BOGALUSA CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
MINUTES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014
PRESIDING:
CHARLES E. MIZELL, MAYOR
JERRY BAILEY, DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION
DALE BRANCH, CITY ATTORNEY
PRESEN T:
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND
COUNCILMAN O’REE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM
ABSENT:
COUNCILMAN HODGES
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Bogalusa City Council meeting will come to order.
Invocation by Councilman O’Ree, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Led the Invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE:
Roll call.
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND………………HERE
COUNCILMAN O’REE………………………HERE
COUNCILMAN HODGES……………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE……………..ABSENT
PRESIDENT RITCHIE………………………..HERE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS……………..HERE
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM………………HERE
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next we have the approval of the minutes on the meeting held on
September 16, 2014.
BY COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS: I make a motion they be accepted.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND…………….AYE
COUNCILMAN O’REE…………………….AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES…………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE…………..ABSENT
PRESIDENT RITCHIE……………………..AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS………….AYE
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……………AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO APPROVE THE MINUTES HELD
ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 MEETING).
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: I move to amend the agenda to introduce a resolution.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
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COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND…………………….AYE
COUNCILMAN O’REE………………………………..AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES……………………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE……………………..ABSENT
PRESIDENT RITCHIE…………………………………AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS…………………..AYE
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……………………AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO AMEND THE AGENDA TO INTRODUCE A
RESOLUTION).
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM:
A RESOLUTION authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Bogalusa and
Washington Parish Government.
This is to have our City and Parish work together to complete some street work in our city just a
few blocks.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Anyone in the public wishing to speak for or against this resolution
please step forward. Council discussion.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: I move that we accept it.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND……………….AYE
COUNCILMAN O’REE…………………………..AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES………………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE…………………ABSENT
PRESIDENT RITCHIE……………………………AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS……………..AYE
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……………….AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT AUTHORIZING AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL
AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF BOGALUSA AND WASHINGTON PARISH GOVERNMENT).
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next we have Introduction of Ordinances, Councilwoman Williams.
BY COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS:
AN ORDINANCE requesting zoning change at 1100 College Street from A-3 Residential to B-1
Business in order to open a snowball stand at this address.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: This ordinance will be up for public hearing at our next regular meeting
on October 21st. Councilman O’Ree.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE:
AN ORDINANCE requesting zoning change at 544 East Avenue from A-3 Residential to B-Business
in order to open a recreation hall at this address.
This will also be up for a vote at our next meeting.
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BY COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND:
AN ORDINANCE authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract with International Paper for the
Tenant Improvements for paper storage warehouse located at 215 Industrial Park Drive.
BY COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND:
AN ORDINANCE authorizing the Mayor of the City of Bogalusa to enter into a lease agreement
with the low bidder, G. Farley Grantham, to build hangers at the George R. Carr Memorial
Airport.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: These ordinances will be up for public hearing at our next meeting on
October 21st. Next is public hearing introduced by the Finance Committee.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM:
AN ORDINANCE to Revise the Revised 2014 Budget.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Anyone in the public wishing to speak for or against this ordinance
please step forward. There being none council discussion.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: I move that we accept it.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND……………….AYE
COUNCILMAN O’REE…………………………..AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES………………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE………………….ABSENT
PRESIDENT RITCHIE…………………………….AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS………………AYE
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……………….AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO REVISE THE REVISED 2014 BUDGET).
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next we come to our public participation part, Ms. Kates. I just want to
remind you have three minutes.
BY GLORIA KATES: 1012 Poplas Street. Good evening everyone. On September 17th we received
funds and as a resident of District A I have observed and requested to know if you have assessed
the following road repairs and traffic hazards? This is to name a few: 2nd Avenue Road, repair the
400 Block of Louisiana Street, 500 Block of Huron Road, 500, 600 Block of St. Augustine, 700
Block of Mississippi, 700 Block of Louisiana, 900-1400 Block of Roosevelt, corner of Poplas and
Redmond Street Border, and Montgomery should have a caution light or a two way stop,
Louisiana, Orleans and Carolina or caution light or two or four way stop, and improve a Poplas
Quarter to include all of Poplas Quarter and of course the Poplas Street Bridge. Those are several
of observation that I have made as a resident and if I may I would like to submit these
observations as possible review and submissions for the funds that is coming. Thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you. Mr. Ferrell.
