By T. Scott Boatright
Approving seven resolutions and introducing a pair of others made up the bulk of a Ruston City Council meeting that took under a half hour to complete Monday evening inside the courtroom at City Hall.
One of the introduced ordinances is proposes granting Delta North Louisiana Gas Company, LCC, the right to construct, install and maintain facilities for the transportation, distribution and sale of gas in the municipality of Ruston and, for such purposes, to use and excavate in the public highways, streets, sidewalks, alleys squares, commons, grounds and other to enter into publicly-owned areas and levying a franchise (privilege tax for that purpose while the other is to set the date, time and place of regular meetings of the Board of Aldermen for the City of Ruston for the 2026 calendar year.
Those meetings have taken place at 5:30 p.m. the first Monday of every month unless being adjusted due to a holiday or another reason.
Both of those ordinances introduced during Monday’s meeting will be discussed and voted on during the City Council’s December meeting.
The first resolution approved during Monday’s meeting authorized the city to enter into a professional services agreement with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development ( LADOTD) for the state’s Interstate 20 interchange at Rough Edge Road project.
Mayor Ronny Walker said he hopes that the Rough Edge Road interchange project will come to fruition faster than the Tarbutton Road project did, jokingly giving Ruston Public Works Director John Freeman a timetable.
“The last interchange project for the city of Ruston took 28 years,” Walker said. “We’re trying to do this in a lot shorter (time period), maybe eight to 10 years. So John, I’m putting you on a time limit.”
Two other approved resolutions authorized the city of Ruston to enter into Professional Services Agreements with The Riley Company of Louisiana, Inc., for engineering services related to the 2027 Street Overlay/Reconstruction Project as well as for engineering services related to emergency generator installations.
“Some time back FEMA awarded monies for emergency generators placement at critical locations like lift stations, water wells and fire stations,” Freeman said. “One of the final things to do to put that application finally through and receive that funding is to do some site surveying and put all that together.”
Walker said the funding comes from monies dedicated to the city after the 2019 tornado that struck various parts of the city and Lincoln Parish.
“The city of Ruston paid for a grantwriter to write this for the entire parish,” Walker said. “We paid for that, the school board, the parish, Louisiana Tech, Grambling State, and I think Choudrant was involved — but anyway, we did one big grant instead of a bunch of smaller grants, so we’re looking forward to finally getting this done.”
Ruston’s City Council also passed a resolution authorizing the sale of damaged transformers as surplus movable property as well as the sale of scrap materials as surplus property, with Freeman calling both annual requests.
Also approved was a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a Professional Services Agreement with the Riley Company for engineering services related to sewer rehabilitation also related to the 2027 Street Overlay Program as well as another resolution authorizing Walker to execute an agreement with the LADOTD for Improvements at Ruston Regional Airport.
The Council also granted permission to start the property condemnation process for structures located at 217 Union Avenue and 705 Second Avenue.
Just before Monday’s City Council began, Walker recognized the Louisiana Center of the Blind for celebrating its 40th anniversary, calling LCB Executive Director Pam Allen to the front to read and present here with a proclamation honoring the occasion.
The Louisiana Center for the Blind was founded in 1985 in Ruston to provide residential training and support for blind individuals to gain skills for independent living. It grew rapidly, attracting students from across the nation and globe and moving from its original small location inside a small home on Bonner Street to its current site at 101 South Trenton.
