What do you love or not love about Russellville?

I have lived in the Russellville area my entire adult life and have had positive feelings about this area. Living in allot of different parts of the country, I feel that Russellville is one of the better places to live. It’s relatively clean, the people are friendly (for the most part) and shopping options are good.

In recent years, I have read allot of very negative comments about Russellville. It seems that allot of people here have a very poor opinion of this city.

I wanted to use this post to explore the various feelings that you have about Russellville and what you love and what you hate about this city.

We asked the question and some of you already responded. So, what are people saying about Russellville? What do they love and what do they hate?

If you want to share you voice on this subject, leave your comment here.



What people have said they love about Russellville

Brent Appleton

I love how clean the town is, Lake Dardanelle, lots of places to eat, and people are nice and friendlier than many places.

Jesse Johnson

I love the town and its downtown area. However, it’s disappointing that local businesses and events lack support here, yet there are complaints about not having anything.

Cristy Ables

I love that it’s relatively safe, less expensive than many other places, has everything you need, and is within 3 hours of everything you could want. I also love that Dardanelle is next door and that’s where I call home ❤️. Oh, and the nature stuff is pretty cool too I guess.

Kerra Ferguson
I love how to community feels close knit. I don’t love how it mainly consists of factory work with little opportunities in career growth.

Chastity Smith

I love that this is my home and overall a good community. However, too many have stalled potential growth and opportunities. We need more entertainment for all ages, more higher wage opportunities for employment.

What people have said they don’t love about Russellville

Tina Louann

Needs to be wet… tired of driving for a drink … 🍸 😒

CA Douglas

Too many run red lights be careful. Crazy how they fight to keep alcohol and casinos out, but allowed marijuana dispensatories

Dakota Kirk

I don’t love that we need more things for teens to do! Most teens and young adults are on the internet so much because there’s not many things to do besides sit in the Walmart parking lot or go to a bar. We need more activities for the youth!
I love that usually people are very kind and helpful.

Les Bellow

We need restaurants on the West side of Town

Michael McCullah

I love the small town feeling in a community that is growing. I hate the small town politics in a community that is growing. This community seems to have been held back by the politics and never has achieved its full potential. When I first came to Russellville, Conway, Morrillton, Russellville, Clarksville and Ozark were approximately the same size. Look at them now.

Lori Jostmeyer

Love that there is a gorgeous lake and places to fish. Would like to see more activities for families available. Would also love another place to shop besides Walmart. A target or similar would be amazing!

Steph Carter

How many people I see texting while driving and almost causing wrecks! Some of us have babies in the car ☹️

Angel Richardson

The roads suck, the highway department has gotten really lazy the last few years. Our road used to be decent but now they suck. I do love the beauty of Russellville and the fact that they are really bringing downtown back to life a little bit.

Darren Steele

I don’t love the lack of support for local businesses. Seems to keep allowing and advocating for corporate spots, selling out land and infrastructure that could actually be used for a business that is going to get some cash going into the local economy. Instead everyone just seems to be fine with fast food joints and coffee places, and letting that money go to some corporate headquarters across the country. You can either complain about there being nothing to do besides eat fast food, or you can try to support and buy local. You can’t have it both ways, and unfortunately Russellville doesn’t realize that.

Lisa Kilpatrick Connerly

We need actual restaurants not junky fast food and more places to shop. The roads are in need of repair. More open minded City Council members to bring in more business and larger retailers. I like there is no traffic and the hometown feel.

Josh League

not love – no good fast food restaurants

Carey Borne

Not love that they won’t let any malls come in.

MORE RUSSELLVILLE COMMUNITY

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WEATHER


COMMUNITY

Your community consists of the people of Russellville irrespective of their various interests. This section employs photos, featured people, government contacts, elections, questions, and events.


LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTACTS

Russellville Fire Department
107 North El Paso Russellville, AR 72801, Russellville
Russellville Police Department
115 W. H St. Russellville, AR 72801, Russellville
City of Russellville - Animal Control
3115 S. Mobile Ave., Russellville
Pope County Library System
116 E 3rd St Russellville, AR 72801, Russellville

MEET THE CANDIDATES

Laura Wetzel
Russellville, Arkansas, United States, 0, 0
Laura Wetzel is a lifelong resident of Russellville and a graduate from Arkansas Tech University. Laura owns Quick Service Cleaners and her and her husband also own Arkansas Real Estate Collective with their partners, Kyle and Bethany Hood. She has an obvious interest in wanting Russellv […]

QUESTIONS

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COMMUNITY EVENTS


FEATURED PERSON

In this section, we showcase the people in the Russellville area that you feel made a difference either in your personal life or in the community at large. Share a phot of this person and information about them and why they should be recognized.


