By T. Scott Boatright
Sales Tax and Use District expansion and paving the way for a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement to build a housing development were two of the top orders of business for Ruston’s City Council Monday evening during their August meeting at City Hall.
Ruston’s Board of Aldermen unanimously approved city officials to amend the geographical boundaries of Economic Development District I (EDD I) and to extend the levy of the district’s existing sales and use tax into the expanded boundaries of that economic development district.
“This is our periodic amendment to the EDD I based on changes of the entities operating therein,” City Attorney Bill Carter told the City Council before a vote was taken. “A list of the businesses that will be added to the district as well as the ones that will be deleted have been included in the information you’ve received.”
No one from the public spoke on the matter when Mayor Ronny Walker opened a public hearing for discussion, so that public hearing was quickly closed and the unanimous vote was made.
Ruston’s aldermen also unanimously agreed to authorize Mayor Ronny Walker and the city to enter into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with architectural and interior design firm Parish Line Development L.L.C. or affiliate to construct a new housing development near the Ruston Sports Complex.
That development is planned to consist of 70 units – 42 single-family houses and 28 townhouses. It is planned to be a gated, covenant community with the single-family houses being somewhere around 2,400 square feet with four different options that could add a half bath, or office, if desired.
All of the residences in the development – both single-family homes and townhouses, will also have two-vehicle garages.
Ruston’s City Council also approved a resolution authorizing the city to order and call for a Special Election to be held on Nov. 18, which was already a scheduled election day for Lincoln Parish, to submit to the qualified electors thereof a proposition to authorize the city to join the Louisiana Energy and Power Authority.
Created by the State Legislature, the Louisiana Energy and Power Authority (LEPA) consists of 19 Louisiana cities and towns, each maintaining its own independent municipal power system.
LEPA is a joint-action agency working to provide its member communities with firm, stable sources of electricity at the lowest possible cost.
“LEPA is a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana,” Kevin Bihm, LEPA general manager, told Ruston’s Board of Aldermen. “What that means is that we act just like a city — like Ruston and others in the state of Louisiana. We follow the same guidelines, We have public meetings, public bid-laws and all of those things.
“We were formed for cities that either have distribution or electric generation, back in 1979. Ruston had both of those in 1979. I think you’ve foregone the generation but you still have your distribution system.”
Bihm said LEPA sells power to some member cities, adding that was not a requirement, and that there is no cost to be a member city.
Walker said the main thing he’s taken away from earlier discussions with Bihm is the potential assistance it could provide in the wake of storm damage to the electrical grid.’
“This gives us 19 members that we can call on to help us, and they can call on us to help them as well,” Walker said. “We’re stronger as 20 utilities together than we are as one alone.
“I also like the fact that in these days, where it can be so hard to find transformers, we can get LEPA to help us find out if any other member city has an extra transformer the size we need to swap out, buy out or whatever.”
Ruston’s City Council also approved adoption to the 2023 Lincoln Parish Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan and also passed a motion authorizing the city to sell moveable property as surplus movable property — in this case, police vehicles.
“The bottom line is that Simsboro, one of our neighbors, needs some police cars,” Walker said. “The (City) Council knows we have started leasing our police cars now, but we still do have three or four or five old ones out there.
“So, we’re going to find them the two best ones we have and in a neighbor-to-neighbor swap kind of deal only charge them $500 per vehicle. I think this is good for us and good for Lincoln Parish. I think that any time we can help our neighboring cities we need to, so that’s what this is all about.”
In other business, Ruston’s Board of Aldermen introduced an ordinance that if passed would amend Chapter 29 of the Code of Ordinances for the city of Ruston by changing certain parts of the Zoning District boundaries to provide for approval of a preliminary plat for the Greenwood Crossing subdivision.
