RISON - After some incidents of damage to the building, the Cleveland County Quorum Court unanimously approved a motion Monday night to no longer rent the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building for private events.All nine members of the quorum court supported the motion made by Justice of the Peace Dwayne Ashcraft following a lengthy discussion about the matter. His motion applied only to private party events. The facility can still be used for public events hosted by local agencies, civic groups, political parties, etc.The issue was first brought up by Justice Charles Rodgers during the November quorum court meeting when he said people were mounting things to the wall during private events and damaging the paint. The Cleveland County Veterans Association recently invested thousands of dollars in cabinets to display military items inside the Veterans Building as well as paint the inside. Rodgers said Randy Morgan, who works with the veterans association, showed him some items he had to remove from the walls and inside the building after it was used by a private party. County Judge Jimmy Dale Adair presented the quorum court with some proposed changes to the rental contract for the building Monday night. The proposal increased the hourly rental fee to $30 per hour with a two-hour minimum and a maximum cost of $200 per day. A refundable $100 deposit would be due at the time of booking. Some justices suggested doubling those fees and requiring a $300 deposit. After some discussion, Justice Donnie Herring suggested that the county no longer rent out the building for private events, noting that it was costing the county more in making repairs than it was generating in revenue from the rentals. County Treasurer Angie Kimsey said the county netted about $2,370 in rental fees over the year.Ashcraft asked if there were other places to rent in Rison, and it was mentioned that the fairgrounds is an option.Eventually, Ashcraft made his motion to cease rent...
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