By T. Scott Boatright
Nothing was taken for granted during Thursday’s Grambling City Council meeting for the month of August.
At least not in terms of bringing in, or at least trying, needed funding assistance.
That’s because granting permission to apply for one grant while announcing the reception of two others were primary orders of business during the meeting held at Grambling City Hall.
During her financial report, City Treasurer Toni Jackson told the Council that the grant the city of Grambling has been awarded was a $50,000 LGAP (Louisiana Government Assistance Program) grant designated for street repairs.
LGAP is designed to fill the gaps where there are no federal or other state funds available to assist local governments with an identified high priority need.
Later in the meeting, Grambling Mayor Alvin Bradley said there was even more coming in addition to that LGAP grant.
“Ms. Jackson did say that we got a $50,000 assistance grant through LGAP,” Bradley said. “The governor has made that award to us. So that’s a good deal.
“We also got a matching grant through Keep Louisiana Beautiful in the amount of $10,000. Myself, along with Councilwoman (DeVaria) Ponton, made the application, and they accepted that application and awarded us. The letter said, “Congratulations, your application has been selected to receive the 2025-26 Keep Louisiana Beautiful grant.’”
Bradley said the notice from Keep Louisiana Beautiful indicated it is a reimbursement grant.
“We spend 10 grand, and they’ll reimburse us,” Bradley said. “So that’s a good deal. The Welcome to Grambling sign is on its way.”
Grambling’s City Council also approved a resolution recommended by City Engineer Heath Shuler of Shuler Consulting to apply to the Department of Environment Quality for yet another grant.
“Henry Shuler requested that we approve a resolution to give him permission to make an application for a grant for clean water,” Bradley said. “It is operated by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
“He’s going to make an application and according to his resolution the application will be for $1 million on behalf of the city. He’s going to make the application; however, we must wait until it’s approved by the Department of Environmental Quality. Once we are awarded, and that could be up to $1 million, then we’ll get together (to talk about what the grant could be used for).”
In other business, Grambling’s City Council conducted a pre-meeting public hearing before voting during the meeting to OK amendments to an ordinance involving grass cutting.”
Council Member John Brown introduced that amendment request during Grambling’s July City Council meeting.
The city of Grambling notifies property owners with out-of-control grass growth and if those property owners don’t cut their yards within a specified amount of time, the city’s Public Works department will cut it and charge the homeowners for those services.
“That ordinance has been around for years and hasn’t been changed even though the costs of those services have increased significantly, ” Brown said last month. “This will bring it all into alignment with the costs of doing so these days and specify who will perform those services.”
The approved amendments increase the cost for the city to cut a resident’s yard if the property owner doesn’t act on a request to do so and changes a couple of job titles to better specify roles involved with duties by Public Works employees.
“It’s a good ordinance,” Brown said. “We just changed a couple of job titles and some responsibilities. We also added some language, like vines and bush, to let people know we’re not going to cut their trees for them. We’re going to make sure we execute it and make sure we can take care of these problems moving forward.”
Brown said the job title changes in the amendments changes the title of Public Works Foreman to Public Works Director and City Clerk is now Administrative Assistant for Public Works. As far as the language, vines and bush were added to clean-up the city will do at a charge to the property owner and replaces the term “other growths” to keep such from being interpreted as trees.
Grambling’s City Council also received an Independent Auditor’s Report from CPA John Murray with LaPorte CPAs and Business Advisors.
“We gave an unmodified, or clean, opinion on the financial statements,” Murray told the Council. “We said the financial statements were submitted clearly in all material respects in accordance with general accounting principles for the year 2024.”
During his monthly report, Grambling Police Chief Tommy Clark warned that there will be a crackdown on drivers parking their vehicles in fire zones or in handicapped parking places without displaying a disabled driver’s notice hanging from a rearview mirror or designated on their license plate.
“We cannot pick and choose who to enforce this on — it’s across the board,” Clark said. “It’s zero tolerance. So, you can’t go to the ER and get a crutch and then park in a fire lane and go inside the Spring Market. You’ve got to pay a fee at the (Department of Motor Vehicles) and get your handicap plaque to park in a handicap spot.
“It’s got to be that way. I’m saying that because we must have zero tolerance when we get new (Grambling State University) students because they seem to constantly park in the fire lane so close to the door that no one can get inside the Dollar General. They pull straight up on the driveway between the handicap (spots). I just want to put it out there at the Council meeting because that is what has been going on for the last week or two.”