COMMUNITY PHOTOS

Let’s build a Russellville photo album. Share your Russellville photos to share with the other readers of the Russellville Voice. You will need to be registered and logged in to share a listing here.

If you would like to help bring in positive changes to Russellville, we created this post to give you the support you need.

TO MAKE RUSSELLVILLE A BETTER PLACE…

We are asking residents of Russellville to commit to the following. If you think of an additional item that would fit in with our existing list, please share your comments here.



To Being Kind To Others

I will always follow the golden rule. I will not belittle or degrade anybody for any reason. I will not allow political differences to affect the way I treat others. I understand that I do not have to agree everybody, but I will always treat others with kindness & respect.


To Keeping Russellville Clean

I will not litter. I will discard my own trash & trash anywhere I see it in a trash receptacle or recycle bin.


To Support Local Businesses!

Local businesses are the backbone of a local community and in order to support my community, I will look for local businesses I can support and shop.

We Do It All Janitorial
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A family-owned and operated business, we take pride in delivering satisfaction through excellent customer service and top-notch quality wor […]
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5.002
Eggs Freezer packed Peas and beans Local Honey and Jellies Fresh produce starting mid March FB or message me
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Please contact Kim via her Facebook profile. Link here in this listing.
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Pasture-Raised Meats You Can TRUST in London Arkansas
Savvy Services
5.001
At Savvy Services we believe the energy ✨️️ in your home directly correlates to the energy in your mind, body and soul. 🧘‍♀️️ We like to […]

To Support A Local Church or Charity!

I will be active in my community by supporting a local church or community organization of my choosing. If I find a need, I will do my best to help.

If you help with a local charity, then decide that it’s not for you, find another charity. Here’s a few options to consider.

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Here are a list of Russellville churches. Add yours if you don’t see it in the list.

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To Do More & Complain Less!

I will look for ways to fix the problems I see and do less to complain about them. If something needs to be done, I will find out what I can do. If I can’t fix a problem myself, I will work with others that are currently working on that problem.

Here’s What You Said…

The Andy Griffith Show

In our family, we’ve been enjoying the Andy Griffith show for several years. We have watched these episodes over and over that we eventually get sick of them.

When you start watching a show like this, you get to “know” the characters and start to wonder about some elements of the show, which led to explain what we’ve learned about the show.

I tried to provide references here and there, but in those cases where I can’t find a reference, you may just have to look it up if you want more information about each topic.

Here’s what we learned.

The show had it’s beginnings in the Danny Thomas show

Mayberry is completely fictional

We fell in love with Mayberry. The cleanliness, the innocence and the kindness of the people, what’s not to love. And we even thought about visiting once, except that there is no such place and there never had been. Mayberry is completely fictional.

Some say that Mount Airy North Carolina was the inspiration for Mayberry, but Andy Griffith, himself, that this was not true. Here’s a photo of Mount Airy.

image of downtown Mount Airy North Carolina

Barney’s real name was NOT Don!

I know, you’ve always thought Andy Griffith starred with Don Knotts. In fact, the credits even mention Don Knotts, but Don was not Barney’s real first name. His name was Jesse. We never figured out why, but Don (Jesse) Knotts never liked his first name (Jesse) and went by Don instead. So his real name was Jessie Don Knotts.

It was said that Andy teased him about this often, calling him Jess, which he did not like. But besides some good natured teasing, the two were best friends.

Not Everybody Lived A Rated G Lifestyle.

It was sad to find out that our favorite Character, Andy Griffith, was not as wholesome as his TV double (Andy Taylor) in the show.

Turns out that he and Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) became involved with each other on the show which led to Andy’s divorce. You can find many sources for this fact, but HERE’S ONE SOURCE

I’m not here to judge them, as everybody has to deal with their own demons, nor was I there to understand all the circumstances involved. Also, we can see that often times these things happen when people, who play certain roles on TV or in plays, end up living out, at least some part of these characters lives, in real life. It was just sad to see this.

There was real comradery on the set

Sometimes you wonder if the characters on the set actually get along or even like eachother. And yes, there was.

Andy and Barney (Jessie Don Knotts) were best friends in real life. In our family, we notice that Andy was always in better spirits in the episodes when Jessie/Don was there than he was in later episodes when he had left. Did that have anything to do with Barney? We don’t know.

Not Everybody Got Along

The show is one of the most family-friendly shows that ever dawned American TV, but you might be surprised to know that the characters didn’t always get along.

In fact, did you know that Aunt Bea (Frances Bavier) was not comfortable on the set. She was a Broadway actress and it seemed that she felt that her role on the show didn’t match her talents and some said she was “difficult”. SOURCE.

Andy explains later that just before Bavier died, that she called him to apologize for the way she behaved on set.

It was replaced with another short-lived sequel