Rising Spring project moves into phase two

By Randy Bell

After the initial work was completed at the site of the Rising Spring development across Highway 80 from Mississippi College in early June, there hadn’t been much activity there for several weeks.

But now that’s changing, after the Board of Aldermen officially launched the second phase of the project at its meeting September 2, executing a contract with Century Construction to continue as construction manager and accepting a bid from Probity Contracting Group, LLC of Florence for work on Spring Square, which will be the focal point for the entire development.

The Board accepted another bid from Bulldog Construction, Inc. of Madison for sidewalks and other concrete work at the site.

Laura Jackson, the chief operating officer/CFO at Mississippi College, which is partnering with private developers on Rising Spring, says attention is now shifting to the project’s namesake, historic Robinson Spring, and the amenities which will surround it.

“This is the long-awaited square,” Jackson says. “Everybody wants to see a [water] feature come up out of the ground close to the spring. The spring will be the center point of the park. There will be an amphitheater there for presentations, shows, things like that.”

There won’t be any seats installed, but a grassy knoll will provide a place for people to watch the performances.

Another part of the upcoming work will involve the streets within the development.

“If you go over there now, what you see is the base layer of the asphalt,” Jackson says. “Phase two, later on, will include putting that final layer of asphalt on.”

Two of the new streets now have names. At the request of the Rising Spring Review Committee, the Board passed a resolution September 2 naming the primary east-west road beginning at Springridge Road and currently ending at Capitol Street as Rising Spring Avenue. A smaller road bordering the Rising Spring Park Square on the north and east will be called Choctaw Way.

The infrastructure for the development is being built with allocated public funds. And, even after phase two is completed, Jackson says a sizeable chunk of that money will be unspent.

“We have some decisions to make at some point about the remaining $1.1 million. I think it depends on what vendors come to the property, because we have a little money set aside. If we needed to extend the road to the west to accommodate something down on the western end, we could do that. We could spend some money up on the hill close to Springridge, if we needed to do that. So, we just wanted to wait and let a few decisions settle out before we made that last expenditure of the money.”