County Considers Public Access to Saline

RISON - While the topic was not on the agenda for the Cleveland County Quorum Court's regular meeting earlier this month, public access to the Saline River became a lively topic of discussion. The topic came up when Britt Talent, presenting the Kickstart Cleveland County community development initiative, approached the quorum court about supporting an ad in a regional travel brochure. The ad, produced by a Little Rock advertising agency, included images of the Pioneer Village at Rison, the Marks Mill Civil War battlefield site at New Edinburg, Kingsland as the birthplace of Johnny Cash and a photo of kayakers floating on the Saline River. It was that photo of the kayakers that prompted Justice of the Peace Charles Rodgers to ask where can people access to the river to go floating like that?Rodgers said many of the places he used to access the river as a youth are now behind lock and key. Soon, other justices began to chime in with their own stories of going to the river, and eventually there was full blown discussion about public access points along the river.That discussion led to the idea of the county possibly developing some public access points along the river. County Judge Jimmy Cummings said he envisions some small public parks along the river that could be used for recreation and as a drop-off/pick-up point for floaters."I truly would like to see more access to the river in our county for recreation," Cummings said in an interview with the Herald."It would be a big economic engine if we could have recreation on it," he added, noting that people visiting the county would spend money on fuel, food, etc.Cummings said he could only think of four public access points to the river in Cleveland County, all of which are on the west side of the river: Chowning's Ferry northeast of Kingsland, the Pool access at the Hwy. 79 bridge, Mt. Elba east of New Edinburg, and Cowford just north of the Bradley County line. The closest east si...