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BY FATE FERRELL: 1931 Dewitt Place. I noticed in the paper we have some problems with the
re-districting. Do you all know if this has been straightened out or not?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: To the best of my knowledge the remedy is according to the Secretary of
State, those people that is not in that district are allowed to run, if they are to be elected they
would have to move into their district to represent. That is what I understand.
BY FATE FERRELL: So when did the new district---?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: 2012. That is when it was voted on by this council in 2012. We have to
do this every ten years. When we have a census done every ten years then you have to re-district.
The district lines were drawn by a committee and recommended to us for approval. Then from
there it goes to the Department of Justice where it has to be approved there.
BY FATE FERRELL: So why is the public the people that is running for office wasn’t made aware of
this? Can you answer that?
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: The map was available for them to check and I think each one
of them checked and it clearly shows which streets and which areas are in each district according
to the colors. I can’t tell you why.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I can’t tell you why there are people that are running that is not in their
districts or not even in our city but they do.
BY FATE FERRELL: Okay I have been noticing over the past elections that we have been having,
we have been having a lot of problems in the election. Lost ballots, matter of fact in this last
election 1600 votes disappeared. They showed up in some races but when it came down to one
particular race they disappeared.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I have no idea that will have to be something you would have to ask the
Clerk of Court.
BY FATE FERRELL: This 1600 votes that disappeared could have been for the candidate that lost.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Could have been for the one that won. We don’t know.
BY FATE FERRELL: We don’t but that is a problem that needs to be corrected because it don’t
make any sense that 1600 votes disappeared just for one particular candidate race and not for
the rest of them.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I understand but that for the Clerk of Courts office, they are the ones
that run the elections. That is the only way I know to explain it. It is not something the City
Council runs.
BY FATE FERRELL: I just hope it is a fair race this time around. I really do. Thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I do too. Thank you, sir.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: That is the first time I’ve heard that. I don’t even know if it
pertains to the city but I’ve never heard any comments about that.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Ms. Sherry Fortenberry.
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BY SHERRY FORTENBERRY: 1207 Van Buren Street. I have been attending these meetings now
for a while and I am an ordinary citizen, I’m learning, I like to learn, I’ve been to Ms. Fords office,
she has helped me a lot and all I have to do is come and ask a question and she gives me my
information if she has it. This is what I would like to ask concerning these ordinances that we get.
I’ve read them, I take them home and I read them, I try to read them and do research on them. A
problem that I have is it says: as to per attached agreement and there is no attached agreement.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: There is on ours.
BY SHERRY FORTENBERRY: Where would I get a copy of that agreement? At your office okay
that one is solved. Another thing I would like to see done is that the councilman that introduces
an ordinance take three minutes to explain it to us before it is voted on to let us know what it is.
Just like the hangers at the airport I totally agree there needs to be some. I love that airport. I
live within a couple of blocks of it. My Great Grandbaby visits that airport every day. How many
hangers are we talking about, it doesn’t specify it just says hangers? I like to see things like that
to let us know. That is all I have to say.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Okay thank you. Anyone else in the public?
BY TERRY “FOOTS” QUINN: 220 Beall Street, Little Buffalo. I just thought about what we were
talking about these chances to improve our transportation. I think Ms. Sherry would be one to
help her people in her district, I mentioned it before. Try if we get some dollars from somewhere
to help the people from the Terrace to get there on foot someone is going to get killed out there.
