By T. Scott Boatright
Grambling’s City Council approved the hiring of eight new employees during its September meeting Thursday night inside the Community Room at City Hall.
The new hires are Ticorian Baker and Lloyd Lewis for the Public Works Department; Rena Duncan, DeAndre Evans and Alexio Jackson as dispatchers; and Keith Jackson, Robin James and Tramia Jackson for the Grambling Police Department.
All of the hires filled open positions.
The City Council also introduced an ordinance authorizing the issuance of no more than $1 million in taxable excess revenue bonds through the Department of Environmental Quality and providing for other matters in connection with the bonds.
Those funds will be used for sewer infrastructure work.
Grambling Mayor Alvin Bradley also highlighted the city’s peddler’s license ordinance in advance of Grambling State football games, especially GSU’s Homecoming weekend Oct. 3.
“We want to make sure to let the public know that we are enforcing our permits this year,” Bradley said. “Taxes have to be paid. Permits have to be published and displayed in a prominent area where it can be readily seen by any police officer or anyone that comes to inspect the sales area.”
Vendor permits cost $200 per year, but that does not include GSU’s Homecoming.
“The vendor permits for Homecoming are $500,” Bradley said.
During his report, Grambling Police Chief Tommy Clark said the public should not be surprised to see police officers from other municipalities helping the city during Grambling State football games.
“The Grambling Police Department is helping the GSU Police Department because they are extremely short-handed, but on top of that, we have police officers coming from surrounding agencies coming to assist,” Clark said. “When they are here, they have total authority from me to arrest or do whatever they need to do to protect the city. We do the same thing on the (GSU) campus.
“So, if you see a Coushatta PD vehicle on your street, don’t worry. It’s going to be handled appropriately and one of the supervisors will be getting with them to make sure the paperwork is correct. That’s the best way to do it. We want to keep the community safe. We can’t take any chances. With an event like that with 19 or 20 thousand fans here, we don’t want to get caught short.”
Public Works Director Eric Caldwell told the City Council and those in attendance that his department has successfully used the city’s new drive-by water meter system for two consecutive months.
“We were able to read the meters with information being inputted and we were able to utilize the installation of the new meters,” Caldwell said. “But I need the public’s help. Those who have received new meters, we’ve been having an issue with the contractor having a pipe come loose and leaking.
“So, when you cut your grass and get near your meter and feel wetness, call us. Because we’re not physically reading the meters, we won’t know there’s a leak. The sooner we know, the sooner we can report it to the contractor and get it repaired. The good news is that when you notify us and it’s an issue by the contractor, we make (bill) adjustments because we can’t charge you for something done by them. We’ve run into this a lot lately. In the past month, we’ve turned in, I think, 25 (leak reports) to them.”
Grambling Chamber of Commerce representative Barbara McIntyre made several announcements, including the Chamber’s annual banquet, which will be held Oct. 22 in the Black and Gold Room inside the Favrot Student Union at Grambling State University.
Those being honored are W.D. Walker and Santoria Black with the Dr. Rhoda Pruitt Special Recognition Award; Grambling City Council member DeVaria H. Ponton with the L.D. Land Government Award; Ray Winzer with the Young Entrepreneur Award; Greg “Big Coach” Williams with the R.W.E. Jones Education Award; Lincoln United Community Coalition with the Thelma Smith Williams Community Service Award; and Centric Credit Union with the A.D. Smith Business Award.
McIntyre also announced that Black Men in Purple, an HBCU Boosters initiative, and the City of Grambling will hold an event from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 19 at Grambling Memorial Park.
“It’s a truly comprehensive event,” McIntyre said. “We want people to come together and share their initiatives. There’s going to be free food and music with topics covering economic development, education enhancement, political and civic education. This is for all organizations to come set up a table. This kind of thing in this kind of election year.”
McIntyre also said the Grambling Branch of the NAACP will hold a meeting at 8 a.m. Saturday at New Rocky Valley Baptist Church about voter registration.
“We’re trying to figure out what we can do to get people to the polls,” McIntyre said. “Especially the young people. We’re finding out that a lot of times, they don’t know the issues. We’re trying to figure out how we can reverse the low turnout in our elections.”
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