RISON - The finish line is now in sight as about $8.8 million in water and sewer improvements for the City of Rison are nearing completion.Joe Freyer, utilities manager for the city, told the Rison City Council during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night that the water line project, with the exception of some clean-up work, is expected to be wrapped up by Jan. 15. That completion date is well ahead of the one-year construction phase that Mayor Charles Roberts said he was expecting when the project started in July 2025.The water line project comes on the heels of a complete overhaul of the city’s wastewater treatment facility located at the solid waste transfer station on Hwy. 79 and the refurbishing of the city’s two water tanks.Roberts strung together a combination of grants, a forgiveable loan and a long-term loan to accomplish the projects.In January 2023, Rison learned it had received three federal American Rescue Plan grants: $3.9 million to make improvements to the city’s sewer treatment plant; $1.62 million to refurbish the city”s water tanks; and $1.5 million to replace water lines in town.While those grants were enough to cover the water tank and wastewater treatment projects, the $1.5 million was not enough to cover the water line project since rising prices had put the project beyond what the grant could pay for. Rather than turn that $1.5 million back in, Roberts was able to get $1.8 million Natural Resources loan through Arkansas Natural Resources in 2024 to complete the entire project. All but 8450,595.50 of that loan was “forgiveable.” That loan will expire in June 2047.Roberts said in a previous meeting that the water project replaces about 75 percent of the water lines within the city, most of which are the oldest lines in the city. The mayor said Tuesday night that some of the water lines in the downtown area were 108 years old.The areas included in what Roberts described as the f...
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