by Wesley Harris
The skate park being built at the old city pool site is coming along nicely. Memorial Park was once the center of Ruston recreation, with its huge swimming pool, baseball field, tennis courts, and playground. Now a new generation will have its own reason to go there.
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If the installation of landscaping is any indication, the dual hotel project of Tru by Hilton/Home2 Suites on the North Service Road near Tractor Supply is nearly complete.
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It seems the bank at the corner of Trenton Street and Alabama Avenue changes its name every couple of years. Cadence Bank has officially merged into Huntington Bank, making Huntington a top ten U.S. bank with nearly 1,800 locations.
Longtime Rustonians may be forgiven for continuing to call it whatever it was three names ago.
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A 2025 study said Ruston jumped 320 places in the Most Dynamic Micropolitan rankings. Ruston is not metropolitan but micropolitan—a smaller city of 10,000 to 50,000 that stands on its own rather than orbiting a larger metro area.
So, Ruston is not big-time. It is apparently micro-big-time.
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The playgrounds at the Lincoln Parish Park are closed while the Police Jury puts a $1 million grant to work to renovate those areas plus parking lots, walking paths, and other amenities.
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Nearly every Louisiana Tech student of the past 60 years has spent time in George T. Madison Hall, home since 1967 to English, history, math, social sciences and assorted other subjects. “GTM’s” central location may have been its best feature. Like many campus buildings of the 1960s, it was never burdened with much architectural character. With the building now undergoing renovation, let’s hope the work gives it some personality.
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Between a “high-rise” apartment building on West California Avenue geared toward international students and Tech’s new campus parking deck on Mississippi, Ruston is entering an era older residents probably never expected: vertical parking.
We used to solve parking problems by putting another gravel lot somewhere.
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The summer heat is really helping the propagation of campaign signs. The pleas for support for city judge, school board, police jury, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and others are sprouting up everywhere.
Unlike most summer vegetation, they won’t be harvested until November.
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Who would have thought one of the most publicized stories out of Washington last month pertained to algae in a reflecting pool?
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