City Council - Regular Meeting

Leading to order, Mr. Beeson, I would you lead us in the pledge. I'll do the prayer. Father, we come before you today asking you for guidance and wisdom, Father God. We come to you asking that you bless all the families here, that you will bless the mayor, his administration, bless all my fellow councilmen. Give us guidance and understanding, Father God. Today I come to you with a special prayer, Lord, that you watch down upon the Bilbo family. that you will bless them in their times of troubles and their times of sorrows, Lord, and that you will keep them in your loving arms. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Rene.

Mr. Bilbo. Mr. Young.

Here. Mr. Farley. Here.

at this time we're going to move a couple of items up first of all let me give you what we're

Deleting. We're deferring number one to June 17th, 2026. Number five to July 21st, I mean to July 1st, 2026. Six and eight to July 15th, 2026. And we pulled number 19. Again, deferred one to June 17th, 2026. Five to July 1st, 2026. Six and eight to July 15th, 2026. pool number 19 and we have two presentations and after the presentations we're going to move items agenda items number 22 and 23 to the top at this time we're going to have the Department of Transportation to come forward yes ma'am good evening good

My name is Patricia prebula. And I am the public information manager for the Calcasieu bridge project. I'm so excited about this project. We had our groundbreaking about a month ago. Right? Go back to the first slide. Having some technical difficulties. We're trying to merge different software programs, but I think we've got it. well while he's getting that um so thank you for inviting us here today um i have in the audience my boss paulo andrea he is our ceo for the calcasieu bridge partners sean lynn who's joining us from the louisiana bridge builders he is the procurement and stakeholder outreach director seth woods who will be presenting here in a little while as well he's a dotd district engineer administrator joining us also is gay nipper and she's the ovc project manager for the dotd And then we have John Giedros, who is the Public Information Manager for the LADOTD. There we got it, okay. Can you imagine we're here today? We're celebrating, and we have celebrated, a brand new, shiny, Calcasieu River Bridge. Since our ground groundbreaking last month, there has been an increase in activities. I'm sure you've seen it. And I'm not talking about the clearance bar over in Westlake. I'm sure Seth can give us an update on that, right? Okay, next slide. So this slide represents the project organization. This $2.3 billion project is a private-public partnership with the LADOTD at the top. They are the owner and will remain the owner of the new bridge upon completion. The developer is Calcasieu Bridge Partners. That partnership is made up of Aciona, Cicere, and Plenary. OVC works with the D O T D to make sure provisions of the contract are followed. The design bill contractor is a Louisiana bridge builders, which is a joint venture between a Siona and sincere. Next slide. Over the next few months, here are some of the key project areas, the work areas. The majority of the work is going to be conducted on the west side, like the Sampson Street exit, which is going to be a raised exit. Work will soon begin for ramp access to build a trestle for workers and hauling equipment on the west side and the east side. During this project, there will be 15 new bridges that will be constructed. Next slide. A new I-10-210 flyover ramp will be reconstructed. Traffic will be reduced to one lane. This will prepare us for the widening of I-10 to three lanes, matching what's currently on the west side, continuing east. The old flyover ramp will be demolished, and there's already visible work that's taken place on Pete Menino Road. Next slide. Construction of a new PPG drive westbound on-ramp will soon begin. I-10 mainline roadwork will also be visible in this area. Next slide. This is still on the west side of the interstate where we'll be installing barrier walls, installing a temporary overlay, and road widening on the mainline roadway. Next slide. Again, on the west side, don't feel cheated, okay? Because we're coming to your east side. The most significant will be the temporary closure of the PPG westbound ramp with a reroute to Highway 90. Notifications and traffic alerts will be sent out. Next slide. In this slide, we are clearing way for the new Calcasieu River Bridge. which is gonna be north of the existing bridge. A couple of older homes have already been demolished in Westlake, and a warehouse will be soon demolished. Next slide. Work will soon begin to install a new trestle for work crews and hauling equipment during construction. Next slide. This slide represents a closer look on the east side where a new access ramp and trestle work crews for the work crews and equipment. Next slide. Here are a couple more photos that show the access ramp and a staging area for barrier and concrete blocks. I want to turn the program over now to Seth Woods. He's with the DOTD and he's going to give an update on the relocation of the P66 pipe rack.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for letting us come today and give you an update on the project. I'm going to touch base on a few slides on some of the traffic impacts that we're going to see in the West Lake area. It is in the West Lake area, but I do know that a lot of the Lake Charles residents work in the West Lake area, and we just want everyone to be informed as it possible. So the drawing up here on the screen at the top right is a rendering, a graphic of the New Phillips 66 pipe rack that's going to be constructed. You can notice it's kind of hard to see from this distance, but the road that's diagonal starting at the top of the screen is Samson, the existing Samson Street. Across the bottom around number 14 is Horseshoe Boulevard across the bottom, the service road, okay, to kind of get your bearings. So everything shown in color is the new pipe rack that's going to be constructed. We start with number 10 is in the existing facility. Number 11 in the blue is a new pipe rack that's going to go over the existing railroad tracks. Whenever we get to number 12 in the green, that is new pipe racks that are going to be installed underneath the new I-10 roadway. We'll come out of the ground first. 13 and 14 will be new pipe racks. At the end of 14, it'll tie into existing pipe racks and go down to the port. The existing pipe racks between 10 and 14 are going to be removed completely. So this work began in December of 25. So we've been at it for about six months now. And if you've traveled over there, you can definitely see some of the progress that's been made. They've excavated for number 12. They have installed over 700 pile foundations throughout this new alignment. Those are installed and now they're pouring concrete and walls in the trench area for number 12 to be constructed. So I want to note that for you guys, that is, it's making good progress and we're staying on schedule. Patricia mentioned the crash beam. We did get some recent hits on that. The good news I can tell you is that if we're staying on schedule, that should be coming down in October. So whenever Number 12 is installed. We're going to come back and build a bridge over 12, and we'll open up the existing ramps. So we only have a few more months. If we can get through that, we'll be able to take that crash beam down and the detour down. Next slide, please. Some of the impacts that we're gonna see starting late next week, June 11th, throughout the summer are listed here on the screen. I'm gonna have a couple of slides where we'll get into some details, but I wanted y'all to note the dates that are gonna take place. There's gonna be some short-term night closures. So the modules for the pipe racks are gonna be built offsite, and then we're gonna move them onsite for install. And this is to speed up the schedule. So these dates are here. If you notice at the bottom of the screen, July 31st through August 24th, there's gonna be a long-term closure of the Horseshoe Boulevard. And I'll give you the exact location of that, but I want y'all to notice those dates. That is when school is gonna start. So it's going to overlap during that period. We have coordinated and communicated with Calcasieu School Board because we do have a school that is on the detour route. So that is taking place and we'll continue to communicate with them. All of these closures are going to be put out in press releases seven days in advance. So you'll see a press release coming out tomorrow with these dates, this information, and then we'll update that as time progresses throughout the summer as well. Next slide. This is just a graphic of the nighttime closures, those short-time closures. At the top right of the screen, you can see a star. And that's where the modulars are going to come in off the river. They're going to stage them right there on the riverbank. And they are going to move them into place. And the two red stars kind of at the bottom left of the screen is the stage where the final resting place of the modules will be. They're going to go down Samson, I'm sorry, Sulphur Avenue in front of the school, and then they'll come down Samson. So these moves will take place after 10 p.m. They're going to last probably three hours or so to make the move. But they're going to have police escorts as they do that. There's going to have flaggers, partial closures. So as they're moving, they'll close certain intersections and kind of walk the modules down the road. Yes, sir.

