The February Minden City Council meeting saw some more permanent appointments of interim positions within the Minden Police Department as well as some major changes taking place along Green Street, notably the conversion of the street into a one way and the posting of a 10 MPH speed limit in order to make the road safer for citizens and businesses that reside alongside it.
Last spring the Minden City Council appointed Tokia Harrison as interim deputy police chief, and in the spring Christopher Cheathamwas also appointed to that position. .
Mayor Nick Cox stated, “They have passed their test, and Chief McIver is recommending that we permanently appoint Tokia Harrison as deputy chief and Chris Cheatham deputy chief of police also.” This motion was passed unanimously.
The council went on to unanimously approve the appointment of Joey Frye to the Minden Planning Commission in order to fill the unexpired term of Steve Wilson whose term was set to expire in July of 2024.
Afterward the mayor explained a fifty cent increase in cost that citizens and businesses will be seeing on their bill for trash pickup services.
“Basically, the City of Minden has a trash contract that we entered into, and now we’re in our third year. The first two years we didn’t have an increase in the contract. The contract has a consumer price index adjustment built in, and it went up, and in order to cover those costs, we’re going to have to increase the cost to the citizens and any trash users by fifty cents a month. So it wasn’t bad, but we wanted to keep the cost in line with what we’re paying,” said Mayor Cox.
The increase will go from the original $17 that citizens were paying up to $17.50 total going forward. This motion was approved unanimously.
A big change is coming to one of Minden’s downtown streets in the form of an ordinance declaring Green Street to now be a one-way street between West Union Street and Pine Street.
“We’ve had a few issues raised about … sloppy parking and several different issues that have come up. Several of the business people over there have approached me, Councilman Thomas, and several of us about brainstorming solutions,” said Mayor Cox.
“To keep everything safe, traffic flowing properly, and people parking appropriately, we would like to change that street to a one-way street headed east to west, and make appropriate parking places where we can on the north side, have no parking on the south side and put up some no parking signs along the buildings there.”
Along with that change, the street would also see the posting of a speed limit of 10 MPH, in order to further their efforts in making the street safer.
“If you’ve ever been down Green Street, I just can’t fathom anybody speeding through there, but apparently with all that sloppy parking, people are bobbing and weaving through there and just flying through. There is no posted speed limit on that road. It’s been requested that we post one. The police department has suggested a reasonable speed limit through there as 10 miles an hour,” said Mayor Cox.
Another topic of the evening would be the first action, with more to come later, that addresses the topic of animal control within the City of Minden.
“The state has some state statutes laid out that spell out how we should handle dog attacks and problematic dogs in the city, but the powers are given primarily to the parish,” said Mayor Cox.
“So I met with the parish and asked them if they would consider doing what’s called a local service agreement, where we agree for the parish to extend to us the authority that the state gave them … so we can handle the animal control within the city.”
Councilman Michael Roy of District D also added, “This is the start. We’ve had other discussions about numbering the amount of animals that somebody can have in our ordinances, so this is where he suggests we start at and begin the process. So there will be more to come.”
The Minden City Council meeting takes place on the first Monday of each month starting at 6 PM at Minden City Hall. The meeting is open for the public to attend, and for those who cannot attend in person, or wish to view the meeting after the fact, it is live-streamed on the City of Minden’s Facebook page and YouTube channel titled, City of Minden – Feels Like Home.