City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the city of Covington's uh city council meeting June 3rd, 2025. This meeting is hereby called to order. May I get a roll call? Councilman Lewis, Councilman Bushnell here. Councilman Roberts here. Councilman Enman here. Council member Barrell here. Councilman Bodzford here. Council member Rep here. Would you please rise for a brief moment of silence which will be followed by the pledge of allegiance? And would Miss Gina Enman lead us in the pledge of allegiance. America stands one nationy and justice for all. Thank you. We have an appear this evening, Miss Lorena Hurley with summer reading at Peter Atkins Park. Councilman Bushna. Miss Hurley is an instructional coach at Covet Elementary and has uh organized a summer reading program for the PE kids of our community. So, I'll let her take it from there. Good evening, Mayor Johnson, members of the council, and the community. My name is Rainey Hurley, and I'm here on behalf of a group of local educators and volunteers to share an exciting initiative taking place this summer at Peter Atkins Park. Summer Story Time at the park. This event is designed to promote literacy, learning, and community engagement by offering free familyfriendly story sessions at our park two times this summer. On June 24th and July 22nd from 4 to 5:00 p.m., volunteer readers, including teachers, parents, and community members, will bring books to life for children of all ages. We will read under the pavilion at Peter Atkins Park, encourage

participation, and provide take-home activities to extend the learning experience. Our goal is to create a space where children can enjoy reading in a fun, relaxed outdoor setting while also connecting families and fostering a love of books that lasts a lifetime. We would love to include special guests to help kids see that reading is everyone does and enjoys. We would like to thank the city city council members for the support and ask for your continued help in spreading the word, providing space at the park and encouraging community involvement. Together, we can make this a summer to remember for the children of our city. Thank you. Thank you very much. When you sent your email out, you had four councilmen scramble within five minutes to get you a permit. That means it's a pretty good idea. Uh but it is. Thank you. I appreciate that. And absolutely. No, thank you. Uh anything we can do to help and assist as it moves along, please reach out to any of us. Okay. I will do. We are um I have a group of teachers from different schools that we're meeting on Monday and we're going to get a game plan and from that meeting I will reach out to you guys if we have any needs or resources that we might need. But excellent. We're gonna have that meeting and we'll discuss with you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. On our consent calendar this evening, we have regular meeting minutes 6, 2025, an introduction of item number 2025-06-01, an ordinance of the city of Covington to amend the 2025 operating and capital budget. I need a motion to accept the consent calendar. So move. I'd like a second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilman Bushnell, yes. Councilman Roberts, yes. Councilman Inman, yes.

Council member Barrell, yes. Councilman Bodsburg, yes. Councilman Barrett, yes. Under our regular agenda, unfinished business, items to be voted on, public hearing and action on item number 2025-05-01, an ordinance of the city of Covington to amend the 2025 operating and capital budget. Councilman Roberts. Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh you'll see on here we have an administrative increase for some Christmas decorations in a tour shuttle vehicle. Uh if you have any questions, I'm sure the mayor can address that with y'all. Then the halfyear salary for an additional police officer for traffic and then a capital funds project at 93,000 dollars. U the decrease to that the capital project is decreased out of our capital projects fund, but the other two are out of our general fund. You'll see that noted at the bottom there. Then any questions? Obviously, we're willing to answer whatever you need. I have a question. Uh, a constituent asked me when they had seen the agenda that we're adding a traffic officer. So, that means that at all times there'll be two traffic officers on duty. Three. And that includes accidents naturally throughout the city. Correct. So, we have someone else that is dealing with the numerous accidents that occur. Okay, that's that's fabulous. Yeah, I'll be happy to report that. Keep up the good work. And remember to have coffee with a cop. That's an awesome um awesome awesome deal you Well, you didn't tell me that. free donut. But I would encourage uh our our citizens to to take advantage of that opportunity. And as I appreciate it, it's not speeches. It's not u selling

anything. It's come and really talk and meet your cops. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Any public comment? Any further council comment hearing? None. I need a motion to close the public hearing. Motion to close. I'd like a second. Second. Motion to adopt is needed. Motion to adopt. I need a second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Bosford? Yes. Councilman Barrett? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Under new business, items to be voted on. Resolution number 2025-14, a resolution of the Covington City Council selecting the official journal for the city of Covington for a term of one year. Uh, the St. Tamony Farmer is our official journal and does an excellent job and I highly recommend that we u approve this resolution. Is there any public comment? Any council comment? Hearing none, I would like a motion to accept. So move. I would like a second. Second. Can I get a roll call? Councilman Enman? Yes. Council member Barrell? Yes. Councilman Bodford? Yes. Council member Rhett? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Moving on. Resolution number 2025-15, a resolution of the Covington City Council authorizing the mayor to execute a cooperative endeavor agreement with the state of Louisiana through the Department of Transportation and Development and City of Covington for modification of State Highway US 190B and Louisiana 21. I'm happy to say that the city of Coington has secured funding through the state of Louisiana. It's the capital outlay program in the amount of $3.2 $2 million for the modification. City of Covington will provide a local match in the amount of 25% of the total

