The Minden City Council addressed a wide range of the city’s priorities during its most recent meeting, unanimously approving new ordinances aimed at tackling blight and improving oversight of underground utility work. Council members also confirmed new hires for the police department and reflected on the city’s coordinated response to January’s winter storm.
One of the first items the council voted unanimously for was to adopt Ordinance No. 1165. This would establish a new administrative court and committee to oversee blight issues and beautification in the city.
“This is the administrative court that the council and I, along with our attorneys, have been working on. What this will do is allow us to set up our own court that pertains particularly to blight issues across the city and any administrative things like that. It also establishes what we call a beautification committee that would help us to look at these things,” said Mayor Nick Cox.
After that, the council also voted to adopt Ordinance No. 1166. Mayor Cox gave credit to Tyler Wallace, Minden’s public works director, and several others for putting together this ordinance. It aims to set up a system where contractors doing underground work in the city would have to notify the city of who exactly they are working for, so that when critical infrastructure is hit, they will know who exactly to hold accountable.
“In the past, we’ve had trouble with the underground utility contractors coming into the city,” said Mayor Nick Cox.
“This would set up a procedure through the public works department that would allow us to know who is working. If you’re going to bore or do underground utilities in the City of Minden, we want to be able to know who you are, who you work for, and who to hold accountable when there is a problem.”
Later in the meeting, upon the recommendation of Minden Police Chief Jared McIver, the council voted unanimously to confirm both Fabian Carter-Randle and Craig A. Crawford as new hires for the Minden Police Department.
During his Fire Report for the month of January, Minden Fire Chief Brian Williams took a moment to bring attention to the efforts the Minden Fire Department undertook during the winter storm to keep citizens safe.
“They stepped up and worked to make sure we had full staff at both stations to make sure that, as they were tasked to do different things through the storm, we weren’t cutting staff short with the city with the longer response due to the roads,” said Chief Williams.
“A couple of the tasks they were assigned to do were assisting the state police on I-20 with transporting water, food, and some fuel to stranded motorists between Arcadia and back towards Minden. They did a tremendous job working for the citizens of the city and neighbouring towns.”
Putting my other hat on as Homeland Security director, I would like to thank the city, the Public Works Department, and all departments in the city for working with the parish in this recent storm. There were several things we had to collaborate on to make sure our critical infrastructure was protected, and also to keep traffic moving around the city. So a special thanks to the Minden Police Department and the Public Works Department.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by many throughout the rest of the meeting, the next being Chief McIver, who said, “We’re very fortunate here in Minden for what we got, and everyone banded together and did a great job … I just want to thank everybody for the collaborative effort that was put through. Because of the planning, we came out as good as we did.”
Councilman Andy Pendergrass of District E added, “Just want to echo what the chiefs said about the city employees who did such a great job in preparation for enduring the ice storm that we had. I was proud of the preparedness, the willingness, and the desire of the city employees to make sure that Minden was going to undergo the ice storm as well as we possibly could.”
Councilman Michael Roy expressed his thanks to the citizens for doing their part as well, stating, “Thank you to all involved with the ice storm. Thank you to the citizens who tried to stay off the streets and stay in. That was certainly a big help, so we appreciate that.”
Lastly, the mayor closed on a statement that saw both the winter storm and the upcoming Minden St. Jude Auction as events that truly showcase the heart of the city and its citizens.
“St. Jude for Minden is a very visible thing that we do as a community that just shows the heart of the city and shows the heart of those around us. Another thing that demonstrates that really clearly is an emergency. When we just went through a city-wide … and quite large emergency. It takes a team effort,” said Mayor Cox.
“The biggest thing I saw during this emergency that gave me just a lot of joy to be the mayor of the City of Minden is how well we all worked together. That was across all departments. Everybody was just so willing to go the extra mile. Not only did it take teamwork and planning and a lot of hard work, but God was with the City of Minden as He always is, so I want to give thanks to Him.”
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.”