Rison To Begin Targeting Town’s Unkempt Properties

  • FALLEN TREE TEMPORARILY CLOSES FIRST STREET IN RISON - A crew from the City of Rison removes a large hickory tree that fell across First Street in a residential area of town Tuesday afternoon. Rison Mayor Charles Roberts said they had to temporarily close the First Street to cut the tree into into pieces before removing it. First Street runs parallel along the southside of the railroad tracks in Rison. (Photo courtesy of Charles Roberts)
    FALLEN TREE TEMPORARILY CLOSES FIRST STREET IN RISON - A crew from the City of Rison removes a large hickory tree that fell across First Street in a residential area of town Tuesday afternoon. Rison Mayor Charles Roberts said they had to temporarily close the First Street to cut the tree into into pieces before removing it. First Street runs parallel along the southside of the railroad tracks in Rison. (Photo courtesy of Charles Roberts)

    RISON - The owners of un‐kempt properties in the City of Rison will be receiving a letter from the city this week notifying them they need to take action on cleaning up their place or face possible fees and legal conse‐quences, Rison Mayor Charles Roberts has announced.

    Roberts estimated that more than 50 letters will be going out, with 22 going to one city ward alone. He said the clean-up effort is being focused primarily on properties east of Main Street, which includes a much of the residential area of Rison.

    “We’ve got to get these prop‐erties cleaned up,” Roberts said.

    City Attorney Thomas Burns completed a letter last year that notifies the property owner that their property violates city ordi‐nances regarding overgrown grass, clutter in the yard, etc.

    While some of the targets may be rental properties, the mayor pointed out that the owner of the property rather than the renter will be subject to any legal ac‐tions that may be required if the property is not cleaned up. Roberts said the city will give the property owners “a reason‐able amount of time” to address the situation. Should the prop‐erty owner fail to take action, the mayor said a second letter will be sent via certified mail and the property owner will have 10 days to take action before the city will clean up the property and charge the work to the prop‐erty owner.

    The city will charge a mini‐mum of $60 per hour for any clean-up, Roberts said. Should the property owner fail to pay the clean-up fees, the delinquent payment will be applied to the owner’s personal and real prop‐erty taxes, which means the owner would have to pay the fee before being allowed to pay their other property taxes.