City Council - Regular Meeting

tonight. Oh, I need this over here. Um, welcome. And this meeting is hereby called to order. I need a roll call. Councilman Lewis. Councilman Bushnell here. Councilman Roberts here. Councilman Enman here. Councilman Burrell here. Councilman Bodzford here. Councilman Barrell here. You can rise for a brief moment of silence which will be followed by the pledge of allegiance. And would Blake Bushnell please lead us in the pledge of

allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America to the stands nationy for all. Thank you, sir. Having no appears this evening, we have first the approval of the 2026 city council meeting calendar. I trust that has been reviewed. Are there any council comments? Any public comment hearing and seeing none, I'd like a motion to adopt. So moved. I need a second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilman Bushnell, yes. Councilman Roberts,

yes. Councilman Inman, yes. Councilman Burrell, yes. Councilman Bodford, yes. Councilman Barrett,

yes. Under our consent calendar this evening, we have regular meeting minutes of July 1st, 2025, an introduction of item number 2025-08-01, an ordinance of the city of Covington declaring surplus equipment owned by the city of Covington. That is followed by introduction of item number 2025-08-02, an ordinance of the city of Covington to amend the 2025 operating and capital budget. And finally, introduction of item number 2025-08-03, an ordinance of the city of Covington amending the official zoning map of the city of Covington to reszone a parcel of property situated in square 36 Connelly addition CN neighborhood commercial to CR regional commercial and providing for further matters in connection therewith. I need a motion to accept the consent calendar.

So move. I need a second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilman Roberts, yes. Councilman Enman, yes. Councilman Burrell, yes. Councilman Bodford, yes. Councilman Barrett, yes. Councilman Bushnell, yes.

Under our regular agenda, unfinished business, items to be voted on. Public hearing and action on item number 2025-07-01, an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of Covington to reszone lot 1A square 2904 division of New Covington, city of Covington from CN neighborhood commercial to ID institutional and providing for further matters in connection therewith. This is zoning case matter number 25-06-03 ZC. The sponsor is Councilman Lewis. Councilman Lewis is not here this evening. Is there someone else who would like to speak on this uh proposed legislation?

Yes. Yep. And and I will add that uh the zoning commission uh was in favor of a 4 to zero as well. Is there any public comment? Well, I will begin the council comments by saying that this is well needed and should be approved and I agree with Councilman Lewis uh sponsoring it. Are there any other council comments? Hearing none, I need a motion to close. So move. I need a second. Second. I would like a motion to adopt. And I need a second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilman Inman, yes. Councilman Barrell, yes. Councilman Bodford, yes. Council member Rhett, yes. Councilman Bushnell, yes. Councilman Robert,

yes. Moving on. Public hearing and action on item number 2025-07-02. [Music] Councilman Burrell. Uh, the owner has asked that we postpone discussion on this item. So, with that, I'd like to make a motion to table until September. I'll second it. Can we get a roll call? Councilman Brell? Yes. Councilman Bodford? Yes. Councilman Barrett? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts. Yes. Councilman, yes.

Public hearing and action on item number 2025-07-03. an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of Covington to reszone a partial of property situated in section 32 township 6 south range 11 east city of covington from ID which is institutional to RS2 a single family residential and providing for further matters in connection therewith this is in connection with zoning case number 25-06-05Z councilman Roberts

yes I I'll add to that as well with the zoning commission approving this 5 to zero. It's going to RS2 which are the bigger lots anyway. It's less congestion. It doesn't impede on anything. Uh it just makes sense to have it in that area. So I would ask y'all to support it, please. All right. Is there any public comment? Any further council comment? I'd like to uh close the public hearing. Can I get a motion? Motion. Uh use one of those as a second if that's okay. Yeah, I'll do a second. Uh, I need a motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. Can I get a second? Second. Roll call. Councilman Bosford? Yes. Councilman Barrett? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Bar?

Yes.

There are no items for discussion this evening, but we do have new business. Items to be voted on. Resolution number 2025-20 is a resolution of the Covington City Council authorizing the mayor to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with Covington Public Art Fund. As uh many of you know who have been around, the White Linen is a a very popular event and one that is well needed for our local businesses. One of the reasons we have White Linen is because in a dead summer ain't a lot going on. And um we have turned White Linen in a in addition to other communities into quite an affair. And to help defay the cost, a cooperative endeavor agreement to continue it seems to be appropriate and I'm therefore sponsoring and ask that it be approved. Is there any public comment? Are there's any further council comment? I have to agree. I think this is a huge economic boost for the city, especially at slow times for the dog days of summer. And uh I would hope that everybody would support this. It's a great idea.

