By T. Scott Boatright
Selling property for a softball field for Ruston High School, increasing the salaries of Mayor Ronny Walker and the Board of Aldermen, and approving a rate hike for water were primary orders of business Monday night as the Ruston City Council held its December meeting at City Hall.
Public hearings were opened on all three of those matters, before they were all passed 4-0 with Councilwoman Angela Mayfield being absent, but no citizens spoke on any of them.
The motions will raise Walker’s salary to $120,000 annually from its previous amount of $100,000 yearly.
Salaries for each member of Ruston’s City Council were also raised 20% to an annual amount of $14,400.
“I just want to say how difficult it was to get the mayor to agree to this, but he deserves it, and we want (him) to keep going with this thing,” Councilwoman Melanie Lewis said before the vote on the salary increases were made.
The City Council also unanimously moved to authorize Walker and the city to enter into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Lincoln Parish School Board to sell the LPSB for $150,000 a 15-acre tract of land near the Ruston Sports Complex on which it will build a softball field for Ruston High School.
Also approved was a 26.5% increase on water rates that will first show on bills to be sent out in February.
City officials say that the rate hike must be done in accordance with regulations for a federal water sector program from which the city received nearly $4 million.
Water will increase in 2025 and 2026, then remain level for the next four years before increasing again in each of the following three years after that four-yard period of no increases.
“The city entered a cooperative endeavor agreement that brought in $3,698,000 for improving select water and sewer projects,” said Ruston Public Works Director John Freeman. “One of the requirements of that CEA is that the city participate in a water rates study by a firm assigned by the state and to implement any water rate changes indicated to be needed. The water rate changes were identified in the study, and so those changes are included in the amendments asked to be made to (Ruston’s Code of Ordinances).”
The City Council also approved a resolution granting the city permission to enter into a $285,000 with Amethyst Construction to build a 63-space parking overflow lot at the Ruston Sports Complex as well as authorizing the city to enter into a Professional Services Agreement with the Riley Company for $235,000 for engineering consulting services regarded the 2026 Street Overlay Program.
Also approved was authorization for the city to enter into a contract relating to a Water Improvement Project for Stewart, Dark and Jonesboro Streets for $523,448.50 and to enter into a contract for $627,915 for sandblasting and painting for the downtown elevated city water tank just off of Interstate 20.
“That will include repainting the city of Ruston and Louisiana Tech logos on the tank,” Walker said.
The City Council also granted permission to start the condemnation process for dilapidated homes at 205 Cotton St. and 611 Eastland Ave. while also approving a final plat for the Country Club Estates subdivision.
Ruston’s City Council also introduced a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a professional services agreement with Parish Controls, LLC and to sell that company property for an engineering facility.
That resolution will be discussed and potentially voted on during the January 2025 City Council meeting.
