RISON - The City of Rison now has all the funding in place to move forward with what Mayor Charles Roberts described as Phase I of an effort to eventually replace all the aging water lines within the city.
The Rison City Council unanimously approved a motion during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night to enter into a federally-backed $1.8 million Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (I.A) loan to give the city enough money to move forward on a $3.3 million project to replace water lines north of Magnolia Street in Rison.
Roberts said 75 percent of the loan is automatically forgiven, which means the city will have to pay $450,000 toward the project. The mayor told the council that the city is not obligated to use the entire $1.8 million loan, and he will see what measures can be made to reduce that amount.
In January, Roberts announced that Rison had been awarded more than $7 million in federal American Rescue Plan grants to make improvements to the city's water and wastewater facilities. There were no matching funds or payback required for those grants.
The city received the funding in three separate grants: $3.9 million to make improvements to the city's wastewater treatment plant; $1.62 million to refurbish the city's water tanks; and $1.5 million to replace water lines. Roberts said the city has until December 2026 to complete the projects.
Roberts said Harbor Engineering, the Little Rock firm that put the grant application together for the water line project, asked for only $1.5 million rather than the full $3.3 million that was needed to complete the Phase I water project.
In order to receive the $1.5 million, Roberts said the city had to have the entire $3.3 million in place to pay for the overall project. He said he was able to make up that difference by securing the I.A loan through the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.
"This is kind of a bailout move," Roberts told the council...
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