The pipe rack is coming in on modules, you're saying? Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Some of those modules, most of them are 22 feet wide, so about two travel lanes. And then some of them are up to 160 feet in length. So they're rather large. But they will be coming in at night, and they'll move them in place. So it's been a challenge to... Engineer and coordinate this between the existing i-10 road The developers new i-10 locations and then the existing pipe rack So there's been a lot of challenges to try and weave this in between everything that's going on out there But it's coming together. Well, and I think this summer we'll start to see the pieces go in Each each time something's moved in. Yes, sir next slide This is for the long-term closure. If you notice at the bottom of the screen, that's the South Service Road. That is the Horseshoe Boulevard. There's a small piece in there that is red. That is going to be a complete closure of Horseshoe Boulevard. So it's between Samson and Mike Hooks. And that's where the P-66 team is going to bring in a large crane that's going to be able to pick up the modules and set them in place. So that's going to be the closure location. The line in green is going to be the detour route that's going to be in place for a few weeks. um we're going to have message boards on there we're going to have all the orange signs construction signs things like that but as we've communicated with some of the businesses on mike hooks as well as the casino and the school board you know if there's issues with signage or people getting confused or lost we're 100 willing to take those complaints if y'all hear anything please let me know And we're going to add additional signage and messaging to make sure everything goes smoothly. So this will be in place for a few weeks. And as we said, school will kick off for that time period. So we are coordinating with them to give the buses out a little bit earlier for everyone to be aware of the routes that are going to be impacted. Yes, sir. Next slide. all right is there any other questions related to Westlake or some of those traffic impacts and again I want to remind you that we'll be sending out some press releases tomorrow to inform every one of that as well are you just traffic yes sir for this for this portion is there something I just want I'm just curious the the modules and all that work for ConocoPhillips is that part of the totality of the bridge cost No, sir. That is separate. That is a DOTD retained cost, expense, and risk. So that's why I'm out here today. The developer team is designing the bridge, building the bridge, and delivering all the things that Patricia talked about. The 15 other bridges are 100% Calcasieu Bridge Partners. The Department of Transportation kept the risk and responsibility for some of the utility relocations, and that's where the Piper Act came in. So we wanted to try and get some of that being designed, developed, and moved prior to the developer coming on, so that was something that's been in progress for a few years. Now we're seeing the actual construction take place, but DOTD has that responsibility.

So removing the old pipe racks, how is that going to take place? Is that simultaneously?

That will be as soon as the new pipe rack is installed. Yeah, the old one will start coming down. So we'll see the detour come down in October. Like I said, the new pipe racks will be installed by that time. But then Phillips is going to start getting those new pipe racks in service, and then they'll decommission and remove the existing.

Will it still be the same traffic when they're taking it out?

Yeah, there's going to be some traffic impacts. I don't know those dates right now. Like I said, it was going to go through 2027 on that before everything's decommissioned and removed. So we'll be coming back at some point to give you some impacts when that gets decommissioned. There's also other impacts that are going to continue to come out during the bridge construction. So as we develop the project, as the project starts coming out of the ground, I like to say, you're starting to see pile driving and things in the ground. But everything's going to start coming out of the ground. And there'll be some other impacts that you're going to see to traffic. And we'll just come back, and we're going to communicate those as they come up. But we will see some of those impacts in the Lake Charles side. Right now, Westlake has been the biggest impact due to the pipe wreck. But at some point, we'll see some progress on this side of the river as well. Any other questions? OK, I'd like to turn it over to Sean right now.

Thank you. Thank you, council, mayor, everybody that's joined us. My name's Sean Lynn. I'm the commercial and stakeholder director for Louisiana Bridge Builders, so we are the contractor. Can you go back to the previous slide? This is a really good slide for us. So we're concentrating on hiring locals. And so far, we've spent $98 million locally with subcontractors and vendors. And when we talk about regional, we talk about the rest of Louisiana and some southeastern Texas. And we've spent about $148 million. It says $145 million, but I think we're at $145 million. So somewhere in that area. So we've already made a lot of investment locally and we'll continue to do that. And you know, one of the things that I do for the project is we'll talk about in the next couple of slides is looking for local businesses, minority owned companies, DBs that want to work for us. And we'll be able to share that website so that people can go on that site and contact us. so just a quick question the difference in the lake charles westlake and sulfur and the regional is it because of the type of work that's needed there's some of that like for instance we have um you know a very large bridge builder that's going to come work for us we don't have a very large bridge builder in lake charles right but a lot of this the vendors i think we use uh Every local vendor I think has signed up with us at this time for bolts and nuts and wood and all the consumables that we typically use, but there'll be more. And remember, we're in competition right now with LNG, so it's really tough. There's a lot of folks working on LNG, so we're competing with those folks. Next slide. So I'm assuming that a majority of the folks in here were at the groundbreaking. It was a great day to celebrate us starting construction. And I think there's a few folks in here that attended and spoke at the function itself. Next slide. It made news all over the world, internationally. This is a very large project, especially for Louisiana. It's the largest P3 project ever done in Louisiana. So we're pretty proud of that. And we're celebrating the groundbreaking. Next slide. Okay, if you have your phone, take it out and scan the QR code. If you see lbbi10.com, that's who I work for, Louisiana Bridge Builders. If you have a small company or you know a company or you provide any services or goods, and it could be catering. I mean, we order lunch. Anything you could think of, we're utilizing on this project. And the other QR code is for the Calcasieu Bridge project, which... paulo and and patricia work for we all work together though let's make that uh any questions i have one it might be for the dot person so it ain't gonna be three lanes once you cross that bridge all the way to sulfur Well, it's already three lanes just west of 210, so it's going to tie in. And I'm assuming when the other project up to Sabine gets completed, it'll be three lanes all the way to 165, I think it is. Yeah.

So is there any plans to widen I-10 back and further? DLT? That would be a federal.

Three lanes? It's a federal project. Oh, it's a federal? Interstate's a federal.

Yes, sir. Like Sean said, it'll be three lanes from Texas to 165. So no plans going past 165 at this time.

OK.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, and I do have a few business cards on me, so you can collect those when I'm finished. Next slide. All right, I have a few things that I want to talk about. We have a mail-out regarding the removal of significant trees on the Lake Charles side. There's seven trees that'll be impacted, and we'll replace those trees with 195 trees. And I think June 14th, we're going to have a July 14th? Okay. We're going to have a public meeting regarding the project, and notifications will be sent out for that as well.

No historic trees in there, huh?

There's seven trees. Oak trees. Yeah, they're oak trees. So I don't believe they're historic trees, but they're well-respected trees. So any questions for us? Yes, sir?

The last slide on this presentation, do you have another one on?

Oh, let me.

They only had 19 on there.

That's okay. This is good? That's a good slide for everybody to see. Any questions? Thank you for your time, and I'll pass out some cards here.

Thank you. Do you want to take one? Yeah.

I have three cards left. Anybody want them?

Okay, moving forward. Mr. Cardone, is it a presentation before the actual item?

Yes, sir. Number 18, if you could just call it up, let them do the presentation. Can we vote on the minutes first?

Who? The minutes.

The minutes. Vote on the minutes first. Please vote on the minutes.

7-4.

All right, at this time we got another presentation from the parish.

All right, I appreciate the time. Alberto Galan, 1015 Piton Street in Lake Charles.

Alberto, before you get started, just to let the council know, that's going to be in reference to number 18. So that's what we'll be discussing.