project cost. A cooperative endeavor agreement between the state of Louisiana through DOTD and the city of Covington is required in order to authorize the project to proceed. Any administration comment? Any public comment? Any council comment? Hearing none, I would I'm going to make a motion to accept and I need a second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Brell, yes. Councilman Bosford, yes. Councilman Barrett, yes. Councilman Bushnell, yes. Councilman Roberts, yes. Councilman, yes. Moving on to comments and reports. Council District, District B. Just want to remind everybody to shop local, local farmers markets we have on Wednesday afternoons at trailhead and right here behind the council on Saturday. Uh little PSA. Please slow down in our neighborhood. Schools are out around our parks. Streets are more crowded with people walking foot traffic. Just just take the time to slow down. It's you're not going to get home any faster. And I also want to wish all the followers a happy father's day this month. And then uh hope everybody has a fourth happy fourth of July. Excellent. Thank you, sir. District C. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I'll keep it on the same notion as Councilman Bushnell there. U, just slow down. I want to say thank you to all the police officers that do what they do. It's not an easy task to keep up. U, I know we're a kind city, so we want to warn people and make sure they slow down, but at some point they got to start writing tickets and the tickets have been written and we know that that's happening and to see there's another traffic officer coming on board to help with that. That's all we need to hear. So, just slow down and do it for your own safety and for everybody else's safety as well. Other than that, happy summer. Hey, hey, here here. District D. All right, so I got a little laundry list. I'll get through it quickly, though. The library has a ton of things going on just in the next two

days. They've got story time uh at 9:30 followed by art time. Uh and then later on in the afternoon, nature on the go. Again, that's just tomorrow. The day after, um, it's Teen School of Rock, 2:30 to 3:30, and then they finish up the day with the Chafunky Playground. So, there's all kind of stuff going on. Reach out, um, and and research, uh, what appeals to you going on at the Covington, uh, library location. Uh, let's see, some district updates. Drainage. We have um, we've had a lot of progress on the ditch pond back uh, behind Lakewood Northshore. I do want to remind people that that drains a very large area. That would be 17th, 18th, uh, 19th, portions of East and West St. Mary, Inspiration, the village in Lakewood Northshore. That's a lot of homes that have an added degree of protection as a result of the city mucking out this pond and making sure that that drainage feature works properly. Uh, let's see. Um, 21st and Tyler, that's what we were voting on tonight, y'all. That is huge. I mean, I can't say it any more plainly than that. There's so many issues tied to that one location. Uh, a lot of through traffic that's going through neighborhoods that are trying to avoid that local. So, anything we can do to um, how can I say this? Get that process rolling. It's a wonderful thing for our community. And eventually, yes, we will go through a painful process when we eventually start it, but y'all look, it's got to be done. It impacts so many people. Um, and then last but not least, speed mitigation. Tonight, as you can tell, we have another officer out and about. Y'all, when there is an accident, we have officers on the scene that that basically are tied up. So, that's that's fewer officers that are available to to

supplement those officers out riding tickets. So adding one certainly, how can I say this? Will well hopefully cause people to at least have second thoughts about speeding through throughout the city. And uh let's see, banners around town. I do want to note this. Uh Justin Mle uh has been recognized by the city of Covington. It is veteran appreciation month. We just finished with Memorial Day. So uh I'm personally glad to see that. And last but not least, I do want to mention um we have a a fundraiser going on in Covington for uh Little Mighty Max Mlette. Um it's going to be um at St. Peter. There is music from 6:00 to 9:00 that night. There's going to be lunches served from 11 to 1, dinner from 5 to 8. If you need delivery, you can reach out for a meal, not for music. If you need delivery, reach out to Amy at [Music] 9852090428. That's 9852090428. So the question becomes, okay, what is this about? Well, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Uh it has since been removed. He's going into chemotherapy, and this is a way to offset the costs that are associated with that. I'm sure um this is a noble cause that many people can get behind. So, please consider doing so. Thank you. Thank you, District E. District E updates. All right. So, this Friday, the 6th, the Old Coington Neighborhood Association is hosting sort of a neighborhood get together at the Columbia Street Landing. Uh starts at six o'clock. It's essentially a potluck. Um come out, meet your neighbors that you may not have met yet and others involved with the neighborhood association and just uh have a good time. uh the Charles Richards band, a former district e interim uh councilman Sam Jberga, that's his band. He'll be

