be the Woodlawn Elementary principal effective July 1 with the start of the 2025-26 school year. He was also the head football coach at Woodlawn.
Rison Elementary and Woodlawn Elementary were both recognized as Top 20 schools by the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas for growth in their Arkansas Teaching, Learning & Assessment System (ATLAS) test scores last year. After a public hearing last week, Rison Mayor Charles Roberts said he will look at some other options before installing speed bumps along Oak Street or any other city street in order to slow down traffic inside the city limits.
Rison High School will seek a new boys basketball coach after the Cleveland County School Board accepted the resignation of Coach Kyle Thaxton during its regular monthly meeting.
Cleveland County Judge Jimmy Cummings officially placed the county under a burn ban on March 20, the day after there was an outbreak of wildfires around the county and region the day before.
More than two dozen positions at Doman Building Materials Group's operations on Niven Road in Rison ar temporarily "curtailed" due to supply chain disruption, according to company sources.
Cleveland County Judge Jimmy Cummings stopped using rubble from the former Cleveland County Nursing Home at Rison as "rip-rap" to shore up county roads after getting complaints about the trash that was in it.
Cori Kennedy, a singer-songwriter and furniture salesperson from Kasson, Minn., ended up with more than 20 million views on social media after writing and singing a song about the silhouette of Johnny Cash being shot on the Kingsland water tank.
After approving it earlier with a simple voice vote, the Kingsland City Council made it official when it approved an ordinance raising the pay for city council members from $100 to $125 per month by a roll call vote. Former Mayor Sharon Crosby had looked at raising the pay after city business office manager Wendy James said there was enough money in the budget to fund them.
With local forecasts predicting more than an 80 percent chance of rain, attendance at the 2025 Arkansas Homesteading Conference in Rison was down from the previous year's recording-setting crowd, but was a little better than expected.
April
Mayor Charles Roberts was unable to take any action on his recent public meeting on speed bumps after the Rison City Council did not have enough council members present for a quorum at April council meeting.
Residents and local governments are cleaning up after several rounds of severe weather brought damaging winds, baseball-size hail and flooding rains to Cleveland County in the first week of April. A rainfall map released by the National Weather Service (NWS) showed as much as 10 inches of rain had fallen in parts of the county over a five-day period ending Sunday, April 6.
An ordinance that would have funded a new position to assist the prosecutor's office with filing paperwork for criminal cases in Cleveland and two other counties failed to come to vote after the motion failed to get a second during the Cleveland County Quorum Court's monthly meeting.
A proposal by County Judge Jimmy Cummings to give "skill" positions within the county road department a pay raised failed to get the two-thirds needed for passage during monthly quorum court meeting.
Heavy rains in the region lead to the Saline River rising to "moderate" flood stages, nearly touching the bottom of the Hwy. 79 bridge. The Cleveland County School Board took no action during its monthly meeting on a proposed pay increase for classified staff, but the board seemed to be in favor of providing some form of an increase depending on how the district's finances pan out for the rest of the year.
The Woodlawn School Board approved a new assistant principal, Ethan Bumpass, and a new head football coach, Doug Means, during its regular monthly meeting.
Cleveland County's population continues to slowly decline according to the latest projections released by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI). The county's population declined from 7,550 residents as of the 2020 U.S. Census to an estimated 7,367 residents as of July 1, 2024, reflecting a 2.4 percent decrease.
For the second consecutive year, Rison High School has been included in U.S. News & World Report's list of Best High School rankings for 2024.
Organizers of the Pioneer Crafts Festival at the Pioneer Village in Rison said they felt they made some progress in their effort to revive what was once one of the largest events of its kind in south Arkansas, but admit there is still work to be done.
Cleveland County Sheriff Jack Rodgers made it official April 28 and announced that he will be retiring from office when his current term ends on Dec. 31, 2026.
Cleveland County Sheriff Deputy Michael Poss and Keden Shrum of Rison announced their intentions to run for sheriff in the 2026 Republican primary.
May
Vance "Lee" Freeman of the Rison area, an active law enforcement officer with the Pine Bluff Police Department, officially announced through his personal Facebook page that he will be seeking the Republican nomination for Cleveland County Sheriff.
The Cleveland County Quorum approved County Judge Jimmy Cummings' recommendation to go with a pole barn construction system with concrete floors to create a new storage building to store the county's voting machines.
Construction on the City of Rison's new wastewater treatment plant located at the solid waste transfer station on Hwy. 79 has been slowed after the concrete used in the new structure was found to be defective.
The section of U.S. Hwy. 79 that runs through Cleveland County could soon be recognized as the Johnny Cash Heritage Highway after the Cleveland County Quorum Court and Rison City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the move.
Voters in the Woodlawn School District approved a 2mill tax increase by a 192-174 margin (52 percent) during a special millage election held May 13. The additional millage will support construction of a new career education center as well as expand the school cafeteria.