Thank you. I appreciate it. We appreciate the time. I think this is a good opportunity to acknowledge a collaborative project that's not quite as big as the I-10 bridge project, but to the neighbors of the potential project, I think it'll be just as impactful, if not more important. And so this is related to originated when the parish applied for a grant from the Louisiana Watershed Initiative that was awarded. It did have success for a construction of a 14-acre basin. that is located at the Greenwich Terrace buyout site in order to repurpose that site to add additional drainage features as well as landscape and park amenities, passive park amenities to the neighbors of that buyout program so that they're not leaving with nothing, they're leaving with a place that's better off than it was before. The total project costs that are 100% grant funded and being managed by our grants team in coordination with our Division of Engineering and Public Works is a little over $12 million. So it's a $12 million basin that will be constructed there that is currently in the engineering and design process that is 100% grant funded. So that's good news. We're not asking for the city or the parish or anybody else to come up with that grant to construct the project. There are some ineligible costs and activities long term that we are asking to partner with the city and another entity as well. And that is for the acquisition costs of remaining properties within the buyout program that for various different reasons did not participate in the buyout program, whether it was because there was a lack of succession, unable to contact the property owners, a myriad of different reasons. related to just mainly lack of contact or inability to have a commitment with an owner or even a tenant at that point, which again, can't bind the property. So that acquisition costs we estimate to be $240,000 total, which we would request a split 50-50 between the city and the parish. So that one-time cost would be about $120,000 for the city's portion, again, of over a $12 million project. And then the long-term cost is the maintenance that we have to acknowledge as well. And for that, we are proposing a third split for the city to contribute a third towards the annual maintenance program, the parish to contribute a third, and the gravity drainage district to also contribute a third towards the maintenance of that program. And that annual maintenance cost is currently estimated to be a little under $120,000. So the request annually from each entity is about a $40,000 commitment for the maintenance of that basin. And the parish is currently poised to manage that contract in accordance with all of our other parks and facility services that are currently contracted under waste management. So again, not a large presentation like our state partners, but nonetheless an impactful one.

Mr. Gallant, I'm going to ask if you don't mind, if the council don't have, well, first of all, any questions for Mr. Gallant?

Are we going to deal with questions?

Well, that's what I'm asking. I have some questions. We have some questions for you, but we're going to need you to stay around in case some of these residents have some questions that we can't answer, if you don't mind. Sure. About the thing. But I want you to answer the council questions first. OK, perfect. You got any questions?

Well, I'm kind of maybe the reason you were here, because we weren't able to ask these questions when this first came up. And you answered the first one right off the bat. Why were these seven houses not part of the original buyout? And that was my big question about, Was there a lack of funding, a lack of contacts, or whatever? But they were eligible for it. Correct. In the geographic area of where this issue was.

Correct.

And were they offered more money to buy a program? Are we offering them more now? Do we know if they're all willing to sell now?

No. So these particular properties are due to, again, unable to contact and make that contact. The other properties that were eligible for the buyout program that took advantage of it, under the Louisiana Watershed Initiative program, they were eligible for, I believe, a 20% above market value for their property. So they were offered more than the market value of their property. The same would be made to these seven properties if we weren't able to contact them as well. And I know that we're committed to Again, maintaining that communication and attempting as many times as we can or as possible within the project timeline to try and make those contacts. But to date, through the state's efforts and our efforts, just have not been able to make that contact. It's not closed. It has not closed, but we have not been able to make that contact or that commitment, and we really need to move forward with this project.

We're going to move forward without those seven if we can.

Well, if those seven, if we're able to acquire the properties by traditional means and we're able to contact the property owners or get any form of communication, we would certainly explore expropriation. And again, we would request that the city be a part of that, which is part of that acquisition cost included, all inclusive.

Those are the questions. I have a question. Go ahead, Mr. Fonda. This project is going to be – like on Louisiana Avenue where it's sealed off, or it's going to be where you can just... That's a great question.

In terms of the size of the facility, of the structure, yes, it will be very similar in terms of the size to Louisiana Avenue. The difference between this one and Louisiana Avenue is that Louisiana Avenue is a wet bottom pond. This is proposed to be a dry bottom basin. uh which we feel is more suitable to this neighborhood because ultimately it can have landscaping walking paths be a very passive park for the neighbors to be able to walk through and not have to worry about uh you know wearing your rain boots every time you walk through the park so if it's blue sky times the design would facilitate a dry bottom uh but again during a heavy rainstorm a 50 100 year storm that that'll flood that pond until it dries out for for public use

During the heavy rain, we'll be able to just seal it off, close it off where public can't go.

Yes, so there'll be structures to where, oh, the fencing and security. Yes, absolutely. Just like a lot of our other park facilities, depending on where, and again, this is all still in design phase, but depending on where it's facing, we do anticipate fencing, inward facing lighting and things like that and security features to ensure that it's protected.

So in dry times, eventually we have a park, another park.

Yeah, so in blue sky times and dry times, the neighbors should be able to walk outside their door and walk through the park during their leisure time. And during the wet times, it'll provide that asset to the community and drainage benefit as well. Understand that they have a park like that in Houston with one of the recent big floods they They said the park was designed Yes, so this is not a new concept to a lot of other major metro areas But we are incorporating those those kinds of structures and facilities here in the parish across the parish not just in the city of Lake Charles we've got a lot of a lot of a few other ponds that are in design currently under separate program a separate grant program as well as looking at bonds that we can fund here locally to really boost that that uh that those drainage features because like you said this is not new to other areas we're just trying to bring that here here here to lake charles and my my only uh comment is that the public has been asking me what's going on over there and i couldn't explain it at all well uh right now it's buy out buy out demolitions it's the ugly part of a part of what has to happen but ultimately if this project doesn't happen what would happen to that to that property is just it would be just green space it wouldn't have it that added drainage benefit wouldn't have the added uh landscape and aesthetic benefit uh walking path benefit and so with this project we're able to take what was a good project in terms of a buyout that will provide a drainage benefit and make it a more exponentially higher benefit from a drainage perspective, but really try and make it a feature for the neighborhood.

Thank you. Who will there be parking?

So the current design right now does not include parking because again, it's in the middle of a neighborhood. So we don't want to create a big traffic situation for the neighbors and things like that. You know, if it was on the edge of the neighborhood facing, you know, say a Highway 14 area, that might be a little bit of a different story. But due to the location of where the pond is going to be in the current buyout program, it really didn't facilitate too much of an active recreational kind of park.

Well, I would ask that at the very least you do some, consider some parallel parking, because if you got, if it's gonna be a walking area where you can go and walk around and sit out there, you're gonna, might have some problems with people parking in people's yards or different things like that or blocking the street. So we had a couple of parallel parks that you can do that might help.

Yeah, we'll absolutely take a look at ensuring that somebody that comes in will have an opportunity to utilize the park as well.

The other thing is what happened to the money? If all of those houses were part of what were eligible for the buyout program, but now you're short, how does it become short with those seven houses that's left?

So what was granted in eligible activities is that $12 million grant from the Louisiana Watershed Initiative for the actual construction of the basin. As I understand the program, that is not an eligible activity under the Louisiana Watershed Initiative buying out property. The acquisition of the remaining properties, which will likely come from expropriation process, is not eligible under the Louisiana Watershed Initiative, even if there is extra money.

I understand it's not eligible for this money that's coming, but the previous money, if all of those people had agreed to sell their houses, what would have happened?

So currently any extra money is housed at the state. So this buyout is not a parish run program. It's a state run program. So I'd have to ask the state about where that money is being redistributed.

So we couldn't submit to them to buy out those houses?

Because we've asked if this program will make that happen, I'll let our grants director answer that probably a little bit better than I can. But no, as I understand it, we couldn't ask for that for the acquisition. But I'll let Jennifer come in.

I'm Jennifer Cobian, Grants Director at the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury. The state allocated $30 million for the buyout program, and they've utilized all $30 million for the buyout program. Go ahead.

So the houses that they've purchased totaled up $30 million?

Correct. They've acquired 120 structures and have about 11 more to wrap up.

I hadn't been back there, but 240,000 is going to get all seven of those houses?

