By T. Scott Boatright
During Thursday’s meeting for the month of November, Grambling’s City council approved a pair of motions expected to lead to improvements at two city parks.
The City Council authorized Mayor Alvin Bradley to sign all documents and pay requests for the Recreation Upgrades and Improvements appropriations project and also authorized Shuler Consulting Company to provide any more information required by the state of Louisiana in connection with that project.
That comes after the city of Grambling learned it had been awarded $100,000 from the state of Louisiana Act 461 of the 2025 R.L.S.
The funding will be used for Grambling City Park as well as the recreational sports park just east of City Hall on King Street, which is used for football and baseball and was formerly also used as a baseball field before a subdivision was built directly adjacent to it before baseballs started breaking windows.
“Those improvements may include things like new playground equipment, renovating the pavilion and bathrooms at City Park and hopefully will have enough left to renovate the bleachers and upgrade lighting at the junior recreational park and make some other improvements like fixing up the fences there.
“So, we are excited about receiving the $100,000 Sen. (Jay) Luneau helped us get for us. Maybe we’ll be able to start T-ball at the recreational park, anyway. It’s already used for football and soccer. Just giving our young parents something else locally to get their kids involved in is a great thing, whether it’s participating in extracurricular activities or coming to the park and play.”
Also approved was the city holiday schedule for 2026 as well as the Louisiana Compliance Questionnaire for the ending 2025 fiscal year.
Grambling’s City Council also introduced three ordinances to be discussed during next month’s meeting.
Two of those were introductions to amend the 2025 budget and another to adopt the proposed budget for 2026. A public hearing will be held at 5:45 p.m. before the Dec. 4 meeting for any input on the budget proposals.
The other approved introduction was for an ordinance providing the date, time and place of regular meetings for the City Council for the 2026 calendar year.
Grambling Public Works Director Eric Caldwell also gave advance warning of impending water shutoffs in order to add valves to city water lines to prevent full system shutoffs when needed in the future, adding that those upcoming shutoffs will not take place until January so as to not interfere with any the holiday season.
“The process means that we have to shut off the water and drain the system before adding the valves,” Caldwell said. “And when we do that, we have to issue boil advisories. So expect us to be under boil advisories off and on during this process.”
Caldwell said that once valves are added, when repair work is needed the shutoffs can be done in sections of the city as opposed to being a full city shutoff.
“We don’t want to interrupt anybody’s holiday, so we won’t be sending out notices about upcoming shutoffs or begin any of the work until after the new year begins,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell and Water Department Marjorie Prudhomme also talked about the city’s new water meters and some increased costs coming with them.
“I don’t think some people understand how accurate the new meters are,” Caldwell said. “These new meters measure water down to a tenth of a gallon, and if you have a drip, or a toilet that runs and you don’t hear anything but a little trickle, that meter is registering nonstop (use).
“That causes you to have more usage, and more usage calls for you to have a higher bill. So, be mindful and watchful. If you have a new meter, make sure you check your water system because I’ve gone into several homes that have seen increased water costs because water is overflowing in the tank. People don’t realize that we consider that a leak. Just because you don’t see water on the floor or coming out of a pipe, it’s still using water that the meters are going to require you to pay for.”
Prudhomme said another part of the problem that has caused surprise for people reading their water bills is because many of the old meters didn’t work, so those users were paying only the minimum cost to receive water.
“The registers on the meter tell how much water is being used,” Prudhomme said. “When the meter is dead, I have no way of billing correctly, so that’s why people have been getting a minimum bill. Whether you useit or not, you’re getting a minimum bill (on an old, broken meter) because there’s no way for me to tell how much water is being used.”
Caldwell also announced that a street dedication will be held at 10 a.m. Nov. at the intersection of MLK Avenue and the entrance to Lincoln Preparatory School to name that street Dr. Birdex Copeland Drive in honor of the late Grambling City Councilman and Lincoln Prep board member.
There were also two announcements involving Christmas.
The 2025 Grambling Christmas Toy Drive sponsored by the Grambling Joy Fund will be accepting toy dropoffs and financial donations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well as on Nov. 18-20 as well as Dec. 2-4 at the New Rocky Valley Baptist Church located at 2155 W. MLK, Jr. Ave. Dropoff times are from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on all of those days except for Nov. 11 when the hours will be extended until 8 p.m.
Toy Application Day is set for 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Nov. 11 while the Toy Distribution Day will be held from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Dec. 11.