All right. I will do a motion to accept and I will ask for a second. Second. Can I get a roll call? Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Enman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Bodford? Yes. Councilman Barrett?

Yes. Resolution number 2025-21, a resolution of the Covington City Council authorizing the mayor to execute an amended cooperative endeavor agreement with the St. Tamony Parish government for the purpose of completing acquisitions under the Louisiana Watershed Initiative Grant Program. We have uh Chris Brown with us this evening and I'd like him to make a few comments, but it looks like Rod really wants to make a comment. I hadn't seen activity like that in fly fishing. Rod, would you like to go first or Chris, you wanna?

Well, this is um a grant program that we've been participating in for the last couple of years. St. Tam Parish with in cooperation with St. Tamony and the Louisiana Watershed Initiative. What it's done so far is we've been able to acquire um several flood pl severe floodprone properties on Czech drive. this the the parish had additional money as part of that same grant program that became available. And what this is is adding four additional properties for them to negotiate with and to potentially purchase um that are contiguous to those properties on Czech drive. the these four properties actually front on West 21st Avenue and are equally as floodprone but are vacant and um so anyway that's

so the city will end up taking ownership but we intend to just let it go back to nature just like the other lots that were purchased under the same program. Good stuff. Public comment, council comment. Yeah, I just have one question. the buildings that are on there. Uh they will I guess the grant money will cover like I'm assuming that we're going to demolish them.

So the there were six properties or six houses that were on the on those properties. The parish has acquired those properties that actually had structures on them and has um demolished all but the one that has not agreed to sell yet. So um so yes and actually we with with this grant we were actually able to to eliminate three of the seven severe repetitive loss properties that are in the city. So we were actually able to almost mitigate half of the severe repetitive loss properties in the city.

So I have a real quick question by allowing this to go back to nature. Um, I know that we have our uh FEMA community credit score. Will this benefit in any way, shape, or form? Because it seems on the surface as though that it will. Yeah, we can we can absolutely take credit for and we do receive credit point credit toward the community rating system for um acquired property and and by by going back to mother nature, that should allow for, you know, some water retention. It should help out our neighbors in that area as well. Correct. Is that the idea behind it? I would besides besides in my in my non-engineered degree self or opinion I would say yes.

Mother nature's on our side for a change. I'm very happy about that. That's a good thing in my opinion. All right. Thank you, sir. I think a motion to accept would be appropriate. Can I get one? Can I get a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilman Verrett, yes. Councilman Bushnell, yes. Councilman Roberts, yes. Councilman Inman, yes. Councilman Burrell, yes. Councilman Boster, yes. We have now come to the ever popular comments and reports from council district and committee reports and I'm proud and pleased to announce that Councilman Lewis has joined us and we'll begin with District A.

Um, thank you guys. Uh, forgive me for my tardiness. Uh, traffic was not nice to me today, but um, District A has been doing good. I mean, everybody's buckling up, doing things on their own, coming together. Um, we've been creating a lot more organizations and groups and working in in joint ventures with the city and also within the community. So, we got a lot of things coming up. Um, just stay tuned to our Facebook page. And that's it. Thank you, sir. Uh, District B, Councilman Bush. Now,

District B, got a lot of good things going on. District B, looks like Covenant Point Drive is replacement resurfacing has been finished and uh want to thank the administration for adding those extra intersections. That was much needed. Much appreciated for that. Uh the people seem like they're happy. Also got the looks like the walking. You you want to repeat that last statement? What's that? The people seemed like they were happy. People seem very happy. Okay. We we all want to hear that every once in a while

as of now. So also the walking path by the train depot by the trail head beautifification is underway. Uh east Gibson drainage repairs and the ozone sewer repairs are also full swing. So just be aware of construction going on in those areas and possible rain and road lane and road closures. Uh I will try to keep everybody notified as possible. Also want to give a little congrats to a couple local high school young men that graduated. One Kate Anderson from St. Pauls and Mason Estrada of Covenant High are both getting selected in the MLB draft this past month. Congrats to them young men and their families. That's a great accomplishment. Also, school is back in session. Please be careful of your school zones. Slow down. Stay off your phones or you will get a ticket. Consider that your warning. Please join us for White Lon night as well, August 16th from 6:00 to 9:00. Great event. Plan on going myself. Hope to see y'all out there. you bring concerns to me and also remember to shop local.

