By T. Scott Boatright
Ruston’s Board of Aldermen passed a resolution Monday night during the City Council’s October meeting at City Hall clearing the way for creation of a Chase Bank Operations Center.
That resolution agreed to a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement to be awarded contingent on the company’s creation of up to 200 full-time positions with average starting salaries of at least $50,000 annually in Lincoln Parish over a course of time.
The facility will be located somewhere along the north Frontage Road with the precise site to be determined over the next month or two.
Economic development attorney Mike Busada, who has worked with city officials on the project, called it a game-changing move for Ruston.
“This is an amazing project,” Busada said. “I do this kind of work all throughout the state and what this means and the significance of this project cannot be understated. The incentive package put forward is something that I believe will ensure that we get to this major project. It will have a huge impact economically while at the same time ensuring that all of the governmental entities will still receive significant financial benefits much higher than revenues right now being produced in that location.”
The 15-year sliding property tax abatement, as well as a 50 percent abatement on tax from construction equipment and an abatement of five years on sales taxes on computers and technology, will be dependent on the number of jobs created: starting at 25 percent for 0-24 jobs and capping at 75 percent for 151-200 jobs.
The Lincoln Parish School Board and Lincoln Parish Police Jury both agreed to support the tax breaks to encourage the project during special-called meetings last week.
Completion of the $30 million facility is projected to be done by the end of 2025.
“This has been a four-year odyssey I guess you could say,” said Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker. “We’ve been working on this a long time, so I’m glad to get it to this point.”
Ruston’s Board of Aldermen also passes resolutions authorizing the sale of scrap materials as well as damaged electrical transformers as surplus moveable property.
“If we’re able to have the transformers refurbished, we do that sometimes, too,” Walker said. “These are damaged beyond what we can use.”
The City Council also passed a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a professional services agreement with Riley Company of Louisiana, Inc., for engineering services related to Capital Project #203 Street Overlay Project.
John Freeman said the move was being made to get the engineering work done in advance of work expected to be approved as part of the 2024 as well as 2025.
That work includes any work needed for sewers located beneath the streets being worked on.
Lincoln Parish Police Juror Joe Henderson was in attendance at the City Council meeting and thanked the mayor and the council, saying that the work is planned to be done on streets in his district.
Henderson then listed the seven streets in his district he requested to be considered for the work.
• East Texas from Bonner to Farmerville
• All of Eastland to Clay to Martin Luther King, Jr.
• All of Jones Street
• All of Arlington to Bond
• East Mississippi from Farmerville to Bernard
• Farmerville from East Mississippi to Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Line Street from Arlington to Farmerville
“The mayor informed me that in this Capital Outlay play, six of these seven straights are going to be addressed by the engineering firm,” Henderson said.
And in their final order of business during the meeting, Ruston’s City Council agreed to introduce an ordinance to potentially amend sections of Chapter 24 of the Code of Ordinances of the city of Ruston relating to floodplain administration.
The ordinance will be discussed and possibly voted on during the City Council’s November meeting.
