By T. Scott Boatright
Fees for residential garbage pickup could see a 40% increase while a potential cooperative endeavor agreement could help bring a hotel to the grounds of the Ruston Sports Complex after a pair of ordinances were introduced during Monday evening’s Ruston City Council meeting for the month of June.
Those introduced ordinances will be discussed and potentially voted on during next month’s City Council meeting set for July 13.
As far as the proposed garbage fee increase that would up the cost from $6 to $10 monthly, Ruston hasn’t seen such a fee increase in 14 years.
According to a 2021 report by Moving.com, the national average cost for residential garbage pickup ranges from $25 to $100 per month, or roughly $300 to $1,200 annually.
Those costs generally fall toward the lower end — around $20 to $40 monthly — when services are bundled into local municipal utility bills or flat-rate contracts.
Also introduced during Monday’s City Council meeting was an ordinance that, if passed next month, could ask aldermen to consider allowing the city to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with Frontier America Regional Center Inc.
That CEA will reportedly specify terms for an agreement that would see the city sell 2.8 acres that sit between the entrance to the sports complex to the south and the Lagniappe Animal Clinic to the north.
Another ordinance introduced during the meeting, if passed next month, would create an economic “RPO” (old Ruston Post Office) development district for the Delta Biscuit Company slated to open in the former Federal Building on North Vienna Street across from the Dixie Center for the Arts.
Another ordinance introduced Monday is a notice of intent to consider allowing the new RPO economic development district — the Delta Biscuit Company establishment — to levy an additional 1.75% sales tax to cover renovation costs for turning the building into a restaurant. Once those costs have been covered, tax dollars derived from the RPO district tax will go to the city, depending on terms outlined in the CEA.
During the meeting, the Ruston City Council passed a “bookkeeping ordinance” authorizing the city to accept Ruston Downtown Revitalization Phase 6, U.S. 80, La. Highway 150 Lincoln Parish Project.
“This is a little housekeeping here,” said Public Works Director John Freeman. “Sometimes we worry that construction of a project takes a long time. Well, sometimes closing a project out and getting all of those pieces of paper to satisfy an audit can seem to take forever.
“So, we actually accepted this project in 2024. We were boxing things up with the DOTD (Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development) and they recognized that we had missed a step in getting this resolution stating what we did in 2024 on the books. That’s all this is. Accepting this project and certain portions of that to continue operating and maintenance.”
Mayor Ronny Walker pointed out there was more than one thing that needed to be tied up to put the matter on the books.
“For the record, we found where the DOTD had failed to finish something, too,” Walker said.
Ruston’s Board of Aldermen also passed resolutions authorizing execution of an equipment conditional sales lease agreement with Bank OZK, which bought out the old equipment leasing agency, and another authorizing the city to enter into a contract with P&L of Ouachita Inc. for $1,054,000 relating to the Ruston Regional Airport 10-unit T-Hangar Project.
“This will be 100% funded by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration),” Freeman said. “I was assured by the FAA this morning that the grant is in the process of resolution, so this resolution authorizing the mayor to sign that contract is contingent on that grant coming through.”
The City Council also agreed to give owners of property at 1207 Jones St. and 2001 Beech St. 30 days to rebuild or demolish blighted structures.
Owner of the 1207 Jones St. property, Ramona Gant, asked the council to give her more time to work out finances to renovate the structure, which she said had been basically destroyed in an act of arson two years ago.
Gant was asked why it took so long to respond to the abatement inquiry, and she said it was because she’s still working to come up with funding.
In a surprise moment during the public hearing portion concerning the 1207 Jones St. property, Bennie Sawyer told the City Council that she had offered to buy the property from Gant, but that Gant did not want to sell it.
Sawyer then said she was a grant-writing specialist from Seattle who grew up across the street from the 1207 Jones St. property and that she intends over the next 30 days to write a grant and receive funding for Gant to be able to demolish the existing structure and build a new one.