I don’t do it but man they work on the little bridge big deal we got a bridge. I think we could get
a little walking bridge to be mini schooled to be spent compared to some of these other projects
because most people half of them don’t have a car and they have to make it. Somehow help
them and that is all I want to say except Ms. Sherry you made a lot of sense you came up with a
lot of ideas that I think are good. Thank ya’ll.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you. Anyone else? We will move on to administrative remarks,
Mayor.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Certainly thank you there Mr. Council President. Sherry I would like to tell
you a little bit about the hangers. This was the process that we went through actually the Council
had given us the authority to go out for quotes on some hangers that was requested there. There
is a process that we have to go through with which includes permission from the FAA in order to
build these hangers. Mr. Grantham has petitioned us to build four new hangers out there which I
am excited about because outside the large hanger that the city owns there is only been one
private hanger that operable out there. With investments that we have and with the new traffic
that we are having at the airport we are excited about the possibility of moving forward with
some more permanently stationed aircraft there. I agree with you that most of these request
that we have average ordinary people need to know more about what we are talking about. I
think that request has been made before from some and I will try to explain some of them I don’t
know about them it is just a request for something else I try to understand more and convey that
also. This being our first of the month we have our supervisors here tonight most of them and we
are going to let them speak tonight and tell you a little bit about what they have been doing,
where we have been and where we are going. I will start off first with the Director of Personnel,
Sandy Bloom.
BY SANDY BLOOM: We’ve been busy but isn’t it a good time to be in Bogalusa? We had a
wonderful Blues and Heritage Festival. Coming up we are going to have a great activity in
Cassidy Park for the Native American Cultural Day and I am just excited about all of that
activities that is going on. We have received the results of the salary survey and compensation
study and now we are studying results. It does show that our employees are working for less
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than their counterparts in a lot of other cities around the state. We may not be able to remedy
this immediately but we are going to work on a plan to try to be able to move our employees to
a level where we can be compatible to other people that are hired. The other thing that we are
getting ready to coming to the end of our planning process for the Comprehensive Plan so that
will go to the Planning and Zoning Commission and then it will come to the Council for adoption
so we are hoping to get all of that done by the end of the year. The other thing is that we are
excited about you probably seen the work that is going on at Lake Vista on the old Library I guess
you thought we had forgotten that we moved it out there. What we are doing is trying to pay as
we go and so what we have done we moved it out there with Louisiana Local Governmental
Assistance money that we get every year some amount from the state. We are not doing any
trying not to do any more than what money we get or require small match. Last year we paid to
move it and do the foundation work. This year we have been able to make it look a lot better.
We have painted it, replaced boards, windows. James can probably go into more detail. The
paint makes it look a hundred percent better and there is a little porch on the side. I’m really
happy to report that Mayor Mizell was able to talk with Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne our
dreams for that little park and how we would like for that to be a welcome station for Bogalusa,
Washington Parish and for Louisiana because it is the gateway to all three of those. Being at the
beginning of the Louisiana portion of Zachary Taylor Parkway we think we may have some
justification maybe to at least lobby for some state funds for that. Things are going well, we still
have our financial difficulties but we are doing a lot of things with a little bit of money. Thank
you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Thank you Sandy. Director of Public Works, James Hall.
BY JAMES HALL: Good evening. To start with last Tuesday we had a pre-bid construction meeting
on the East 6th Project that is the one I have been carrying on about since 2002 and it is finally
going to get underway in thirty days and be through around the first of the year. The building
Ms. Sandy was talking about at Lake Vista you ought to go out there and look at that it had a big
change to it. We have been doing some maintenance work out at the Industrial Park on some
parking lots and some buildings. We are really fixing to concentrate on the grass cutting out
there before long. Now that it has slowed down I can get out there and get some done. We have
started last week on Ponamah Cemetery and we got it finished now we are going to Bogalusa
Cemetery. Every time we do that we alternate what cemetery goes first because we get
complaints about one or the other. We just take turns next time we will swap them up that is
how we try to keep them up a method the same place we have to keep up with. Still spraying for
mosquitoes and fixing pot holes. We are fixing to get started on Christmas in the Park because it
is going to be a lot of involvement with the city looks like this year. With September code
violations we had ten citations issued, we had five Mr. Rodney had to write tickets for utility
theft. They either broke the water valve or cut the lock and we write them up for that and they
come to the Judge and he takes care of them. We had six citations issued with drop charges due
to compliance before court date, thirty two violations brought into compliance, and five vehicles
towed from the city right-of-way. We are still plumbing water and sewer every day ongoing.
Thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Thank you James. Director of Administration, Jerry Bailey.
BY JERRY BAILEY: Good evening. If you look at your graph you will see that we are still ahead by
0.3%. I am hoping for the best. If you look at your graph you will see we are actually we have
collected since 2014 $4,907,022 and that is $12,311 more than we collected through the same
period last year which amounts to 0.3% above. We can only hope the coming months through
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Christmas that things will pick up a little bit. Last week we begin upgrading and replacing some
of our hardware in the Finance Department and through out the city in particular departments
where we are going to the plan is that all the Department Heads to be able to look at their
budgets and look at the financial situation, look at their spending and where they stand at any
giving time without having to come, call me or ask me or anything like that. This system right
here that we are getting we are proud of it and good. I can tell you daily where we stand daily
rather than wait for anything. The only thing is when you finish at the end of the month you
know you always have some people who don’t send you their invoices for ten days or two weeks.
We are going to close the books. We started this year closing the books on the tenth of the
month, three days from now is the tenth we close the books and have the financial statements
ready for you next week. To give you an update where we stand with the computers the general
ledger and accounting and accounts payable part of the system is pretty well on line right now
the way we have been working it. The twentieth two weeks from today we are going into the
code enforcement stage. In November we are going into the purchasing stage and I think in
December the last week up until the first part of January will be the payroll. We plan to go fully
on line January 20th with all of them. So that is where we stand at this time right now. Thank you.
BY PRESIDNET RITCHIE: Thank you Jerry.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Police Chief, Joe Culpepper.
BY CHIEF CULPEPPER: Good evening. It looks like we are on course like the rest of the year. We
had 1132 complaints, 188 arrests, 48 traffic accidents, provided 20 escorts. I know the Eboli
scare, I don’t know if people are worried about it but just to let you know that our local
Homeland Security as well as the State Homeland Security has sent out some information to us
so we can be better prepared if life forbid we have a patient here. I contacted the hospital and
they have plans in place so it is a national problem that we don’t know if we will ever have to
face it or not and we are the best we can be ready for it.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Thank you Joe.
BY CHIEF CULPEPPER: Also the Blues and Heritage went off without a hitch as far as the police
are concerned.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Fire Chief, Richard Moody.
CHIEF MOODY: We had five structure fires in September, two grass fires, twelve motor vehicle
accidents, fifty one medical calls, sixteen service calls, twelve false alarms and nine hazardous
conditions/power lines downs or things like that for a total of one hundred seven calls. Remind
everybody next week is the fair please drive safely, no drinking and driving. We have a lot of
wrecks during that time coming in out of the highway from Bogalusa and people from
Mississippi coming across to the fair. Next month will be fire prevention month we will be out at
all the schools elementary schools teaching fire prevention. This year’s theme is smoke detectors
so everybody check them. Thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Our Airport Manager is in Atlanta at a meeting trying to get more money for
the Airport. Director of Parks and Recreation, Landon Tims.
BY LANDON TIMS: Good evening. We had lots of events in September. Little league soccer
started and bought some new nets and fixing some exiting goals out there. VSA Football they are
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playing some games out at the Sports Complex so we are trying to keep that up and tidy for
them. We still have the softball tournaments on weekends so lots of activities down at our Sports
Complex. September was a busy month we had the Open Road Cruisers Car Show, we had the
Blues Festival and had a large turn out for the Blues Festival it was a site to see all those people
gathered in the park and like the Chief said not one incident throughout the whole weekend.
