The Minden City Council’s most recent meeting covered a broad range of topics, including amendments to the city’s budget, grants for infrastructure improvement, and many ordinances put forth by Minden Fire Chief Brian Williams to help the fire department keep the city safer in the case of fire emergencies.
Some notable items included amendments to the city budget. The first one the council passed was just a matter of making sure the city’s budget was within the regulated variance.
“City governments, and all governments, are required to stay within a 5% variance of the proposed budget that we passed at the beginning. Things have to be within those guidelines. At the end of the year, we have to close out that budget by making sure we’re in that 5% variance,” said Minden Mayor Nick Cox.
The next budget amendment had to do with properly spending the money the city had received from the American Rescue Plan Act before the deadline at the end of the year, making sure the city could actually keep all the money it was given and not having to return it to the federal government. “Several years ago the City of Minden was given over $4 million from the federal government for the American Rescue fund, and we have until the end of this year to make sure that every cent of it is allocated to something,” said Mayor Cox.
“It cannot just be allocated through a budget, it has to be nearly spent. We don’t have to have the check written, but it has to be nearly spent, meaning an invoice, solid quote, or bid awarded.
“Many months ago we passed a working ARPA budget and just slap ran out of time to spend it all, so we have appropriate expenditures that we already made, so we would like to amend the budget and go ahead and reimburse the city for those very appropriate expenses we’ve already spent money on and, therefore, not have to send the money back to the federal government.”
Next, the council authorized the mayor to be given full authority to execute and submit all documents pertaining to the Delta Regional Authority for a grant that the city had received to replace one of its oldest water lines.
“Last month, we were notified that we had received $509,000 in grant money from the Delta Regional Authority, with a city match of $155,000. This is to replace a 100-year-old line that feeds from the water plant to the water tower on Main Street,” said Mayor Cox.
After that, the council approved raises for certain city elected officials which will take effect in 2027. The elected officials include the mayor, police chief, ward marshal, and city judge.
“We give city-wide raises to all the employees, generally speaking, for the cost of living and things like that,” said Cox. “What happens is, ten years go by, and that pay for those elected officials just lags and lags, and we’re in a time where inflation is hitting everybody so terribly hard.”
A significant portion of the meeting was allotted to explaining and approving various ordinances that all pertained to various aspects of the fire department and fire safety rules. The first ordinance simply had to do with eliminating some references in ordinances to positions in the fire department that no longer existed.
“There were positions in the past that the city had in areas of the town when it came to the structure of the fire department that no longer exist, and are no longer needed,” said Mayor Cox.
The second ordinance had to do with preventing the obstruction or tampering of fire hydrants. “We have rules for this already. We’ve added some language that would prevent people from obstructing a fire hydrant. The way this is set up is in line with the NFPA national standards,” said Mayor Cox.
The last one was a single ordinance but added some new rules or changes to existing ones that either help the fire department respond to emergency situations or keep emergency situations from happening in the first place.
“On item one, private water sources, that is pertaining to the fire department being authorized in an emergency to use water from private ponds, swimming pools, lakes, etc. to save life and property without liability for damages,” said Minden Fire Chief Brian Williams.
The next part of the ordinance had to do with access boxes that hold keys to the properties for commercial buildings and gated communities; they will have to install those to help the department gain access to buildings in the case of an emergency.
“Currently, the City of Minden has a key box of forty to fifty keys, and we have to try to find a key to a building when we get there. It’s just not efficient for what we’re doing, so this fixes that,” said Chief Williams.
“The access box system is a key box on commercial buildings that has an automatic fire alarm system or an automatic fire suppression system, to have a master key for locations in the building for the fire department to have access to.”
Williams went on to state that existing buildings will have six months to comply, property owners will bear the cost of installation, and new commercial buildings will have to have them installed when being constructed.
He also described the security measures that will be put in the place to ensure that only the proper individuals will have access to the boxes, and that they will only be used in the case of an emergency.
“There is a security plan in place so only the fire chief or the city clerk can request a key to these boxes. These boxes are only keyed for the City of Minden, and these keys will be under lock and key on the fire apparatus, and every individual has to have a security pin. They are time and date-stamped security procedures so no one can just get it off of the truck at any time,” said Chief Williams.
The next part of the ordinance had to do with adding rules pertaining to outdoor burning. The City of Minden did not have one, so this put some rules in place that describe what can and cannot be burned.
“The City of Minden does not have an ordinance that prevents outdoor burning. What I’ve requested is just adding in the ordinance that we just follow the state law regarding controlling air pollution,” said Chief Williams. “What it states is that the only thing you can burn inside the city of Minden is vegetative debris.”
The next rule was made to help the problem of the department responding to false alarms. The ordinance gives plenty of leeway for an accidental trigger of an automatic fire alarm, but if the issue persists, allow for some fees to be administered to help incentivize the faulty alarm owner to get it fixed.
“It costs the city every time we respond to these calls. That’s the main issue, just trying to get these malfunctioning systems repaired,” said Williams.
“In twelve months, the first three times we get there are free. If we respond a fourth time, there’s a $100 fee, fifth time there’s a $200 fee, the sixth time there’s a $300 fee.”
Lastly, the ordinance goes into detail about the dates and times that people in the city can sell or discharge fireworks. Originally it only referenced the dates. It also clarified what fireworks sellers must display and what fire equipment they must have on-site. It includes a requirement that people obtain a permit from the City of Minden building official if they are looking to do a pyrotechnic display outside of the legal holidays that are stated in the ordinance.
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 – Feels Like Home.”