By T. Scott Boatright
Plans to open a skateboard park in Ruston moved a step closer to fruition Monday night as the Ruston City Council passed a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract relating to the Ruston Skatepark at Memorial Park project during its meeting for the month of June
“We’ve been working on this for at least seven years now, maybe longer than that,” said Mayor Ronny Walker as he began discussions on the resolution. “A skatepark is something that’s pretty difficult to build, and there’s not really that many good builders
“Long story short, we bid this project out and it came in at $1.4 (million). We have $1.2M dedicated to that with the help of the Friends of Ruston Skatepark. What we’re asking tonight is to allow us to accept this contract — this bid — but work with the contractor to reduce that by $200,000. If we can’t reduce it that much, we’ll come back to you with where we’re going to take that money from to finish it out.
Public Works Director John Freeman said the city had previously engaged the services of New Line Skateparks, Inc., to develop plans and specifications
“There were several meetings held with public input at the Historic Fire Station and plans were advertised and put out for bid and on June 18, those bids were opened,” Freeman said. “The lowest bid was submitted by Benchmark Construction Group of Louisiana, LLC, out of Sterlington in the amount of $1,410,000.”
If a way to reduce the accepted bid amount by $200,000 can’t be found, Walker said he would work with city Finance Director Julie Keen to find a way to come up with those funds
Later in the meeting, the City Council passed a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Louisiana Department of the Treasury and the state of Louisiana for $400,000 to complete renovations to parks within city limits, with Keen saying that some of that money could be used for the skatepark should it become necessary.
The Council also passed a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a $1,105,000 contract relating to the Tarbutton Road Water and Sewer Improvement to add infrastructure to be able for Buc-ee’s to add water and sewage to the Travel Center it is building off.
“This project would involve placement of a 12-inch water line as well as a 15-inch gravity sewer that would tie into the existing sewer and water lines just north of the junior high school,” Freeman said. “Three bids were received and opened on June 11 with the low bid submitted coming from Pulley Construction out of Benton, Louisiana.”
Freeman said that it is a 270 calendar-day project.
“This is only running water to the border of the property (bought by Buc-ee’s),” Walker said. “We’re not running it all the way to the building. This is just running lines to the Buc-ee’s property.”
The City Council also amended Chapter 7 of the Code of Ordinances for the city of Ruston relating to animals that will require animals adopted from the city Animal Shelter to be spayed or neutered to be “chipped” with an identifying microchip before being released to adopters.
It also amends other language that includes strays being chipped and to be given a rabies shot if not proof of such can be shown before being released to proven owners with those fees added to violation costs in light of the city’s leash law.
In other business, the City Council passed a resolution authorizing the city to work with Cadence Equipment Finance in order to lease two frontload garbage trucks from River Cities Hydraulics as well as a resolution allowing the city to enter into a Professional Services Agreement with Ardamen and Associates for testing and inspection services to the East Kentucky Avenue/Goodwin Road to La. Highway 33 Project.
Also passed was a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract relating to the Ruston Airport Driveway to Hangers Project.
The low bid work to rebuild Aviation Boulevard came from Regional Construction out of Natchitoches at a cost of $141,385.
Ruston’s City Council also approved amending Article XI of Chapter 8 of the Code of Ordinances for the city of Ruston relating to building abatement while later in the meeting agreeing to give owners of property located at 1610 Branscome Street and 1200 MLK Dr. 30 days to fix or remove structures on those properties before the city moves forward with tearing the buildings down.
“Building abatement is the term we use for the process of condemning dangerous and dilapidated structures, which we bring to the City Council from time to time,” City Attorney Bill Carter said while explaining the ordinance amendments. “The purpose of these amendments to the ordinance is to streamline the language of the ordinance and align it with our current procedures.”
In other business, the City Council appointed Mike Kilgore and Jamie Cherry while also reappointing Doug Postel to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
One of the longest discussions of the meeting ended up in the agenda item being postponed.
It involved consideration of an ordinance to rezone property west of and adjoining South Farmerville Street south of Pleasant Hill Lane and north of Emerald Trace Drive from R1 to R3 in order for the applicant to construct retirement town homes on the property.
The Planning and Zoning Commission on May 19 approved recommending the rezoning to the City Council, but during a more than 15 discussion the Council moved to postpone the matter to find more information of the planned development, including what age is considered “senior” or retirement age
“My concern is it becoming another Cinnamon Square type situation where it becomes a dumping ground,” said Councilwoman Angela Mayfield. “I understand that we need more housing, I just don’t want something where it becomes just a dumping ground. When you say senior housing for 50 years old, to me, 50 isn’t a senior. I’m older than that.”
The discussion was postponed to allow time to find out if the planned development would be Section 8 housing and if the minimum age requirement be raised from 50 to 60. No representative from the planned developer was on hand to answer those questions during Monday evening’s meeting.