Everybody was on their best behavior. We are going to continue it going into October we have
already had a big event last weekend with the Dirty Outlaw Dash it was a 5K obstacle course in
the Park. Tire walls, climbing walls, running through the creek and it brought in 200 people and
some came in from as far as Lake Charles for these races. So we are still bringing people into the
city with lots of events that we have. This weekend we actually have District 7 Community Day in
the Park so people can bring their families out and they will have some fun and games, some
entertainment and things like that the District 7 is bringing in this weekend. We also have
another big event on October 25th it is the Business on the Block Party Fall Festival. It will be
Saturday the 25th from 5-8 in Cassidy Park, costume contest, all kinds of booths for the kids kind
of like Trick or Treating but on that Saturday that is another fun event that people can go out to
and bring their families. We are also preparing for events that we are going to have in November
and December. We have the Native and American week coming up which will be the first week in
November. We are preparing for Christmas in the Park this year and we are hoping that expect
more people to come in and we have some new and interesting ideas that we can bring to the
Christmas in the Park and Christmas in the City this year. So some exciting times are coming up.
Thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you Landon.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Downtown Development Manager, Robin Day.
BY ROBIN DAY: Hello everyone. I would just like to announce that our Harvest Festival is going to
be October 31st. This year we decided to take the theme since this is the thing Main Street
Program likes to give back to the community, give back to the children we are going to do drug
free, bully free zoning and all the children will be receiving gift bags with that logo on it as well
as some items in there. All the merchants are going to be participating, going to have a cake
walk, costume contest, hay ride that the Police Department puts on. Our Fire Department comes
and talks about fire prevention and it is all about the city giving back to our community so I hope
everyone brings their children out and come out for a fun filled evening. It will be held from 5 till
9, October 31st. Then we will kick off getting out Christmas House on the Columbia Street grassy
park, we need to name that place, but anyway the little Christmas House will be going up and we
are getting ready for the Christmas Parade. We are also getting ready to do lighting our City. I’m
going to be taking my division of my city and we have others that are going to be working on
that and we are hoping to make our city a place they want to come with Lighting our City. So
everyone that owns a business or home who is thinking about what they want to do to help light
up our town and get people in here to come see it and have to offer. We will be getting ready for
the parade those who have participated in the past whether you were a spectator or involved in
the parade know that last year was our largest with spectators as well as participants. We are
really looking forward to having a huge crowd again this year as well as a lot of participants.
Then our biggest festivity that we have going on is Tis the Season Street Stroll. We are so thrilled
about it we had so many people from all the way from Oklahoma who has asked to come
vendors in this they heard such good things about it last year. I’ve had my computer is blowing
up, my phones blowing up people just wanting to come be vendors here and it just thrills us. We
really want people in town to get involved in being vendors. It is a good time to show your
business as well as your arts and crafts that you have so that is going to be November 29th and
30th that is Small Business Saturday so we will be celebrating that also. I have joined with
American Express to hopefully get us a little grant to hush small businesses that weekend. It will
be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. We hope you all come
out. Have a safe fair.
