Back To “Normal” – City Council Unable To Meet…Again

After holding a special meeting last week, once again there was no regular meeting of the Minden City Council due to a lack of quorum. District B and C Council members Terika Walker and Vincen Bradford were once again no shows for the regular June meeting. With no meeting being able to be held, Minden Mayor Terry Gardner informed those in attendance and watching via stream the importance of items that are not able to be voted on because of their absences.

• Special Election for District A Representative. If the election is not placed on the November ballot, which has to be done by June 17^th, will cost the city between $10-15,000 because then it would be a special election being the single item on a ballot.
• 2 police department hires
• 1 fire department hire
• Signature authority resolution
• 2 airport bid approvals (FAA Grant funded)
• Approving bid to overlay portions of Pine Street, Horton Street, and Fincher Road. It was noted that the low bid came in lower than anticipated.
• Approving a lot split on property on Homer Road that will allow construction to begin for a new Doctor Office and Dental Office that was approved by the Minden Planning Commission in April.
• Approve Main Street Board appointment
• Mayor Pro Tempore appointment

City Clerk, Michael Fluhr, gave a brief financial report for March, April, and May.  Fluhr noted the May numbers were up from last year: coming in at $506,000 which was up from $482,000 in 2019. Fluhr said that the expectations were about 10% lower from budgeted amount. The March amount was $449,000 up from $436,000 in 2019, while April amount was $526,000 which was a tad lower than last year’s amount of $563,000.

While those figures were good news, Fluhr said that there was some bad news. The Economic TIF districts were down 51% and the Parish Convention and Visitor’s Bureau was down 59%, mostly from low hotel tax numbers.

Fluhr noted that the cash balance for the city was steady over the last three months, at $17.7, $17.6, and $17.7 million respectively.  He also noted that CDs that the city owned renewed during the Covdid-19 shutdown caused them to lose around 1.5% on interest rates.

Mayor Gardner reported that there was a power outage over the weekend in the area around the Steam Plant, which kept residents from calling in power outages, because the Steam Plant uses Suddenlink for phone service. Gardner said that the problem has been corrected as of Monday. AT&T now serves as a backup service in case of power outages. Gardner also said that the $3.50 convenience fee has been re-established for light bills that are paid online. However, Gardner also said that cutoff notices will not begin until July.

A special called meeting has been set for Wednesday, June 3rd at 3 p.m. in the Pelican Conference Room. The council will have the option of attending in person or by phone per Governor’s proclamation during Covid-19 emergency crisis.