So these are seven structure seven parcels and four of them are vacant. They were condemned and demolished. So they are vacant lots. There are three lots with structures on two which for sure look abandoned and possibly condemnable. One we're not real certain on.

Okay. The other thing is who, you said it was going to be, Alberta, you said it was going to be sort of like a park. Who's going to control that park? Is it going to be the city or the parish?

Well, as it stands right now, the current ownership proposal is for the parish to own it. However, we're certainly open to transferring ownership if the city is open to take care of that part.

I'm talking about like for our parks and recreation, we go around and we unlock those parks and we close those parks. Is that going to be a city issue or a parish issue?

I think because we're asking for a partnership, especially on the maintenance side of things, I think that's going to be something that we work out together with the city and the parish to make sure that we both have adequate access and ability to make sure that we can get into the park as needed. Or if you've got programming that the parish is not a part of that can utilize that park, I think it's something that's going to be in conjunction so all partners would have access to that park in some way, shape, or form that we can all agree to.

So you liken this to the one on – enterprise, but isn't the gates controlled from somewhere? Would those gates be controlled?

Yeah, so we do have access controls to that structure. It mainly follows our other park hours, and that's mainly not just to protect the asset, but to protect the public as well. So I would envision the same kind of park hours as well, with the access being available to multiple parties.

So in the time of a flood, and it gets to the point to where we need to let some water out, the city will also have access to that to go in and do that?

Well, I'll let our engineer maybe come up and answer that in terms of how the actual weed of the ebb and flow is, but those structures should be automatic. There's no manual flipping on and off of it. Louisiana Avenue, it ebbs and flows naturally.

So they said on the timer?

No, it flows naturally through the gravity drainage system.

OK. Hey, Jennifer Hobbs, Calcasieu Parish Engineering Bridge and Drainage Engineer. Yes, so Louisiana Avenue pond works a little bit differently than this one's going to work. But they both have weir structures, essentially. So when contraband by you at LA Avenue, gets to a certain level in that tributary. Water falls into LA Avenue. It holds it. So you have control structures at the bottom. And part of how LA Avenue works is we can draw the water down that's currently in there. So if we know major storms are coming, we can draw the water down further and even create more volume. Greenwich Terrace is dry bottom, it's not gonna work the same way, but essentially it's gonna be a weir structure, so when Coyote gets to a certain level, water will fall into that pond. We'll have these outflow structures that'll be closed, so it'll have a pressurized closed system, but it'll be passive. So whenever Coyote gets to a certain level where it can accept that water back in, it will slowly draw that water back down from the basin.

So just for clarity, Louisiana Avenue is gonna dump into the terrace? Does it go from Louisiana Avenue to the Terrace? No. Or the Terrace picks up a whole other water?

No, it's two different water systems. I was just explaining how Louisiana Avenue works versus how Greenwich Terrace will work.

But I'm saying the flow of the water, like when it's flowing and it goes to wherever it's going, Coyote Cooley, wherever it's going, that's not on the path like the Oak Park lateral.

The Oak Park lateral does feed into Coyote Cooley, but Louisiana Avenue is a separate system.

the contraband by you sorry as a separate yes and I just want to know that because when we get calls and flooding we need to be able to tell those people you know hey you flooding for something else not that right yeah and it's yeah drainage is complicated that's my question with drainage

you you handle all the drainage with alongside with the grab gravity drainage so the gravity drainage district is a special district through calcasu parish we work with them a lot for a lot of what they do on the east side and the west side so district one to district two which is on the east side which mostly affects uh lake charles residents so we work with them a lot in different partnerships but uh yes we kind of oversee everything that's going on and we have coordination meetings constantly in fact the city

within those coordination meetings as well so I have some some some people ask questions they know when the pumps turn on they can tell the water drains when the pumps turn on now what that mean I don't know but they drill me over them and I don't have a clue and I'm not asking y'all to answer that right now I just want to know where to go to to find that information

the drainage district drainage district 2 would would have that information they're the ones that work on those pump stations so now that you said about drink gravity drainage gravity drainage is not funded by the parish they have their own funding source thank you yes sir that that they do have their own village

Correct.

And so we have issues with gravity drainage, like cleaning the laterals in the terrace, those different things like that. That's not a Paris issue. We can go directly to them and they should have the funds.

I know you can't answer that. I can't answer that. For the district.

Mr. Fundale, that's the person we go to or the place we go to.

For the lateral system, yes. Now, we can certainly help and facilitate that. I'd be more than happy to help. But when it comes to the actual responsibility of the lateral system, it is directly under the gravity drainage system. That's what I want you to know.

You have a card and you have cards. Yes, sir.

And who is the new director? I know that Mike has probably been a couple years with the retirement. Who's the new director?

The new director, I believe, is Greg LaFleur.

Any other questions?

I'm sure we got a lot of people, the terrorists here, and most of their questions is going to be whether or not we're going to need any streets past General Moore or the west side of General Moore as far as we're going to get. That's what the main concern is because I rolled back there and I saw the houses that's empty and I saw the lots that's empty and you got about three houses but they main concern is the ones that live east side west side of General Moore closer to highway 14 would they be including this buyout eventually or this is this is it well well folks on the west side of General Moore

could have participated in the buyout. They were invited already to the buyout. But for the state buyout. For ours, no. The project area ends on the east side of General Moore. And it's not going to go into it. We really took into consideration structures that were remaining, homes that were remaining, owner-occupied homes that were remaining. And so when those several properties didn't participate, we cut it off before then.

Excuse me. Could we get a picture of the road that we're talking about? Yes. I just thought about that. I need to make sure. Which road is it?

general moore in the meantime the hundred and 124 000 that you're asking from for the city our portion of it if and under what grounds do we get that money back if it doesn't cost that full amount of our estimate so it i would say it up to um so it's more of a division so for the acquisition it's um

Are we doing 50-50?

50% of the acquisition costs and then for the maintenance, one-third of the acquisition costs up to those amounts.

Okay. That should be how the ordinance is worded. What's the amount?

Is it General Moore?

I don't know.

It's General Moore. In the meantime, while they're looking, if y'all don't mind, we can move on to the item and if there's any questions. Okay? We're moving to number 18. Number 18 will be moved up. An ordinance authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and the Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 2 East Calcasieu Parish to share in the costs of the Greenwich Terrace Buyout Initiative. We have a couple of cards in reference to that. Mr. Paul Geary.

Mr. Paul Geary, 2205 Highway 14. I got a couple of some questions about this. First of all, community matters to me. I got a problem with this bio. First of all, I'm seeing it coming inside the city to solve this problem. It's the development what's causing these problems. So they building on top of each other. So where the hell the water gonna go? Where's the water gonna go? To me, I brought this up about a couple of years ago. We need a buffer zone like about 20 acres in between each one of these developments. Then you gotta be concerned about the animals out there. So we just building, building, building. So you come in and move right over. And the way I seen that bio from the state, the whole terrace, all 500 houses is on that bio. That's a whole community you relocate. Where they gonna go? For that kind of money, what they gonna get paid? Where they gonna buy it? We gonna lose, that's gonna weaken our district too. That's another thing to look at our voting district. Could possibly protect the whole city. They could move outside the city. We better look at a lot of, they got a lot of colors to this deal. I think y'all should have delayed this vote. Let's get a little more information to the people before y'all make the one-time decision just based on the night. To me, that's not enough. I got a question for the parish. With these co-op and debit agreements, how many have they did in that district before? And, you know, in the central, A, B, C, central. How many co-ops? I got to ask the parents that.

You're talking about as far as these retention funds?

No, not retention funds. Them co-op and debit agreements. When they do combine to do, you know, certain things. Like with the school board. Oh, okay, okay, I got you. That's what I'm asking them. Y'all can't answer that.

