Editor’s note: The first in a series of interviews with local mayors about their jobs and their hopes for the new year.
Rusty Jessup says his reasons for taking on the job as Riverside’s mayor were really kind of simple.
He wanted to help people.
Jessup’s been at it since moving to the town of about 2,200 on the banks of the Coosa River more than 20 years ago. He and his wife, Sandra, settled in there, and haven’t looked back.
Soon after, Jessup accepted an appointment to the city’s zoning board in 2002, and in 2004, he ran for a seat on the City Council. That move took him to the mayor’s office thanks to the City Council, which appointed him to the post when former Mayor Pokey Forrester became ill and resigned in 2006.
And Jessup has served as mayor since.
“When my wife and I moved to Riverside 23 years ago, we joined the local church and became involved there,” he said. “We both have always loved community involvement and volunteer work, and we soon noticed that Riverside, like all small towns and communities today, was in dire need.”
Jessup spends a lot of time in and around City Hall, and out and about in the community he calls home, and his office is often the place you’ll find people of the community just dropping by to chat, talk about an issue or find information. He likes it that way — after all, it’s one of the advantages of living in a small community.
“You really get to know the people,” he says.
But Jessup says his primary motivation for serving in a municipal political office centers on public safety.
“My degree from Jacksonville State University was in sociology and criminal justice, so I have a natural instinct for those types of things,” he said. “I was disappointed in the current police department for various reasons, and my homeowner’s insurance was extremely high. I really wanted to see improvements in the Police and Fire Departments.”
Riverside’s Fire Department was a “town class” six, and it is now a “town class” three, which makes Jessup said made for much cheaper insurance rates, for one concern.
“And we’ve gone from a strictly volunteer department, to a full time department,” Jessup said. “This was accomplished by the hiring of great fire chiefs like Tim Kurzejeski, now fire chief at Pell City, and Adam Manning, our current fire chief.”
Jessup said he had become aware that the city’s police department had some areas for improvement, too.
“Our police department had a terrible reputation for being over officious, and was, in my opinion, overstaffed for a town this size,” he said. “Although bad reputations are very hard to live down, we now have a very conscientious department that does the right thing for the right reasons, and has been that way for over 12 years. This has been accomplished by hiring great police chiefs like Rick Oliver, now retired, and Jake Heath, our current chief.”
Riverside Landing
The city has added value to its community investments was buying a piece of property on the waterfront that could serve the public’s use, Jessup said. Now called Riverside Landing, it’s located right across the street from City Hall and a city park. The building wasn’t in great shape, but the mayor and council saw a future in it.
It has a long past, first as the city’s post office, then the train station; it was a store and a gas station through the years, too.
“The idea behind Riverside Landing when it was first purchased was as a good investment for the city that would probably be leased out, and become a good source of revenue,” Jessup said. “The city bought it for a fraction of its value due to a bank foreclosure, and it has been a very good investment.”
As years went by, the needed capital investment for retail development of Riverside Landing became very hard to come by.
But during the years 2008-15, Jessup said, “it established itself as a very good place and venue for public use. The city upgraded the gasoline sales infrastructure and built a pier system around the boat ramp. We paved the parking lot and the place became very popular for public use.”
Today, Riverside Landing remains open and popular for public use. It’s right in town, and, just off U.S. 78 for out of towners to use.
Jessup said it’s become a spot for many group meetings and activities take place.
“With the revenue from gasoline sales and boat ramp fees, it manages to pay for itself in terms of expenses,” he said.
However, its use is still limited because of the lack of wastewater disposal for the site. The city has applied for a grant that will bring a sewer line up Depot Street to Riverside Landing and also, to City Hall.
“If that happens, I think that Riverside Landing can become a retail development, and will live up to its true potential,” Jessup said.
Volunteers very helpful
The city also has a number of volunteers who are very interested in developing recreational places for all ages.
“Our Riverside Beautification Organization continues to play a very important part in the overall health of our city,” Jessup said. “Through their efforts and fundraising capabilities, those folks have made some massive improvements to our park, and continue with beautification projects with landscaping around City Hall, and Riverside Landing. They also raised money for lights and décor at Christmas and other holidays. Not only that, but they do community involvement projects like the annual Poker Run on the lake, Santa’s arrival at Christmas, the Fall Festival around Halloween, hold Earth Day activities and other things that help make Riverside rock. I cannot say enough good things about that group. They are awesome, and they love Riverside.”
The group has established an Alabama native plant trail in the park on Depot Street, and hosts guided tours to teach about the plants. There are also bird and duck houses for supporting wildlife and these, too, offer teaching opportunities for visitors.
Looking forward into the next year, the next few, really, Jessup said he thinks it’s still difficult to project finances with recent economies, and with his city, new revenues are not expected to be on the rise.
Property taxes drive the bulk of the city’s income, with retail and retail space limited, and, that being said, there’s just so much to pull from.
Recent years of cities receiving sales tax from Internet outlets have helped in a fairly big way, Jessup said, a little more than doubling what the city collects from its regular sales taxes. This could help open doors to one future need in particular, paving existing well used roads in the town, along with preparing a road or two for added traffic from residential development.
“It costs about $1,000,000 a mile right now to prepare and pave a two-lane road,” he said. “The money doesn’t go very far.”
And whether or not this price will hold, increase or decrease is something a city can’t gamble with.
Cuts to existing services or departments aren’t a consideration, he said, and the town’s options are few for large improvements.
“We might be able to handle about $40,000 or so a year in road improvements with what we have coming in now from state and local gas taxes,” he said.
Mayoralty is a calling
From his early days in public service as a police patrol officer in Jacksonville, and later, a police officer in Anniston, Jessup then found himself becoming an insurance professional with State Farm, eventually having his own agency with Allstate in Cahaba Heights through 2010.
“Being mayor of a small town is more of a calling than it is a desire,” Jessup said. “If a person doesn’t genuinely want to do it, and for the right reasons, it can be a real burden. You’ve got to really love people in a nonjudgmental way, or it just doesn’t work.”
“I relish being in a position where I can help people, and that is 90 percent of what I do,” he said. “And the other 10 percent can be fun as well.”
That includes working together to solve problems, planning for the future, lots of different things, Jessup said.
He said he enjoys promoting the city, watching ideas become reality, realizing some success and creating a team effort to make things happen, along with taking classes on city management where friends with similar interests are made.
“I know hundreds of mayors all over the state, and we love each other’s company,” Jessup said. We have so much in common, and so many ideas and problem solving techniques are exchanged.”
Jessup says “It’s a wonderful job.”
But make no mistake, he said — it’s not a calling for just anybody.
“You don’t make any money, so it has to be a labor of love. And you know what? I love it.”
