Old Nursing Home To Be Razed Soon

RISON - Demolition of the old Cleveland County Hospital/ Nursing Home in Rison is expected to begin soon after the Cleveland County Quorum Court awarded a contract to raze the county-owned building during its regular monthly Monday night. Huntley Dirt Works of the Sulphur Springs community in Jefferson County was awarded the job after submitting a bid of $80,000. Huntley was one of four companies to bid on the project. County Judge Jimmy Cummings said Huntley was going to start the demolition later this week, but decided to hold off due to a forecast of bad weather moving in. Cummings said he expects the demolition to begin sometime this month. Originally, the Cleveland County Road Department was going to take down the building but Cummings said they discovered the steel frame used in constructing it was too large for the county's equipment. The quorum court approved a motion during its December meeting to put the demolition out for bid. Cummings told the quorum court Monday night that the bid included leaving behind the brick and concrete so the road department could use it for riffraff along county roadways. Cummings said Huntley informed him that some of the brick and concrete would have to be taken away due to the way it was attached to the frame work. Last spring, Cummings told the quorum court his plans were to have the county road department tear down the building over the summer. However, manpower issues and other projects with a higher a priority delayed that effort until the fall. It was during an inspect to begin tearing down the building that Cummings said they found the problem with the steel frame. The portion of the building facing Magnolia Street in Rison was originally constructed in 1950 as the Cleveland County Hospital. Local historian Stan Sadler said the nursing home addition was added behind it in the late 1960's. Eventually, the entire structure was used as a nursing home...