Thank you, sir. District C. Yeah, I'm just going to keep it short and echo what Blake just said. Um, slow down. It's school time. Uh, it's important to pay attention. Uh, we do live in neighborhoods that have children and children need to be safe. People need to be safe. We had some changes in River Forest where we we removed some stop signs, put down some uh speed bumps, and knee-jerk reaction was, "Oh my god, and now it seems like it's okay. Okay, I've been out there. Everything's fine. But the truth is when school starts, those people aren't going to be aware of what changes are in place. You just need to slow down. It's easy to follow the law. Just do it. And that's it. I don't want to overtalk. Slow down. That's the theme for tonight.

Look, I heard it from Councilman Bushnell. And the way he said it, I'm going to make a comment too on so I best behavior. District D.

Thank you. Thank you. Look, we've gotten used to the summertime traffic pattern. Summer is no more. So once again, be mindful of your speed and surroundings. I don't we we all, you know, are aware of that. Sports seasons also kick off, whether it's C or D or CYSA. I think everybody involved in the local athletics, especially volunteer coaches. Just within district, we have the Lwigs and the Gories. That's who immediately comes to mind. I'm sure there are many others. I mean, in this council chamber, I can I can also point out there's some other coaches, whether it's uh coach Roberts or coach Bushnell from their past. Uh very important to to be active in the community. My lifetime, it was Huie Gallagher. That would be Huie Gallagher's heart. And of course, uh you know, the coach the coach that I looked up to the most, Jack Salter. Uh you know, these were not only my mo my role models, they were pillars of the community. So all of these people out here, they're molding the next generation because you never know who's going to be the next, you know, Kate Anderson or, you know, Mason Estrada. Uh, and lastly, and this one's going to hit a little a little closer here, uh, a social studies lesson. Uh, the Constitution allows for protest. If they're not disruptive, those protesting should be able to do so unabated. So, please leave them alone. Which brings me to a young man that I coached here in the community. That would be Mr. Jeremy Judice. In my estimation, he's gone undergone a character assassination. He in short, he is no fascist because that was what was mentioned. Labeling him so is a gross uh overexaggeration. It's unacceptable in my view. Doing so diminishes the actual term. I ask that rhetoric of this nature be be toned down. Covington is a wonderful place to live. Let's keep it that way. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. District E. All right, some highlights from District E. We talked about the Minetry boat launch for a long time. It uh opened, I want to say July 10th, thereabouts,

July 10th, July 11th, and it came out better than I could have hoped for, any of us could have hoped for. If you haven't seen it yet, get out there, take a look. It's something to be really proud of. Um the Bogafly disc golf course is complete as well. The signage is all up. I'll quit talking about it now, but uh y'all get out and check that out, too. And if you don't know what to do, hit me up. I'll take you out. We'll play. It'll be fun. Um same uh on road work, South New Hampshire repaving came out great. Smoothest street in the city that I'm aware of. Um the mayor's taking a different approach to this one. We had a lot of four-way stops. Every other uh intersection was a four-way stop and we had a speed bump and a speed table. Given the smoothness of the street, we're not disrupting that immediately. We're going to do some data collection and see what is warranted to allow for sort of speed mitigation going forward. So, everyone in the neighborhood loves the street. There's some concern around not having anything out there yet, but hopefully we can uh collect some good data and put the right things in there. Um, Rutland sewer repairs. If you've been in that area, you're well aware that Rutland is under construction at any given moment, any given stretch. Old road, old infrastructure, but uh those street repairs are coming after we get the infrastructure completed. Um, Joanne, cue the cue the the picture. So, this is a picture of the uh the Mason Lodge down by the um Columbia Street Landing. I don't know exactly when they put in this lighting at night. And there's a second picture, too. But I just think it's great looking. And uh this is just sort of a new introduction of an idea I'm going to be uh pitching and and bringing up a little bit more, but maybe trying to encourage some of our downtown businesses and and property owners to maybe help light up their their buildings in the evening. I think it's more inviting and just makes the city look nice. So, just an idea. More to come on that, but if you haven't seen that night, it's really pretty. Let's see. Uh CBA tomorrow night. I can't believe Dubai stole that one from me, but CBA at the coming beer garden. It's going to be a good one. Always is.