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BY MAYOR MIZELL: Thank you Robin. Certainly I thank all of the Supervisors for the report the
work you have done. I want to comment on a few things here. I am excited about having Jay
Dardenne in our city and able to show him some of the things we are showcasing our City and
State. It appears every time we hear a report about the State we understand that seems like
everybody’s progressing and revenues are being generated and so I wanted him to come and
look at what we are doing and we want to be a partner in that revenue increases. I think that is
really important to us. You know each of us that have spoke tonight most of them said
something about bringing people here. You know I think it is important for us to understand that
the reason that I want people to come to our City is because within our city limits we are limited
with our revenue that we can raise from our own pocket books. I told you that we are not going
to raise taxes we are going to try to give you more bang for your buck and we have worked hard
to do that. The taxes the revenue those in August has a big decrease here. I hope there is a
mistake from our tax collector with some more comes in because this is not rue to form what has
been happening and if you traveled around our city in the last few months I think you have found
traffic bumper to bumper like some places most of the time. So historically if you have more
people they are spending more money. So we are just keeping our fingers crossed that our tax
collector comes in with a little more. I want to mention a couple of things about the grants and
about the roads and some of the money use to be spent there, I won’t go into any great detail
tonight but I want you to understand about grants. When I became Mayor I really though that
the grants we got we would go fill out a little paper and they would give us the check and we
would come back here and spend it. It just didn’t happen that way but it had been sounding
good through the years from the people that were telling me, just go get some grants. I’ve got
more grants now than I have money to utilize them. Most of the grants that you get have a
match the ones that are ready available for you are pretty much available are fifty percent. If
you put up a dollar the state will put up a dollar. That lets them know you have a dog in the fight
and you really want to take ownership of that. We are not able to do that in all areas I want you
to understand that. Then there is some such as one we landed which we are real proud of we are
going to be able to take advantage of it is $800,000.00 grant. It is a lot of money but it is a
specific grant it tells us what we can do with it and nothing outside that. We found out how long
it takes to get one or two words changed in one of those grants so you can cut grass or do this or
that or the other for three and a half years. Now the match on this $800,000.00 is about
$112,000.00 I believe that is correct. We can put up $112,000.00 in match money for what ever
that comes to $700,000.00 of actual money and we can benefit from that but if you don’t have
the match you can’t get the grant. So all of you that is running for election here and is not
familiar with that I want to make sure you understand that grants doesn’t mean free. It means
you have a partner and you have to pull your load on one end, okay. We do have some grants
out there and we pretty much was offered one the other day for $6,000,000.00 but we didn’t
have $2,000,000.00 to put with it. I couldn’t obligate the city to two million dollars for the next
three years in our budget situation we ought to be great with six million dollars to do some of
these projects with. I am telling you there is a real story behind some of the stories and I will
Sherry try to have my two bits if you will on talking at the council meetings in saying what we are
doing with some of these things a little more so than you may get on the front end there. I want
to say something about the updates and upgrades that we have had here in the city. We have
upgraded even with the budget crisis that we had and I will tell you one of those reasons we had
that was because of all that great equipment we had here. The computers that crashed that
went down I will tell you that the new equipment that we have coming in I’m not an IT person
but we have people that understand these things and I don’t think we are going to be able to
crash one on our own if we wanted to in the near future. We will be actually on line with state of
the art equipment with new software and programs that I want you to have access to on a daily
basis, weekly basis ever what you want. I can not run a city without information current actual
facts. The best decision I can make for you is based on the best information that I got at that
time. So if Jerry gives me numbers that is not correct there is no way I can give you any better
numbers. We are working really hard to get the actual facts on those. Code enforcement we are
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expecting it to be online so you can see what you have requested. If you requested a pot hole
somewhere we discussed it today we are hoping with this system here will get to a point where
James he don’t have to go out and look at it he believes that there is one at such and such place
and he can put it in his schedule to take care of it and as it is taken care of it can be marked off
the list and you the public can see that I think you need to know those things. I think you need to
know the people that are employed by you actually work, they actually do accomplish things and
let me say a little bit about these people that work for you. We are a service oriental business
here did you know that? We work for you the public. What we try to do is try to keep them
employees that we have here trained and have the proper tools given everything they need to do
a good job. When we look at the budget the first thing everybody says is cut the employees. How
many of you want me to cut employees? We’ll cut them. Where you want to cut them fire,
policemen, sewer, and water? We have a certain amount of money in this city you do understand
that right? It will only pay for certain number of things and every penny that has been spent
there is a record of it. So I want you to feel free to take those records dissect them and find some
place to utilize this better or you utilize these people better. That is the challenge for the future
as we have been challenged already. I want to thank everybody that has been involved in all of
the activities that have went on this past month they have been many. If you haven’t found
something to do something to occupy your time come on over we will make a volunteer for you.
We do and have received a hundred percent on small grants for police, fire. These are the things
that everybody goes after and that is the reason you don’t get much money out of them. You are
talking about 5,6,7 thousand dollars and our needs are much greater. Now don’t get me wrong
we are grateful for those we just need more of them. I wanted to thank the volunteers and all
the people that made it happen and had such a great September and starting in October looking
forward to the fair and all of our activities here in the city. I thank all of you, thank you council
one again bearing with me and giving me minutes to speak and with that I bid you a good
evening and have a great night.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next we have council discussion Councilman Drummond.
