The Minden City Council tackled a full agenda at its latest meeting, approving budget amendments, major equipment purchases, and updates to city ordinances while also making key personnel decisions. This included investing in new fire and public works equipment, modernizing long-outdated noise regulations, and supporting a neighboring community with playground improvements.
One of the first items on the agenda was to amend the city’s 2025-2026 budget. This was done to account for resolutions passed later in the meeting regarding lease purchase agreements for city equipment. “Basically, the objective in moving these items around, it’s a pretty good list, is to be able to allocate the funds to do some purchases we’ll do later in this very meeting,” said Minden Mayor Nick Cox.
These purchases included a custom pumper fire truck and a command unit for the Minden Fire Department, and a bucket truck for the city’s Public Works Department.
Later in the meeting, the council voted to adopt a resolution that would essentially allow the mayor to enter a cooperative endeavour agreement with the Town of Sibley to donate playground equipment remaining after the REC Center’s renovations to its playground.
“Basically, at the REC Center, we are updating our playground. It’s going to be quite a robust playground that we’re putting in. We already had a deal to have our old playground disposed of and cleared out,” said Mayor Cox.
“We were visiting with Sibley, and they were in the process of trying to figure out how they could get a playground. This resolution, if adopted, would transfer this playground equipment to the Town of Sibley.”
Ordinance No. 1167 was presented for adoption to amend and reenact a section of the city’s code of ordinances regarding amplified noises and nuisance noises. Showcasing how outdated the old ordinance was, the mayor provided some examples. “It had provisions for boomboxes, which are not really a common problem we’re having. Phonographs, record players, things that are obsolete, so it’s time to update it,” said Mayor Cox.
“The new ordinance will establish a distance from the noise that is being projected, and the police department will utilize decibel meters to be able to see how loud it is, and do this from more of a scientific standpoint.”
The council also passed a resolution to confirm the mayor’s appointments to the Minden Administrative Court, those being Neil Erwin as Administrative Judge and Ashlee Drake as Docket Clerk.
They also approved two promotions and two new hires for the Minden Fire Department. Captain Andrew Myles was promoted to the rank of Battalion Chief, and Firefighter Tommy Hughes, Jr. was promoted to the rank of Fire Captain. The two new hires joining the department include David Hatcher and Alec Plunklett.
Minden City Council meetings are held on the first Monday of each month at 6 PM at the Minden Civic Center. Meetings are open to the public and, for those who cannot attend in person, are also livestreamed on the City of Minden’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, both titled “City of Minden.”