Um everybody talked about the school zones, so reiterate that. And then, uh thank you to our first responders in the summertime. It's hot. Officer Tup's back there in the the hot uniform. So, thank you for all y'all do and our fire department as well. And same goes to public works. They're out there weed eating, cutting the grass, and doing everything they do in this heat. It is not easy. So, thank them all. And I think that's it. Thank you, Councilman at large. All right. Uh, first off, like getting back on the uh South New Hampshire and stuff. I saw the new signs, the speeding equals speed bumps. I think that's uh very clear, you know. So, you have brand new road. Why do you want to go ahead? Why don't we want to go back and put bumps on them? And it's really going to come down. It's going to be the choice of the drivers.

Correct. the drivers are making their own choice. And I I I really feel good about we're going to collect that data and uh and and hopefully uh we can uh create a culture. I mean, just imagine if everyone drove the speed. Well, that's just silly talk. But if we could actually just get everyone to to go the speed limit, then we wouldn't have to have all these four-way stops and poles in the middle of the road and speed bumps and speed tables and all of that. It'd be so much easier if we just all slowed down. Yes, very much agreed. Um, also I would remind everybody the farmers markets on Wednesdays trail ahead on Saturdays behind us. Uh, my update for the uh food bank uh the July stats on average for July is 81 daily households. Total for July uh was 1,28 households. Uh summer stocks for kids was 818 distributed. New household registrations were 73 new household signups. comparison average for 2024 was 71 daily households. Uh so way up there. Total comparison for uh July of 2024, they only had 996 total. So, uh the needs are up. Uh I've seen stuff on the news about the national food banks and uh First Harvest and everything and their donations are way down. So, please if you can hold a food drive uh in your neighborhood, your businesses, anywhere you can do it, it would be greatly appreciated. Uh they have little boxes you can go pick up our little tubs and just put them out there and uh people can just drop off whatever. Um I know they would really appreciate that. Uh the noteworthy items is u 818 summer stock bags for kids were distributed in June. Each school-aged youth on a participant household account receive their own food pack at each pickup. Uh which is huge because we know like a lot of the kids the only time they really get some meals or decent meals is when they are in school. Thank

goodness that's back up. Uh distribution will continue through August. Uh summer months are typically leaner times for donations to schools, churches, food drives I said is greatly appreciated. Uh they're feeling the impacts uh at from the federal level uh from the USDA and uh they really just need your help. Community support is imperative uh for these things and these funds. Uh, summer months most needed items are applesauce, canned spinach, carrots, canned chicken, grits, cooking oil. That's it.

All right. I'd like to uh do a shout out first to the Covenant Police Department. Coffee with a cop. Uh, you can't ask for a better community involvement. I think anytime there's good interaction between the police department and its citizens is is obviously um warranted. And I think it I really want to stress that the people of Covington need to take advantage of the opportunity. They come to their elected officials and talk about the utopia that the mayor is referring to where no one's going to speed, but when they do speed, they see those guys. And my understanding is they're seeing those guys a little more often. Yes.

So, um, but anyway, kudos to the police department and the administration for supporting it. I think it needs to continue and I think it will grow. I don't think it's something that we need to count the numbers right now. That's my advice. Next, uh so the public understands, our budget process is well underway. The city's uh proposed budget by administration will be given to us on our September 9th council meeting. That will be followed by a councilonly workshop on September 25th of which the public is invited. And that will be followed by a budget workshop with administration and department heads on October 23rd. And hopefully if all goes well, as it has in the past on November 4th, we will adopt the budget and proceed forward with 2026. Uh with that, I would just say that um as Councilman Bushnell said, slow down. and we'd like to add one other.

Well, I'm I'm just realizing that the uh our September meeting is going to be on the second Tuesday, which I believe is the 9th, and then uh the never forget runwalk. I want to make sure I mention that because it's such a good event. So, um that's September 13th. So, September 13th, 7 to 12 at the trail head. Uh go to Facebook, never forget 5K, and uh come support our firefighters and and just remember what 911 was all about. And uh let's uh let's make sure to be there together. It's a great event, great opportunity to get out there, run, walk, crawl. I don't care how you do it. Just come do it and appreciate Thanks for reminding. Absolutely. Thank you.

I think that's that's a good reminder. Talking about fire, we are going to I'm going to ask that there be an increase in the city council budget to deal with some of the incessant fire uh alarms that go off and perhaps some bathroom improvements and audio improvements. So, that will be part of what we'll be asking as well. All right, turning it over to administration Mayor Mark Johnson.