out there playing. So, should be a good time. Um let's see. Also, we've got some exciting additions in the in the district. The boat fly. We just installed thanks to public works. They did a fantastic job knocking this project out quickly. Um a disc golf course, nine-hole disc golf course. I've been out there three times and every time I've been out there, I've seen someone else playing. So, it's a good sign. Um, it's not completed completed yet. We've got the teapads in. We've got the baskets in, but we're working on signage. So, hopefully in the next few weeks or so, we'll have this thing completely wrapped up, ready to go for everybody. But totally open and able to play. You just have to sort of navigate on your own at this point. Um, the boat launch, it's coming along great on Fourth Street. Like the mayor says, we're not going to put a timeline on construction project, but uh I think we are a lot closer to the end than we are the beginning. So, I it'll be ready. I'm going to go out on a limb. I'll say by the end of the summer. Jesus. I retract that statement for the record. Retract that. Um anyway, again, yeah, no, happy Father's Day to everybody. Um happy 4th of July and uh just everyone stay safe out there and enjoy your summer and thanks to all the uh city employees are with us here. Thanks. Good stuff. Councilman and Lord. Yeah, I'd like to uh bring up the stats for the uh the food bank. Uh for May, uh 77 daily households, 93 daily boxes. Uh total for May, uh 1,75 households, 1,297 total boxes. New household registrations were 54. Uh comparison of May 24 was 69 daily households, 92 daily boxes. And for April of 24, it was 824 total households. 126 boxes. Uh the noteworthy thing is the summer stock distribution for kids has uh begun this week. U each school

aged youth on a participant household account receives their own food pack at each pickup uh location. Uh the shelves are lean during the summer months. Uh community support is imperative whether through food or funds. We encourage everyone to help as they can. Uh Every little bit adds up and keep their shelves stocked. Most needed items are applesauce, canned spinach or carrots and chicken, grits, and cooking oil. Uh, another thing is the American Legion Post 16 cruise into summer, June 20th, 5 to 8:00 p.m. It's a car show. Uh, they also do free military breakfast the second Tuesday of each month from 9 to 11:00 a.m. Uh, happy Father's Day to everybody out there. Sparks in the Park is June 28th from 5:30 to 9. And Thursday, June 5th, uh the coming community garden has a blueberry workshop from 5:30 to 6:30. That's right there by Pine View School. And lastly, uh the St. Tammy Health uh has uh men's health. June is men's health month and tomorrow at the beer garden uh on June 5th. uh from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. they have free ste uh screenings and it's for like skin cancer and they do a uh I think for your arteries and your neck and everything. It's all free. So come on out and take advantage of that through St. Tammy Health Systems. Thank you. All right. I want to do a shout out to Keep Coington Beautiful. I have been noticing the flowers as has my wife who is on now on me to do more in our yard because they have doing such a great job. But shout out to them. It is everywhere downtown if you look. I mean, they really do a great job and u shout out to them to do so. I've had a couple of calls about the fact that I may be acting mayor between June 8th and June 26th. I have informed everyone that if

they have not received what they have wanted to from Mayor Mark to get back with us on June 27th and that would be because I am only there June 8th through June 26th. Uh but thank you for the confidence of the of the administration and the council. Uh hopefully everything will go well and I think it will. So let's keep Coington rolling. Does administration have anything to add this evening? Uh yes. I'd like to uh first of all I'd like to uh thank Councilman Bureau for uh taking the lead on the disc golf course. Uh, obviously we don't have anybody in the city administration that has ever built a disc golf course before. What was the young man's name that designed it? Jackson Piconei. He was a senior at St. Paul's. A senior at St. Paul's. It was his idea. He designed it, did the layout at Bogafly Park, presented it to Councilman Bureau, who then uh took the lead with it, and it was really helpful. All public works had to do was provide the foundational support. So, excellent on that. In addition to that, public works is also in the process of demolishing the tennis courts and we've got a signed contract on that to have new courts built. So, we're looking forward to that. Uh they're also in the process of building dugouts at Ozone Field. You haven't seen those. Those have been formed up in roof and uh we'll have some fencing going around the back side of the dugout shortly. Yesterday, I signed a contract for the uh drainage work and paving overlay for phase one of downtown. This includes Gibson Street, Rutland, and uh Gibson and Rutland. Possible alternative contract on Abear. We're not quite there yet, but uh this is something that we has been long anticipated. Uh we've got a lot of subsurface drainage down there. That's a problem that's going to be repaired first and then we'll come back with the overlay. So, that's something for all of us to look forward to. Not

only the new street, but the the improved traffic gridlock downtown that we're probably going to experience during this construction. Also yesterday, I signed a contract for the repaving of South New Hampshire Street, uh, one of the bumpiest, rumbliest streets in the city. Um, that street has a speed table on it and it also has a speed bump. It is not my intention to replace those. They're going to come up. We're going to make the street smooth and if the drivers drive the speed limit, we won't put the bumps back. So, if we can just get our drivers to slow down and uh and drive the speed limit, we don't need to make streets smoother and then add bumps to them. So, uh so that's that's kind of our hope there. And um that's all I got. Thank you. Um how do I do on time? Anybody out there want to talk about anything? Well, with that being said, see you in July.