City of Rison Finds ‘Treasure’ at Municipal League Event

RISON - While the Arkansas State Auditor’s office promotes The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt as a means for people to find unclaimed property, the program can also help governments and businesses the same.Rison Mayor Charles Roberts learned that this past weekend when he stopped by the State Auditor’s booth at the Arkansas Municipal League conference in Hot Springs. Roberts said he was surprised to learn that the city had $10,845.12 in unclaimed payments to the city.Roberts said Thomas Burchfield was working the booth for State Auditor Dennis Milligan. He noted that he had an acquaintance with Burchfield because Burchfield once worked at Buie’s Funeral Home in Rison. When he went over to the booth, Roberts said Burchfield told him he was glad he dropped by because the City of Rison had some money coming. In fact, he said it was the second-highest amount of any city in Arkansas.What Roberts discovered was that the city had $10,452.06 coming from Entergy Services and another $393.46 as  a refund from Sherwin-Williams, the paint company. The mayor said he had no idea of what the Entergy money was for, but suspects the paint refund may be related to rebuilding city hall after the fire.Since the money has no special designation, Roberts said he visited with staff and decided to split the money evenly among the city’s four department funds: general, street, water and wastewater.He said the amount going into the sewer department will be just about enough to cover the sales taxes owed on the new city’s new jetter machine, which is a device that uses a high pressure stream of water to clear sewer lines.Unclaimed PropertyUnclaimed property, according to the State Auditor’s office, can include savings and checking accounts, unpaid wages or commissions, stocks and bonds, utility deposits, insurance proceeds, cashier’s checks, money orders, and contents of safe deposit boxes. These can end up ...