Uh, thank you. Uh, as as council president Verrett mentioned, we are in the middle of the budget process. Uh, this week, um, I have been meeting with each department head and the director of every department, and we have been going line by line through their budgets, sending them back so they can bring it back to me. and uh and that process is tedious but uh but very important and so we're we're knocking that out this week. Uh across the city we have been quietly productive. Uh update on Bogafallayia Park bathrooms. I'm going back a couple of years ago. Uh we budgeted uh money for a engineering architect firm to design new bathrooms. The price for the new bathrooms came in at a quarter of a million dollars and they were still going to be crammed. And so we made that decision not to spend a quarter of a million dollars and have subsequently studied it and determined that the paint that was peeling off on the inside was only peeling off on the exterior walls, interior of the exterior walls. So we actually had that lead paint removed from each one of those walls, sealed it with a sealer, and then washed down the remaining paint, which was actually in good condition. We still need to do the floors and the inside of the doors, but uh it it uh it looks remarkably better. And it looks like a 1920s park pavilion bathroom, which is what it is. Uh we need more bathrooms out there for special events. That's a a readyone thing now with portallettes and trailers and air conditioned bathrooms. We don't have to provide a super duper bathroom uh seven days a week, 24 hours a day. So, I think we went from spending a quarter of a million to maybe spending less than 5,000. So, that's that's a good good move. Um, we have uh gotten the new color selection for Ellis's shell. I know some of you are going to be disappointed that we're going to

cover over that blue, but uh that is the plan and uh it's out for quotes. Now, um as you step out the council chambers, you look across the street, you can see that the police department annex has come up out of the ground. has been framed up and the roof sheeting has been put on. So, that's coming along nicely. Uh, Councilman Bushnell mentioned the Tam Trace beautifification project. Public works did an awesome job of installing drainage and doing the demolition work. Anytime we can do the work inhouse, we ser save 40 to 60% of what it would cost to have it contracted out. So, good job by public works. And now the landscape uh development company can come in and do what they do, which is which is their So, we're looking forward to that. Uh, tennis courts have been a little bit delayed. The original design called for the light standards, the poles to be with inside the slab of the tennis court, which was kind of a maybe not the best idea. So, we've re-engineered that to be moved outside of this the slab of the tennis court. And that's uh put us on a little bit of a delay. Um, and then at QB Gallagher, we completed our sandbox, which is uh we had a a little playground equipment that had a small slides and the drop off at the end of the slides was approximately equivalent to the height of the child that would be sliding down the slide. So, we had this idea to put landscape timbers around it, fill it with sand, so we shortened the drop off, and then we added sandbox toys like we did at Boga Fly Park. And it's fun to ride by and every day and see that they've moved around and there's somebody in there playing. Our next little public works in-house project will be shade sales, which we will be doing ourselves by putting poles into the ground, ordering the shade sales, and going over that little playground set and to see how we do with that project. Unquely productive. We mentioned Gibson and Rutland and the subsurface drainage

being replaced there. Huge projects. Kudos to uh Warner Construction that's doing that. I mean, they're just they're just going right down the street replacing that subsurface drainage. And uh hopefully we're going to get a nice little smooth streets there like we got on South New Hampshire and AT&T is currently running fiber throughout the city. Uh if they break a line in your area, please notify public works. Um we are on to both any of the fiber companies, not just picking on AT&T, but any of the fiber companies running fiber public works and and some of us were keeping an eye on them to make sure they clean up their mess after they they finish running their fiber. So, so that's something we have our eyes on. Uh we were also able uh post IDA, some of those companies had a lot of what I call aerial litter, which was wires hanging from telephone poles, abandoned PS, they just didn't take any of their trash out of the ground when they left uh post hurricane. So when they came in for a rightaway permit to run the fiber, our response was, "No, here's your list." And we handed them a list of 70, 80, 90 items that we require that they fix, clean up, or remove before we would give them a rightway permit in the city. So, uh, so we continue to do that and, uh, you may not notice it, but it was bothering me with the with the garbage, wires, and all that all over the city. So, um, all in all, we're, uh, we're doing good. Excellent. Anything else from administration?

Next Tuesday.

Excellent. She said sharette. I didn't know what it meant. I just shook my head. I've been married 30 years. It rhymes with Verette. All right, with that, anyone else?

See you next month.