RISON - Mayor Charles Roberts introduced the city’s new utilities director, Gene Norton, to the Rison City Council during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night.
Norton succeeds Joe Freyer, who resigned from the position last Thursday.
A graduate of Woodlawn High School, Norton told the city council that he majored in biology with a minor in chemistry at Southern Arkansas University. He has worked for 26 years as a chemist with 17 years experience working with wastewater. He has about 18 years experience working with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) as well as the Arkansas Department of Health.
While Norton has his license as an industrial wastewater operator, he said he recently acquired his license to work with municipal wastewater systems as well. He said he is currently working toward his water operator’s license.
He also served in the Arkansas Air National Guard.
Also attending the meeting was Richardo Fletcher, who has been with the city’s water/wastewater department for the past few years. He will be taking his test to become a certified water operator in early June.
Roberts told the city council he feels comfortable with the department. “I want to have the best team we can have,” he said. “I’m very happy to have these guys working for us.”
After the meeting, Norton said he intends to pursue more grants to replace some of the aging water lines within the city. While samples from Rison’s new wastewater treatment plan has passed tests with ADEQ recently, Norton said he will be working to put the system into full compliance with state regulations thereby eliminating the “cap” the city has been under the past few years.
When the city’s discharge from the old wastewater treatment system failed to meet those state standards, ADEQ put a “cap” or limit on how much wastewater the city could treat. While the past two tests with the new treatment have been in compliance, Norton said the microbiology within the system that treats the wastewater ne…