Other Days: March 12, 2025

10 YEARS AGO MARCH 18, 2015 As construction continues on its new building in downtown Rison, The Bank of Rison will be opening its first branch bank next month in Malvern, the new branch in Hot Spring County to operate under the name of The Bank of Rison. Four employees currently at the Rison location will be staffing the new branch, according to Troy Duke, bank president and CEO. Duke said it was never the bank board's intention to open a branch this soon after taking over ownership of The Bank of Rison in late 2013. Meanwhile, construction on its new Rison home (now Gateway Bank) at the northeast corner of Second and Main is projected to be ready sometime around mid June. News of the expansion comes on the heels of other news that The Bank of Rison is no longer the smallest bank in Arkansas.Kickstart Cleveland County will be the home of a new countywide community development initiative that officially kicked off last Thursday in a meeting here. More than 25 people representing various aspects of the local community voted to expand the initiative to encompass the entire county rather than focus primarily on the Rison area. Dr. Mark Peterson, professor of community and economic development with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service at Little Rock, facilitated last Thursday's meeting, and will continue to guide the process as the initiative moves forward in developing a long-range community development plan.20 YEARS AGO MARCH 16, 2005 School administrators at Kingsland say that moving into the new $2.5 million classroom building could begin as early as Friday. The building, originally designed as a high school, will now be used as an elementary facility for kindergarten through sixth grade following the Cleveland County School District board's decision last month to consolidate the two high schools together at Rison.Pitcher Wendy Tullos helped lead Rison to its firs...