By Malcolm Butler
Ruston mayor Ronny Walker said Wednesday that the city will receive three federal earmarks totaling almost $14 million for projects involving two roadways and an electrical substation.
Walker said they just recently got the final word.
“We knew they were in the bill, but until the bill was voted on, you never know,” said Walker. “But for a city our size to get three earmarks from three different legislators, it is incredible.”
The first earmark is $4.8 million provided by United States senator Bill Cassidy and will be used to build a new electrical substation. Walker said he believes it will be built on a plot of land on the corner of Hull Avenue and Gilman Street located by the old Louisiana Tech print shop, although that isn’t completely finalized.
“This earmark is for the new electrical substation that we are building specifically for Louisiana Tech,” said Walker. “The No. 1 reason is we need to increase the amount of power we have within the city because we are growing. The second reason is in the near future we will be providing 100 percent of the electricity for Louisiana Tech.”
Walker said the city is currently providing an average of about 15 percent of the electricity to Tech, although that number varies from month to month, season to season.
The second federal earmark is $3.0 million provided by United States representative Julia Letlow and will fund phase one of road work on South Farmerville Street.
“Phase 1 of this project starts at Martin Luther King Drive and runs all the way south to Tennessee Avenue,” said Walker. “Phase 2 will be from Martin Luther King Drive back north to East Georgia Avenue. This money is for phase 1.”
Walker said the work would including widening the road in places while adding curbs and gutters, and adding a 5-foot wide sidewalk on one side and an 8-foot wide sidewalk on the other side. He said he believes this project would be in the 2025 budget.
“Some of it could even be 2026 because this is a long process,” said Walker. “The feds have to send it to Baton Rouge, and Baton Rouge has to bless everything and all of the paperwork.”
Walker said there were multiple reasons for wanting to rebuild that road.
“We pretty well tore that road up when we were building the new sports complex out there,” said Walker. “We want to rebuild it. Also, that’s where we are building the 37-acre secure business park. We want to make sure we have a nice road leading to that park and we want to add sidewalks and bike trails so people can to the ballpark from Martin Luther King Drive and all along there.”
Walker said he was unsure of the timeline for phase 2 of the roadwork and that they city would ask for an additional earmark next year.
The third and final earmark is $6 million provided by United States senator John Kennedy and will be used for phase 2 of service road work for Buc-ee’s. This would be a new service road running west, starting from the roads where Buc-ee’s, including the entrance onto I-20 West, all the way to the beginning of the Grambling City limits.
Phase 3 will be from the east boundary of the Grambling city limits to the road in Grambling that crosses the interstate.
“When all three phases are completely done, you will be able to leave Buc-ee’s and get on the frontage road and go all the west through the city of Grambling and get on the road to get onto the interstate,” said Walker.
Walker said that they are still on schedule for Buc-ee’s to be open and operational in 2025.
“It’s still on schedule for groundbreaking in 2024 … don’t know when– probably the third or fourth quarter … and then Buc-ee’s opening sometime in 2025,” said Walker.