Mr. Gallant?

And your question is how many cooperative endeavor agreements we entered?

We've been in this area, y'all have participated in.

Since I've been in my position, at least dozens. Central, AV. What's that?

I know they had it during the $90 million bond on McNeese Street, y'all combined efforts. But I never heard nothing in this area. One minute remaining. Cooperative endeavor agreements that benefit that community.

Yes, sir. We've had cooperative endeavor agreements. We have active cooperative endeavor agreements. And we have proposed future cooperative endeavor agreements as well.

What I'm talking about now, y'all coming out to say bio, but y'all wasn't there before. And then y'all blaming it on the weather. They got a lot of effect in this flood. Now y'all never said nothing about Missouri Pacific lateral. That's where the drain come from downtown here. It's coming back down through that chute, right? Then it's draining from the east. It's coming partially from the south. So here, you're gonna have a problem. And one thing about drainage, I'm not just a layman speaking. Somebody got the flood to save the rest. And our proposal is for this. I think the sea level is like three to seven foot in the terrace. Where I'm at is 16 foot above. So if I flood, I'm going to have a problem. And that's what I'm basically looking at.

The time has expired.

Thank you. He never answered my question. He said there were dozens of them. No, he said dozens of them. I'm talking about before now. Now y'all coming on the latter end after the governor came in with them 30 million, would have y'all done before. That's what I was asking. That'd benefit that community and that co-op.

I feel like that happens yearly, if not more often than not.

All right. I just wish y'all were the ladies, man. They got a lot of colors on them.

It's Jeannie Blaney. She's not here?

Donald Hanchett state your name and address for the rest Mr. Hanchett yes um Donald Hanchett 2823 General Collins Street Lake Charles um I participated in the elevation phase of it it was either to buy out the elevation and I choose I chose to go ahead and have my home elevated It was elevated five feet. The federal government brought in, through the state, $300 million on that first phase when we met at the Civic Center. They said they were ready to go in about two to three months. I didn't get my home raised till about a year and a half after that, after calling the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury. I called every month and then I start going up there about at least every two weeks until finally I had one of my cousins that was driving for Uber Eats. I went up and got a list of all the homes that was raised. and there wasn't any homes bought in the Terrace at that time or elevated. My home is the only home that's elevated on General Collins Street. They had over 300 people at that meeting at the Civic Center. My neighbor across the street, he's been working with his son to try and have his home elevated for five years now or three and a half years now, put it like three and a half years now. Ms. Janice? Jennifer. Jennifer gave me that list of homes that was elevated and in a buyout, but I wanted to know the homes that was being elevated because I wanted to keep my parents home because they worked too hard and both of them are deceased now. And they left it to me and my brothers.

One minute remaining.

I'm going to need more time, but... Then the federal government came back and gave $200 million. Then they came back and gave another over $200 million. Where's all that money going? I know it was for the gravity drainage board, elevation, and buyouts. The Corps of Engineers want to raise 1,000 homes here in Calcasieu Parish. Under the old administration, under Nick Hunter, Nick Hunter, the city of Lake Charles, was in charge of that, the first phase of it. Instead, they put it over to the, they shared it with the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury. The Calcasieu Police Jury took it over with the elevation phase of it. The Gravity Drainage Board is a whole different.

Time has expired.

I need more time.

Mr. Hancher, do you need about two more minutes? At least. Okay, can we both give Mr. Hancher two more minutes?

They're talking about buying out seven homes or these homes that's on the backside of General Moore Street. These homes, I was raised here. We moved here when I was three years old in the terrace. I was three years old in 1967. I'm 61 years old now. And I know all these people. I know all the people that then died since Lower Delta hit. I've been contacted FEMA twice. They said I have to carry, the police jury said I have to carry the flood insurance on my home. FEMA told me, I live in zone X. They pulled me up on the map while I'm talking to them on the phone. I said, correct. They said, you had your home elevated through the grant. You don't have to pay back a grant. I said, correct. I know that. That's what I'm calling about. Now they're telling me, the police are telling me, that I have to carry the flood insurance. I'm not carrying flood insurance. When I went to them to talk to them about this two years ago, When I mentioned, well, I might have to get in touch with a lawyer, no one wanted to talk to me after that. They just flat stopped talking to me. But since then, I have been talking to an attorney, and they're looking into it. And as, like I said, FEMA said, I don't have to carry flood insurance. If my home flood, like the other gentleman said, the city's gone. There's no coming back. We lost 89,000 people from Lower Delta. We're losing voters. We're losing the electoral votes in the state. That's from New Orleans to here.

Time has expired.

I really need more time.

Well, Mr. Hanson, you're going to.

I understand.

I'll give you two more minutes.

OK.

I just want to know where. Mr. Hanson, two more minutes. Please vote.

All of this money, they want the city to go into an agreement with them to share this expense. But an audit needs to be taken. Where's all this money gone? Hundreds of millions of dollars has just disappeared. This doesn't make any sense. For the city and the taxpayers, each and every one of us have to come up with money to keep a program going where the federal government, which we pay tax into already, have to come back and pay more taxes and then have to carry flood insurance when you get your home elevated. I've been riding around the city looking at homes that's been elevated. and like I said there's four my home is the only home on my block on General Collins that's been elevated two homes on the block behind my house and one home on General Doolittle that's it in the car shop there's four homes I think that was elevated one home is elevated eight feet at least um Before y'all take a vote on this, it needs to go through a really microscope to see where this money has gone and get with FEMA again to find out this is grant money. Grant money's not supposed to be paid back. That's a grant. I applied for several grants and I received these grants that I got. It's sad that they're coming and asking for that money when they don't know where the money's at. And it's up to our city councilman, our parish, the police jury, to find that money.

Time is expired.

Thank you, Mr. Hatchison. Thank you.

Mr. Gallant, if you don't mind coming back up. Mr. Hansen stated that floods on x, do they have? Why do they have to have flood insurance and they elevate?

But if Yeah, if FEMA as part of the grant requirements for for anyone who signs up for the grant, you've got to obtain and maintain flood insurance in perpetuity if they elevate your home. As a FEMA rule, that was part of the grant paperwork that was voluntarily signed. That's a requirement of the grant. Having flood insurance or not needing flood insurance because you're in an X zone is a NFIP issue with your mortgage. So yeah, your mortgage won't require it. FEMA's requiring it.

OK. So that's required before you even take the elevation? Correct. OK. Got you.

OK. I got you. get her to show us on the map where we're talking about the houses to be bought out is that general moore right there yes sir okay so

is on which side so what you're looking at right here would be the boundary the project boundary so on the uh east side which is the right side of the screen that's where the project would begin okay um so if you pan towards the east there's um one structure that is that is standing uh that is one of these seven structures okay okay miss miss carrie withers

Please state your name and address for the record.

Care Withers. I live at 2729 Nodgin, Wainwright, Lake Charles, Louisiana, 70615. Our question was similar to what Mr. Hatcher said. Back then when they were doing the buyout, it had three phases. Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3. They haven't even finished with Phase 1. And the people thought that the state had enough money to do the buyout for that whole community, but we were wondering, where is the money? They're asking y'all to come in and help them to do a retention pond. That was supposed to be part of the plan also with the money that they receive. So the community want to know what's going on.

So when the state rolled out the LWI buyout program in 2021, they because it is the Greenwich Terrace as 575 structures approximately, but they only had enough funding for approximately 90 buyouts. So they had us identify that area that would be priority one. And they said should additional money become available? What would what would priority two and priority three? where would those areas be? So those were identified, and they were presented, but there's never been any money other than priority one, and then the excess from priority one, we were able to go into priority two, just road by road, you know, like a grid.

