Some of the first items that the mayor and council tackled in the monthly Minden City Council meeting were appointments and the hiring of a new city police officer. The first appointment was that of a new Minden Mainstreet director, Taylor Wren.
“I think it’s good for the future of Minden to have someone who takes over as Main Street director and really makes that their own position. Our Main Street is one of the lowest-hanging great things about Minden. It’s a great fruit that we have to really show off in our city. If you are visiting Minden that’s what you see and what you appreciate,” said Mayor Nick Cox.
The council voted unanimously for Wren to take up the position.
After a seat on the Minden Downtown/Residential Historic Commission was left open due to a resignation from Logan McConathy, the council voted unanimously for Ricky Thomas to fill the seat for the remainder of the term which lasts until the end of this year.
The council also voted to hire a new Minden police officer, that being Jordan Greer.
“I looked through his file, and he has an impressively high score on his test. He is POST-certified. I’ve personally known him for years, and I think he’ll be a great addition to the team,” said Cox.
Later during the meeting, the council voted to pass an item that would essentially consolidate the city’s various public works departments into one centralized public works office.
“The council and I have met, and others throughout the city’s public works department, and we are very interested in consolidating some of our public works departments into one facility. Right now we have people in the steam plant, people at the water plant, we have people just spread throughout the city,” Mayor Cox explained.
“It’s just become very clear that for our future it’d be great to consolidate and have one central station for, not all public works at first, but a good chunk of them right off the bat.”
After that, the council reviewed an item that would allow the mayor to enter into a Software-as-Service agreement with Kologik, LLC for Minden Police Department software.
“The police chief has come to us and has stated that the software he uses right now does not make his department compliant, and it kicks him out of eligibility for a lot of the grants that they could be getting to help with our police department,” said Mayor Cox.
Lastly, staying in line with their previously mentioned goal of mapping out a plan to help guide the course of Minden’s future, the council voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with Louisiana Economic Development (LED) for an updated Louisiana Development Ready Communities certification strategic plan.
“We did this when Tommy Davis was the mayor in 2013, and it was a plan that would stretch out from 2013 to 2018. Well, that plan is obviously antiquated. It doesn’t cost any money. It’s promoted by LED and it allows us to do strategic planning with the state to look at our future,” said Mayor Cox.
The monthly Minden City Council meeting takes place on the first Monday of each month starting at 6 PM at Minden City Hall. For those who can’t attend in person, the meetings are live streamed at the City of Minden’s Facebook page and YouTube Channel titled “City of Minden – Feels Like Home.”