BY COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND: I’d just like to say the Blues Festival was great. James and his
crew had the city looking great. I had the pleasure of serving on the Promotions Committee and
everybody that came in from all over the state really all over the country they really commented
highly on it and they really liked the setting. Saturday morning you couldn’t tell if there was a
concert there Friday night they had the place ship shaped. The JR ROTC came out and helped and
they were a mighty big help. I want to comment First Sergeant Roger and his crew for a job well
done. I’d also like to say I went to Ponamah Cemetery to check for All Saints Day to see what all I
had to do to get ready for it and if the weather stays cool I don’t have to do anything ya’ll got it
looking that good. I just hope the weather stays like it is and I am looking forward to Halloween
Carnival, well Fall Festival, Harvest Festival I stand corrected. That is pretty much all I have.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Councilman O’Ree.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: I don’t have anything.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Councilwoman Williams.
BY COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS: I’d just like to thank everyone for coming out and also as Chief
Moody mentioned next week is the fair and school is out also. Kids get out Thursday evening so
they will be out a week and a day so be sure to watch out for them because all is not out at the
fair they are out here playing in the middle of the street so we need to watch out and be careful
of them. Also I would like to thank the Department Heads for their reports. Chief Moody I have a
good report on you Sunday afternoon a church member of mine their house caught on fire last
week and they were really appreciative of the things you all did. I am going to say I didn’t know
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this happened which they live right down the street from me and one thing you guys didn’t alarm
the neighbors. Thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Councilwoman Graham.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: I’d like to again thank each and every one of you for coming
tonight. It does show your interest in the city and it helps you to know more about what is
presently going on in our city. A couple of notes that I made Ms. Sherry Fortenberry commented
on the attachments to the agenda. The Council when we receive our agenda it does have each of
the attachments. Any time a citizen has an interest in something they can go see our Council
Secretary and get the information but we stopped printing one for every agenda because the
pages, this is our agenda for tonight it gets to be very expensive when you make a lot of extra
copies so we cut it down to give you the information that is coming and if you want more
information you are welcome to seek it. Once we do get the agenda information then we have
time that we can go ahead and do our research so we can be prepared for the meeting when it
comes up for vote. Mr. Foots Quinn on the bridge to get people to Wal- Mart from the Terrace I
figured the Mayor would say that but in his plans our walkways in the future somewhere in the
twenty year plan as we get to it that all the city parks will be connected by walk or bike paths.
That is in the plans as we go and we have to do as we can but it does show your interest in all
these things and you know you are here. On our map for the election in 2010 there was a census
done and our city and any other government body have to re-district according to the census and
the numbers and the quotas have to be met according to the Federal Laws. Our Parish has a
Commission that is all volunteers did it totally volunteer for the Parish, the Parish School Board,
the City and maybe some of the others that I don’t even know. They took their time and they did
it and what they brought to us was several options but this was the method they recommended.
We automatically adopted their recommendation because that is what they felt was the best
and we thought we would go with that and we agreed with them and it did look like it was
meeting the requirements best of all. So these maps have been in existent since 2012. I do know
some of the voters and in my district is one of them that was connected and did not get a
notification that their voting district had been changed. It is my understanding that those notices
will begin to be mailed this week from the Secretary of State who was sending it last week to the
Register of Voters who is sending it to our people this week. I know there will be some confusion
but the books at the precincts will be all correct and if any of you want to look at my map or we
have one in our council chambers any time you want to check. I do appreciate each and every
one of you and your concerns. I do thank all of you administrators and Head Departments for all
the hard work you do each and every day and the Mayor don’t leave him out. Thank you all.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you. I just want to thank everybody for coming and I am going to
bite my tongue and say good night, meeting adjourned. Thank you.
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