So it was never from the beginning, it was never a one, two, three. Correct. It was one, and if we have more money, two, and if we have more money, three. Correct. Yes, sir. Any other questions? Now Mr. Gallant, I would ask that, can you explain the difference, if there's a difference between what the state did and what y'all doing?

Yeah, so the actual buyout program itself, the phase one, two, three, whatever phase it is you are in or not in, that is fully run by the state, funded by the state. This is strictly requesting for the tension pond itself, not any contribution towards the state's buyout program. This is strictly a $12 million investment through a grant. So those are state dollars coming down, federal dollars coming through the state to be invested. So it's $12 million, and that's why we felt that $120,000 initial capital investment each by the parish and the city was more than reasonable of a requirement.

So help me to understand, when all of this took place, was that part of the original plan?

Of the original buyout plan?

No, no. Whatever you were going to do in that area, when the buyout came in, the parish had a plan of what they were going to do once those houses were cleared out.

So the parish has to, the parish's role is to receive that and determine what to do with that property in terms of ownership and maintenance. So all things considered, if this grant were not available or we would not have applied for that grant, nothing would change other than the buyout area would just be green grass. There would be no landscaping, no path, no drainage improvements. There would be no improvements in the neighborhood other than a patch of green grass. This gives an opportunity to do within that buyout program alone. Again, not talking about anything else besides this project and this specific request. is that it invests that $12 million back into the neighborhood to improve drainage for those phase two, phase three and beyond. That pond will enhance it more than just green grass would. And again, the more we can improve those drainage drainage features as well, the more we can again try and improve drainage. Can't fix it. Can't fix it, but the more we can hit with better development, better drainage features, better drainage improvements, better road and bridge and sewer design, all these things play a factor in drainage. Again, there's not a one-hit wonder for drainage, but this is one big piece that we feel like will help the neighborhood.

Any other questions or comments from the council? Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Cardone, if you don't mind, can you give us a recap one more time what the funding will be paying for?

Yes, sir. The acquisition cost for the seven properties, the parish is estimated at $240,000. They've asked us to cost share 50% of that cost up to $120,000. Then on the maintenance cost, it was estimated at $115,000 to split one third between the city of Lake Charles, the Gravity Drainage District, and the parish, and with not to exceed $38,333.

Mr. Stewart. So that language is in the ordinance.

I think so. Any other questions?

And by redoing this retention pond is going to substantially prevent a future flooding.

Mr. Bilbo, I'm not going to say it will prevent it, but it will definitely enhance the drainage in the Greenwich Terrace areas and the surrounding areas. That's why we have brought this before the city council.

It will improve. I think it's safe to say it will improve drainage, but you don't know if it's going to prevent it because… It will improve it.

Yeah, it will. Absolutely.

I think an engineer would tell you it will improve it.

And the same thing happened with Louisiana Avenue, some places that… Mayor, talk to your mic.

Oh, my.

Same thing happened in the Louisiana Avenue area. Some areas that were routinely flooding started not flooding anymore. And what this does is drainage is just moving water from one place to another before it causes damage. So these retention ponds will be able to hold large, even in flash floods, try to hold large drains large areas of water so that they don't overwhelm the systems until those systems can catch up. Like Mr. Gallant said, there's no way to really stop it. All you can do is try to mitigate it, but we've seen that demonstrated. Lake Charles, unlike other cities, was putting that on the private sector businesses to put retention ponds and So we're finally catching up and doing what other cities are doing, putting big old giant municipal ponds. And I think this one is about 15 acres. That can hold a significant amount of water. Of course, if we have a once-in-a-lifetime flood, it may overwhelm it, but it does help.

Okay. So just for the public, the alternative to this, Mr. Gallon, is nothing. Just to have flat land that could possibly flood and... cause damage.

And give up $12 million. And give up a $12 million grant.

And I just want the public to understand that what we're agreeing to tonight has nothing to do with all the other stuff that was going on we're agreeing to help pay for the other residents that are back there that are dilapidated that will probably be torn down from the city anyway at some point and upkeep meaning grass cutting and all those different things that's going to occur back there for the residents that's going on that's all we're voting on uh the the other stuff I mean, I would love to have the answers, but we don't have the answers for that right now. I'm going to refer you to Mr. Gallon, call him at his office and ask the questions. But right now, as a council, we're being asked to vote on upkeep and clearing the area, basically what it boils down to.

Any other statements? I want to say thank you, guys. I've learned a lot about this thing and the whole process. Thank you all a lot. Please vote.

All right, number 22 will be moved up. Number 22, an ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning map from a residential zoning district to a mixed use zoning district companion with a major conditional use permit in order to construct an accessory storage structure for a business located at 708 East School Street. Mr. McGarrett.

Members of the Council, thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. This application was considered by the Lake Charles Planning and Zoning Commission. The applicant failed to show up to present his side of the case. Based on that, the Commission had some hesitancy about approving it, so they voted to recommend a denial of the application. This application is not an appeal. It's forwarded to you for following that recommendation or not.

Question. When somebody don't show up, what about this has to come to us?

The rezoning. The rezoning of the property. You automatically receive those applications no matter of an approval or a denial of the application. It automatically comes here.

It automatically comes here at some point?

For a map amendment, yes. Right. So...

I guess what I'm asking is, shouldn't they have to go back to planning and zoning and take care of the other one before they come to us?

They voted to deny it.

But you said it's not an appeal. It's not.

It's not, because it automatically comes to you as a rezoning. All zoning comes to us.

It's not whether it passed or failed. Whether it passed or failed, it's a recommendation. We're discussing what they didn't pass. No, it doesn't matter.

What I'm talking about is it says an ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning matter.

But the ants at accessory storage structure that's companioned with the rezoning. So when you know what they're rezoning the property for, it has to be companioned with a conditional use permit. That's it's automatic.

Gotcha. We have a court from with. Nick. Help me. Nick LaRocca. All right. Please come. State your name and address for the record, Mr. LaRocca.

My name is Nick LaRocca. I'm the owner of Cajun AC at 708 East Gould Street. I also own the property right directly behind it. So I applied for this a bunch of times, and I went in there. We've been doing this for two years. I've been fighting and fighting and fighting it. I did the application, went up, met with Mr. Kelly. I met with a million people just to put my storage shed there, a property that I own. I did it. They said, hey, no problem. We're going to have the meeting. whenever it was, a May something. I said, okay. They never said I had to be there. I didn't know. I work out of town. I have an AC company. I work in Washington. I got a crew in Washington, South Carolina, Ohio, and Texas right now. So I just thought they were voting I didn't know I had to be there. I would have been there. Or my wife would have been there. Nobody told me that. So I got the red one to come here. I came today for that. I mean, I'm just outgrowing my property and I own the property behind it. I don't want to put anything on the road and all that stuff. So I'm just putting a sit there to put my building in there. And they told me, no problem. Do all the applications, pay the fee. And if nobody's against it, it'll pass. The thing I know, like a letter saying I had to come here because it didn't pass and I didn't show up. So I called. And they're like, oh, well, nobody told you? I said, no, I didn't get a letter, nor did I get told that or anything. And that was it. They didn't send me a letter to my house, not to my property or anything. Well, can you tell us right quick what you're trying to do? I'm building a storage shed for my AC companies. Because right now I have a lot of trash and stuff that's on the road, and I get letters from the city, hey, stuff's here, stuff's there. So because I own the property, I was going to put a storage there, an open storage building there, to put all my material in, my ACs, just stuff like that. Okay.

Do you have any images? Most of the time when you do a big structure like that, you got the hand drawing or something.

I didn't have it with me, but I turned in a drawing for it. I gave them the drawing, the elevation. I did everything they asked me to do.

I guess the problem is you didn't show up to zoning. That's why he's here.

Yeah, that's why I'm here. They didn't tell me I had you.