Cleveland County Assessor Barbara Reaves announced that she will be retiring from office once she completes here current term that ends Dec. 31, 2026. Meanwhile, Deputy Assessor Wendy McCallister Grice announced she will run for the position in the 2026 Republican primary.
Four valedictorians and one salutatorian led a class of 47 graduates as Woodlawn High School held its graduation ceremony May 13 at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. Annie Caroline Davidson, Kathryn Hope Dixon, Sarah Lillie-Faye McWhorter and Sarah Elizabeth Melhorn were co-valedictorians while Tate Rhodes Hall was salutatorian.
The Cleveland County School District renewed its contract with the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative to continue using the Compass Academy at Kingsland for alternative learning environment (ALE) students, but the district did cut the number of seats in its contract by half.
A change in math curriculum, possible funding to provide free school lunches and a virtual option for homeschoolers were among the topics addressed by the Woodlawn School Board during its regular monthly meeting.
Valedictorian Aaron Ray Tilley and salutatorian Dylan Everett Dedman led a class of 59 graduates as Rison High School conducted its graduation ceremony at George Walker Field of Champions on May 15.
Three days after voters in the Woodlawn School District approved a 2-mill increase to fund construction of a new career education center and cafeteria expansion, the district learned that the career education center was not among the initial projects to receive state partnership funding. However, the district did receive $395,3236.28 for the cafeteria expansion.
While the Cleveland County School District’s projects for a new gym and building secure entrance to Rison Elementary were accepted into the state partnership program, the district learned that neither project was awarded money in the initial round of funding.
Jason and Sara Cater, along with their sons Weston and Tanner, all of the Monticello area, are the new owners of Premiere Poultry Supply, Inc., formerly Batesville Poultry located in the Pansy community on Hwy. 63.
“Action” groups from across the county that are part of the Kickstart Cleveland County community development initiative gather at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds to celebrate the effort’s 10-year anniversary. Dr. Mark Peterson, retired professor of community and economic development for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, was the guest speaker. Dr. Peterson’s Breakthrough Solutions program was used as the model for the county-wide initiative.
The Kingsland City Council tabled a proposal to raise the water connection fee from $200 to $500 until it had a chance to review the water department’s finances first. Also, the city council officially accepted the resignation of council member Sandra Laws, who submitted a letter stating that other obligations prompted her to step down.
Kingsland Mayor Karen Wiscaver tells the city council she is reaching out to corporate contacts at Dollar General about inviting its store at Kingsland to become part of the city, thereby giving the city a new stream of sales tax revenue.’
June
The Rison City Council accepted the resignation of Recorder/Treasurer Rhonda Hopson while Mayor Charles Roberts informed the council a registered letter will be going out soon to being the legal process of addressing nuisance properties in the city.
Randy Morgan, a volunteer with the Cleveland County Veterans Association, gave the Cleveland County Quorum Court an update on efforts to create a veterans display inside the Hall-Morgan Veterans Bulding in Rison.
Two cousins with deep roots in Cleveland County, Savannah Grace Brown and Alli Beth King, will compete in the Miss Arkansas Pageant at the Robinson Center in Little Rock.
A ceremony officially renaming the Kingsland Post Office after native son and country music legend Johnny Cash was held June 7 at the Kingsland School auditorium. Public Law 118-237, approved by both houses of Congress and signed into law by former President Joe Biden, designates the U.S. Postal Service facility at 80 First Street in Kingsland as the “Kingsland Johnny Cash Post Office.”
Superintendent Davy King told the Cleveland County School Board that he will arrange a meeting with the district’s architect and financial adviser to review the district’s options to take advantage of more than $2.8 million in partnership funding the district could receive for a new gym/multi-purpose center and a new security entrance to Rison Elementary.
While reducing the overall size of the project to meet the budget, the Woodlawn School District formally signed a letter of agreement to accept $395,326.28 in state partnership money to expand the school cafeteria.
The Cleveland County School Board voted to go with six-year terms for school board members starting with the 2026 school elections.
About two-and-a-half years after the initial grant was awarded, the City of Rison finally broke ground on a $3.3 million project that will replace a large portion of the city’s aging water system with new lines.
Rison Shine Community Development launches an effort to get input on ways to make the city more attractive to residents and businesses through a online survey and community meeting.
While the number of riders was down for the 2025 event, organizers behind the Cruisin’ Cleveland County bike ride said they are already looking at ways to improve next year’s event with some new paved routes and expanded gravel routes.
Bobby Macon, 47, of Fordyce, was arrested by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department at a residence on Elrod Street in Rison on charges of drug trafficking. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) also conducted an investigation of the premises at the time of the arrest.
The Woodlawn School Board voted in a special meeting June 16 to delete certain parts of the district policy concerning scheduling so it would align with the Arkansas School Board Association model policy.
Acclaimed country artist Sunny Sweeney is announced as the headliner for the 35th anniversary of the Rison in the Fall Festival to be held in October.