Mayor Larry Alexander’s report to his council of monthly events included the dog pound, maintenance work and discussing upcoming events and needs.
Alexander told the council at Monday’s meeting that he had first-hand experience working at the dog pound, and the town would definitely need more tools. Alexander said a child was bit in a house in town after a relative passed away, and someone went to let the animals out. The dog attacked at that time, and it had to be caught and taken to the veterinarian to be dealt with. He said that was when he used some of the pound’s tools and realized it was a scary situation.
The mayor said the town has a tranquilizer gun, but no one is qualified to use it yet. He has been researching how to get someone certified.
During the month, the town collected 11 K-9s and returned one animal to its owner. Two were adopted out. He commended the dog pound staff for a tremendous job.
In his report, Alexander said the maintenance department has been fixing leaks in town. Seven were identified last week and that kept the men busy. At the end of this week, they would be preparing for Rib Fest.
“We’re in a pretty good position for finances,” Alexander said. “We have been able to pay our bills.” He explained they were working on getting caught up on the Cleco bill. He said for the second month in a row, the town took in right at $75,000 in water and sewer fees. They have installed new meters and have about 25 old meters still in the field. During the month, they did some on-site training with the meter manufacturer learning the ins-and-outs of meters, malfunctioning of meters and what the town needs to do to take care of its meters.
Next month, they will begin a door-to-door campaign to match up meter numbers and computer information. He said they have found a few that do not match up in the system.
Alexander told the council some of the work they discussed last month has been done in town. He said the stage has been built at the park and the electricity is in place. Seven new picnic tables are on hand and will be put out by the weekend.
He did check on the park equipment for Adams Park, which was ordered in December. The equipment is ordered and paid for but will not arrive until late summer. He said it looks like August 1, will be the shipping date.
In terms of the Rib Fest, he said organization was going well. They decided to drop the entry fee to the public. They have six bands, with the first starting at 11 a.m. He said they were accepting donations since the music will cost approximately $6,000. There will be about 20 vendors and approximately 10 cookoff participants.
“We are looking for an exciting day,” the mayor said.
Councilman Abraham McCleon learned some roads in the area of the Rib Fest will be closed after he questioned about closing the roads.
The council approved paying the bills and the minutes for its March meeting.
In the area of street construction, the mayor said he met with Spencer Gauthier, project manager at Pan American Engineers LLC, to discuss the agreement to work with Gauthier’s company. Gauthier gave an update and answered questions for the council. He explained they are in the process of getting clarity on what the town can do and can’t do with the money. He said they could not patch streets. The project has to be smooth streets, new construction. They are waiting to see if the town can do portions of streets which need help now and with future monies come back and do other parts of the streets.
Areas discussed were Fourth Ave., right off its intersection of Highway 165. There is about 100 to 150 feet that is absolutely terrible, according to the mayor’s explanation. He said the town may not be able to do just that stretch and may have to do more if dictated by the guidelines.
One councilman asked if they could do routes like to the nursing home or sections of town used commercially?
Gauthier said they can’t just do potholes, according to guidelines. He said they will do new streets but they are waiting to see how much of an area has to be done since they are trying to stretch the dollars. The size of the project will be determined by how far the dollars go in the bid process. When asked about the length once the project was reviewed and approved, Gauthier said about 60 days. He said the bid process would begin.
He said, “It was April, so work should begin by mid to late summer. July would be great, but realistically, it will probably be August.”
Mayor Alexander explained they made a broad list and now were coming back to see what could be done this round with the funds the town has on hand.
Streets should be the priority, according to Alexander, who said the town’s water system is good and its sewer system would be upgraded with a $3 million grant the town has received. He said the town should look at infrastructure and drainage and how to get funding and matching funding.
The CSRS contract, approved by the previous council last year, was discussed. Alexander said the company wants a payment of $25,000. The consulting firm out of Lake Charles wrote a grant for the town, which it didn’t win. The mayor added Parker Cole, who came to the meetings and explained the process to the council, no longer works for the company.
Alexander said apparently the advertising process wasn’t handled correctly which caused the town to lose its chance for funding in the last round. He said the company would resubmit the grant for funding in the next round.
Councilman Chris Davis asked if the problem was the council’s continued tabling of the project at that time. He said he wanted the public to know that all those tabled items cost the town $85,000 for services now.
Al Cappone, grant writer for the town, explained CSRS wrote two grants for the town. One was to conduct a study on all roads in town, and the second one was for an LCDG grant since Pan American couldn’t handle the grant process at that time.
Alexander said regardless, the town had to pay the fees. He said he would get with CSRS and see if he could renegotiate the terms of payment. He just wanted the council to understand what was occurring
Finally, the council agreed to purchase flags for approximately $2,000 for the flag poles at Veterans’ Park and city hall. He said there are approximately five flags. This would be a show of support to local veterans, who made the request, according to Alexander. Davis made the motion and Councilman Ryan Rozas gave the second before the council approved purchasing the flags.