Nobody. The only reason why it came to us is because it was a zoning question.

Yeah, a rezoning question.

and it automatically whether they passed or failed well I would have been there for the meeting if they would have told me right but can he go back to zoning mister no that's what he just said he can't he can't go back yeah I can't go back now he's got to go here because it's zoning no I'm talking about they said he was denied because he did not show up that's it that was the reason so if he shows up can they consider his still have to come back it still has to come but we he would come back to us with an acceptance by the zoning or maybe we don't know because he didn't show up to the meeting if he didn't show up for them to evaluate it then they they had been they evaluated like four months before is that right the the application was denied so

know they they looked at the application they get all the documents they get the the drawings of their proposed building you know if it goes back to them they're going to be reviewing the same thing again just with somebody there yeah yeah advocate for yourself and it wasn't like that they denied me because the property's in the wrong spot and they did not i wasn't there but i was working i didn't they didn't tell me i would have flew in from where washington where i was at if i'd have known i didn't nobody told me would it be appropriate to talk to mr joseph

Well, I have a question. Well, I guess. I'm just asking. Mr. Vergara.

I have a question. Mr. Young. OK. Let's see what you have.

Yeah. Was there any opposition?

I think they had one person show up.

What I call, they said there wasn't.

I guess what the clarity is, and I'm understanding what Mr. Fundale is saying, is the fact that the reasoning that they gave in our book is because he didn't show up. So I guess I'm leaning towards, it's one thing if we have to vote on it because of zoning. It's another thing if he's just being denied flat out. And I don't think, is it a such thing as extenuating circumstances because he worked out of town? Can he go back?

have to defer to the legal department i mean the action of this council and i mean what's upsetting is part of my property part of the corner of that property is already zoned multi-use a part of that property that i'm asking there's a square of the property that's a technicality and i said well it's part of my property that's that's owned that way well and they told me legally they said hey man there was no problem with it they were going to do it i'm going to defer to uh mr youngin yes sir

I'm looking at the drawings here for the first time. I haven't had time to read the minutes from the zoning commission meeting. Because they're not done. I feel if we have an independent appointed body that is consisting of planning and zoning people, we're just elected officials up here. It's our due process to at least hear what they have to say. I know that we're not voting to overturn or to approve it's just without having really time to consider this project in full i have a difficult time extending personal support for it the council did receive uh one email from opposition last week forwarded to us by renee and i drove by i understand um what you're saying is that it's multi-use on the front no no in that on that property the back left the back left corner that i'm asking

is multi-use on the zoning and planning board. There is a piece of it that is already.

If you're already multi-use, then what do you need?

Because they're saying it's not enough, that they want the front. So I have 708 School Street, then I have the Harvard Street. Well, if you look at the zoning, Harvard Street's a piece like this. The right corner of it is multi-use.

What was the history of the property?

was it's they had a house there years years ago it was a single family property yeah mr peshoff bought it 30 years ago and i guess he tore it down he used it for his plumbing storage and stuff like that it's been used for that for 30 years i'm just doing it legally sure i mean i looked on gis uh before the meeting the property just to the west of you that would be uh is residential the property to the south of you is residential If you look at my property, it's like this. There's a house on the other side of Harvard. There's duplexes to the left, and on the right are commercial uses. Actually, Dubois owns it right here, and in front there's a barber shop. All that is commercial.

I guess I'm just concerned with what precedent does it set for the rest of the single-family residential homes on Harvard? Can we just go all the way down, making it from residential to ? Or do we need to stop it at School Street?

I agree. And I thought about that. But I bought that property together. I didn't buy it separately. They just owned both of it when I bought it from Mr. Peshaw.

I have a question. Yes, sir. It's denied its zoning.

the reason was recommending the denial right right and if we what how long does he have when can he go back with a new I'm gonna clarify that mr. Cardone and I were just talking that's my quote if if the application is denied then there's a there's a waiting period to come back with another application in my opinion an action by this council, an action can be to refer it back to the Planning Commission for a review if you feel that action is warranted. It's not a denial, it's just a...

Because we really have two issues here. We have the zoning issue.

But the city council could also approve me if they wanted to. Because basically they're only saying the reason why they didn't give it to me. It may be different if they said, hey, 500 people showed up. This is bull crap. The fact that I didn't show up because they didn't give me any, like even on the zoning board that they put in my yard.

I can't personally support it without the zoning endorsement.

So I'm living on guys that said, just because I didn't show up to a meeting that I was working. So I lose $500,000 to get a $40,000 building. That's insane.

You don't have to. You can have a representative there.

Your wife could be there. I know, but I'm the one that did it. The application is under my name. The property is under my name, not my wife's name. So they told me I had to be there, but I was working.

My opinion is not to deny it, but to refer it back to his own existence properly.

The applicant can choose anyone he deems necessary to present his side of the application.

What I'm trying to figure out is, if it's okay to add, why are they so against me? They've been like this now for two years.

Well, let me explain to you, Mr. LaRock. Here's what the situation is. Because of the way, what's causing the problem is they didn't hear you. We feel you didn't hear you. Now, when we get you from planning and zoning, we feel better making a decision when we know some factors of why they denied you. Right.

See, I sat and with what I'm, not that I'm sorry, but what it is, I sat in Mr. Kelly and there's an office for him. a week. I think one of the guys came with me, Mr. Donnie came with me. We sat with him, went over it all. I think I contacted Mr. Mayer's office, went down to help. I said I sat there. I did everything they asked me. I said, hey, get elevation. I paid for it the next day and got it to them. I said, give me the drawing. Gave them the drawing. Drawing wasn't good enough. Came back and gave them another drawing. So I've been doing multiple, multiple, multiple, and they told me I could do it in December. Well, I couldn't do it in December because I had to wait until May. Now I'll have to wait again. They only do it every quarter.

No. What we're talking about doing is you could do it at the next meeting, but we're going to refer it back to this, so it will go back to them. You don't have to wait. Okay.

So I don't have to wait a quarter.

Is that right, Mr. McGarrett? If this council refers it back, we can immediately put it on the next available agenda.

And the next meeting is when?

Uh, that will be July meeting July.

And is there anything I can do like asking them? I don't know that they've done this before. Anything that I can do to help them make it easier process for me. I mean, anything that they need from me or anything else that I, cause I haven't, nobody's told me July 14th, July 14th.

Here's what I would tell you to do. We're going to, we're going to vote to send it back to planning and zoning and you get with Mr. Begiris at, after this or whenever it's convenient. Yes. That's Mr. Begiris. The one, the tall the bald guy yeah but I can ask him what do you need from me what do you need me to do yes but you can ask him that and he can actually those questions for this right you good with that mr. Young okay well we are voting on to refer this back to planning and zoning for rehearing motion by mr. Young second by mr. Bilbo please vote

That's on the seat. Now we've got to vote again. As amended. Thank you.

As amended. It's not amended. No, you just made a motion.

When you had a motion second, you voted. All right. You're good. All right. You're good. I will be at that one. All right. Number 23. Please do.

Will be moved up. An ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning map from a residential zoning district to a misused zoning district companion with a major conditional use permit in order to construct a duplex located on the west side of the 500 block of McNabb Street. Number 23. Is that Jada?

It's a huge thing. Go ahead, Doug.

I'm sorry.

No problem. This application is also was a request for rezoning of the property to establish a duplex on the property. The Planning Commission considered the testimony from the applicant and made the recommendation to not rezone the property that's a recommendation but to allow the duplex to be built for the major conditional use permit so that recommendation is coming to you as not to rezone the property but to allow the duplex to be built so the just for clarification the conditional use is attached but it's the conditional use is to

have it have that built in at that district that's correct nobody else can build another one no they have to come back yeah let's say they walk away and they don't do it within a year they have to reapply okay okay miss fusilier state your name and address for the record miss fusilier jada fusilier 504 mcnab street Okay, you want to tell us what you want to do?

