RISON - Rison Shine Community Development is seeking the public’s input on ways to make the city more attractive to residents and businesses through a online survey and community meeting.
The online survey will be posted this week with a link can be found at clevelandcountyherald.com. The Herald as well as Rison Shine will be promoting it through their Facebook pages as well. The survey consists of 10 questions seeking feedback on where they see Rison now, and where they would like to see it in the future.
Also, a public meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, June 30, at the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building in Rison to get live feedback from the community as well as brainstorm ideas. The meeting will be moderated by Britt Talent, editor/publisher of the Cleveland County Herald, and Les Walz, the former Cleveland County Extension agent. Both were active in formation of Kickstart Cleveland County.
“After visiting with Mark Peterson, this is something we felt we need to do since the dynamics have changed quite a bit since we started more than 10 years ago,” said Talent.
Dr. Mark Peterson is the now-retired professor of community and economic development for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. His Breakthrough Solutions community development program was the model used to develop Kickstart Cleveland County.
Peterson returned to Rison to serve as the guest speaker at a banquet celebrating Kickstart Cleveland County’s 10th anniversary. Talent said it was some subsequent conversations after the banquet that prompted the idea to refocus the community development efforts in Rison and Cleveland County.
Rison Shine was organized about 12 years ago with the initial goal of finding ways to revitalize the downtown area. Since then, the scope of the volunteer organization has grown to include all of Rison, not just the downtown area.
Some of the group’s successes have been the establishment of the FBT Community Park in downtown Rison, revival of the Cleveland County Christmas Parade and a resurgence of the Rison in the Fall Festival under Douglas Boultinghouse. Boultinghouse brought Rison Shine on as the lead organizer of the festival that has quickly become one of the premier music festivals in southern Arkansas.
In addition, there has been some success on the commercial front as well. Malinda Berry converted the Emerson House, the oldest remaining structure in Rison, into the My Berry Patch florist and gift shop. She recently added the Guesthouse at My Berry Patch, which is Rison’s only place for overnight lodging.
Meanwhile, Jeff and Lynn Wilson constructed the new Rison Pharmacy complex in the 300 block of Main Street. In addition to larger store, the Wilsons also added a fitness center that has been well received by the community.
“There has been a lot of progress downtown since we started Rison Shine, but my biggest concern now is the lack of retail businesses in the 200 block,” Talent said.
Last year, two retail businesses within that block of downtown Rison, the hardware store and Main Street Cafe, both closed. The only remaining active businesses within that block are a dance studio, a tumbling studio (both of which only open in the evenings on certain days), Access Medical Clinic and the Herald office.
“A lot of us are concerned about the fate of the 200 block since many of the buildings there remain empty and are rapidly deteriorating,” Talent said.
The City of Rison acquired what is commonly referred to as the old Cash AG store. It is generally considered the biggest eyesore in the downtown area after the roof collapsed, and a large piece of the roof blew onto Main Street during a windstorm earlier this year.
Talent noted that some of the other vacant buildings along the west side of the 200 block of Main Street are in danger of rapidly deteriorating after those roofs were damaged as well.
Talent said the June 30 meeting will include a specific focus on what do to about downtown Rison. Peterson suggested having the public come up with ideas of what kind of business might work in those locations.
In addition, Talent said Peterson also encouraged them to create a merchants association. He explained the merchants association works like a Chamber of Commerce, but puts more emphasis on helping local businesses collaborate on ways to increase business.