The Minden City Council held its monthly meeting Monday evening, where they approved a series of actions to start phase one of a project to replace the one-hundred-year-old water main along Shreveport Road, as well as appointing a new Economic Development Director for the city, Sarah Overall.
The meeting began with the council approving several budget amendments. Councilman Michael Roy of District D asked Mayor Nick Cox to go into detail about the amendments, particularly the one regarding the fund for the Shreveport Road water main replacement project.
“The Shreveport Road water main is a water line that is over one hundred years old. That water line feeds the entirety of the city. It runs from the water treatment plant to the big water tower across from First Baptist Church,” said Mayor Cox.
“The designation of the age of one hundred got our attention, and we feel like it’s time to deal with it. We applied for a grant, and we divided it into three phases. We were awarded half a million dollars for phase one.”
With the amendment approved, the council later voted to award the bid for the Shreveport Road water line replacement. This phase of the plan will include replacing the water line from the water plant to Miller Street. The existing ten-inch water line will be replaced with a twelve-inch water line, allowing for additional capacity.
While it’s a bit down the road from where the project is now, the mayor did acknowledge that in the later phases, the city will have to access some parts of the water line that are under the brick streets downtown.
“Eventually, though, to replace that water line, we’re going to have to run down the brick road, and that will for sure be no fun at all,” said Mayor Cox. “I think it’s a very worthy project.”
Later in the meeting, the council approved the mayor’s recommendation to hire Sarah Overall as the new Minden Main Street/Economic Development Director.
“When you hire somebody or pick somebody for a job, you hope you get a good applicant. In this situation, it seemed like everybody who applied was a very good applicant. The old saying is, when you choose, you lose that which you didn’t choose. It’s hard sometimes to make these decisions, but one person just really stood out above the others,” said Cox.
“I have an awful lot of confidence in this person, so tonight I’m recommending to the council that we appoint Sarah Overall as Main Street/Economic Development Director.”
The Minden City Council meeting takes place on the first Monday of each month, starting at 6 PM at the Minden Civic Center. The meetings are open to the public, and for those who wish to view the meeting live or after the fact, it is live-streamed on the City of Minden’s Facebook page and YouTube channel titled “City of Minden.”