By T. Scott Boatright
Before Monday’s Ruston City Council meeting, Mayor Ronny Walker announced that the city has been honored with a Community Achievement Award for Outstanding Community Improvement in Technology and Creativity from the Louisiana Municipal Association.
The Community Achievement Awards are presented each year at the LMA Annual Convention to municipalities that had outstanding projects promoting progress in municipal services during the past calendar year.
Municipalities are eligible to compete in four population tiers — 3,000 and under; 3,001-10,000; 10,001-25,000; and 25,001 and over.
Winning entries are recognized by the LMA, the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association, the Capital Region Planning Commission, the Louisiana Association of Planning and Development Districts, Louisiana Main Street, and the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal.
Each entry must be within one of the four categories:
- Basic Services (water, sewer, streets, municipal buildings, etc.)
- Community Development (public transportation, main street improvements, public building, parks and recreation, etc.)
- Economic Development (industrial parks, tourism, community promotion, workforce development, etc.)
- Technology and Creativity (Broadband, marketing, communication programs, proliferation of technology essentials, etc.)
“The creativity part was the design of the Monroe Street development project working with (Louisiana Tech University) and all,” Walker said. “The technology piece was the smart grid we have within that entire project area.”
Walker said LMA Awards are something Ruston has earned more often than not in recent years.
“I’ve been mayor for 11 years, we’ve won at least six, if not seven years,” Walker said. “We have to send them a video of the project. And we have to send a written description all about it.
“It’s pretty lengthy and takes about two months to put together the way they want it. Then they have a committee in Baton Rouge that reads each (application), watches the video and decides who wins what.”
Walker said earning the awards is something he’s proud of.
“For me, it’s a big deal because it’s being recognized by the Louisiana Municipal Association for something outstanding that we’ve done,” said Walker.
“In 2023 we won for animal control. The Sports Complex won one. And another city that won this year in the service area — public services like water, sewer and all that stuff — won because they came and looked at what we did 15 years ago at (our) Public Works where each department has a different building. They basically built the same thing we have here.”
Walker said one city won an award this year for painting its fire hydrants.
“The problem with that is, we have bands on our first hydrants that tell what capacity — what (water) pressure — they operate on,” Walker said. “So, when you start (painting them), we would lose those bands, which are really important and needed.
“But my wife immediately said that we ought to put the Bulldog Project up for an award. So, we’ll put that project up next year and see what happens.”