Yes, my initial request was to rezone my property from residential to mixed use. Then after going to the Planning Commission meeting a few weeks ago, they recommended that they file an amendment for me to keep it as residential and still be able to put a duplex.

And you're good with that?

This is Paul. Oh, Mr. Fundale. Are they saying the same thing? Yes, they're saying the same thing.

Okay, all right. That's what I'm thinking. They're saying the same thing.

They're saying the same thing. They're allowing them to build a duplex.

So a yes vote would uphold the recommendation of the Planning Commission.

All right, thank you. A yes vote will uphold the recommendation of the Planning Zone, and a no vote will go against it. Please vote.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Okay, number one is deferred to June 17th. Number two, an ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 1610 Graham Street. Alan Mitchell, Alan J. Mitchell, owner. Mr., you going to tell him?

All right. That's what I'm saying. That's before you do it. All right.

All right. Mr. Hester, we have a situation, Mayor, where we reached out to the Project Build a Future. And they do have the contract on this property. So they're moving forward with it. They just needed a couple of more days. Mr. Harvey has agreed to give them 60 days. We're going to defer for 60 days? Okay. Defer for 60 days. Any questions or comments? August 5th August 5th deferred to August 5th any questions or comments please vote number three an ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 317 South Louisiana Avenue front house only Grace Smith, Urich Y. Price, Charles Y. Price, Monica Manker Russell, Marcia Manker and Gregory Manker owners Mr. Hester

Good evening council and this is a storm damage residential structure. You can see in these pictures it has quite a bit of roof damage to the structure. It has exterior wall damage. It has a lot of broken windows all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage of the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photograph subject property and proof of service through the Marshal's Office and certified mail. This is a rehearing from April 15th. However, a permit has been pulled on 4-15. There should be an error in attendance, I was told, on the property.

Is anyone here from the Price family or representing the Price family?

Maybe Robert Winston? supposedly had contacted the legal office and said he had obtained two quotes for a roof, but not in attendance apparently.

Mr. Harvey, no. I received communication from him as well saying he would be here tonight. That's what I was about to say. He did express that he had intentions to save the house and begin immediately working as obviously he pulled a permit. I would hate to put a date on it knowing that I communicated with him earlier.

Can we verify he pulled a permit? He has pulled a permit.

He pulled a permit on April 15th. Here's the only thing, though. He pulled a permit, but we still need to have some type of stipulations because of the complaints and the person who's currently living in the rear home. is kind of complaining about the property as well. You have a citizen who's actively living on the property.

You want to reset it?

Yeah, could we reset it? July 1st. What would you suggest from a legal standpoint?

30 days, July 1st.

I'm good with that. Okay.

Reset for 30 days. Please vote. Number four, an ordinance ordering demolition authorized in the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 902 Camellia Street, garage only. Matthew A. McIntosh, owner. No cards. Mr. Hester.

This is a storm damage, it's a garage only, and you can see in the pictures there's roof damage, exterior wall damage, some window damage, all exposed on the interior. It's a severe weather damage to the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer a direct photograph of subject property and proof of service through the appointment of a curator. This is a rehearing from May 20th. I was apprised that Gene Thibodeau should be in attendance representing the mortgage company. Maybe Mr. Rubin can expound on that.

Talk to Judge Thibodeau, he represents the lien holder. They have no objection to the detached carport being, or garage being demolished.

Mr. Fundell, 1515? Yeah, 1515, please vote. Number five has been deferred to July 1st, number six has been deferred to July 15th. Is there anyone here for number seven? Anyone here for number seven? I'll read it in. An ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 621 Bank Street. Earl Melvin Anthony Wiltz, Daniel Malone Wiltz, and Monique Michelle Wiltz, owners. If nobody's here, we're going to defer that until July 15th, 2026. Number eight, defer to July 15th. We have to vote for the deferral? Okay. Vote on number seven to defer. Please vote. Number eight is deferred to July 15th. Number nine, an ordinance on the demolition authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 2344 C Street. Marlene Marks, Marquise Elise Marks, and Kendall Wayne Marks, owners.

Mr. Hester. This is another storm damage. It's a residential structure. You can see in the pictures there's roof damage to the structure, exterior wall, window damage. It's open to the public, all exposing the interior to severe weather damage of the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs, subject property, and proof through certified mail. I believe that there may be one of the owners present.

Ms. Marlene Marks, state your name and address for the record, please. Marlene Marks, and I live in New Paine, Texas. I've contacted contractors for 2344 C Street, and they are interested in buying the property. I also saw my name on two other items that I didn't, like the other gentleman, I didn't get any information about this. So my name is actually for 32 and 41, but I'm under contract with those, for those, for that property, 312 Maple Street. And so at... After the closing, I'm able to then work on the quiet title for item number nine, and then I'll be able to sell it to the same people who are under contract for the Maple Street property. they're one of the contractors who are um who's also interested in purchasing c street so that's the plan for c street we do not want it demolished those are my two children property on maple street which it's on this paper it's 32 and 41 which again i didn't know anything about that but that's already under contract it should be closing in about two weeks because i was texting and everything after i saw this on here and then after the close of that of that property then the quiet title starts for item nine so that i can sell the property but of course if anybody's familiar with the quiet title that takes uh some months for the process.

So, Ms. Marks, just for clarity, 32 is already under contract. Correct. It should be closed in two weeks. What did you say, about 41?

It's the same thing.

It's the same problem?

Yeah, look at 32, 312 Maple Street. Oh, yeah. And then 41 is 312 Maple Street. It's the same thing.

We're not taking any action on those tonight. No, no, no.

I'm just saying my name is on here and I didn't know. I mean, like, I'm going to leave after this, but it's on here too. But it's under contract just so that someone can know because I didn't know I needed to let somebody know that because I wasn't notified of this. That's all I'm saying. But this affects number nine.

Give it to Ms. Shelly. Get with Ms. Shelley, and Ms. Shelley is the one that sends out those notifications.

Well, what I'm explaining to the council is that we're supposed to take action on 32 tonight. No.

We're just setting a hearing date. Oh, okay.

Right, right.

Just setting a hearing date.

But I received a notice on number nine.

That's why she hadn't received notice, because there's nothing to notice until we set the hearing date.

All right. But I received notice after I reached out. to the city, and then she said, oh, well, we haven't gotten to that yet, but I did receive notice to my Texas residence about number nine. But that's the plan.

And what you're saying tonight is number nine is gonna be handled by the same people?

Correct. I have to, I'm contacting, I'm going through pure title. They are gonna quiet the title. to allow me to sell the property. So I didn't pull a permit to repair or to condemn because this is the plan that my children and I will follow for 2344 C Street.

So Mr. Stutes, the legal side of what she's saying about acquired title, how should we move on that?

Well, I mean, you know, you can move however you want to move. Quieting title is not always a simple or expedient process.

It's not expedient at all.

That's what I'm saying, because I just can't give you any range on that could take 60 days or six years.

Well, no, it's not going to take six years. Pure title doesn't take six years, and it's about $3,000, so I'm waiting for the close of that property. So they just cleared the title for me for Maple Street, so that's why I was able to sell it. So, again, that's what we're going to do for 2344 C Street. That's the plan. I was told to come here and share my plan. You're right.

Mr. Hart?

So I have a question. I know we don't have a date or a potential date, but we have to have, and just in my time on the council, I know that we normally typically don't take the wait time as far as title and successions into play. We always want to grant grace, but how much time would you think, we have to have some type of time, and in the meantime, I think Mr. Hessel's gonna agree with me, we have to secure this property. So what do I need to do then? As far as securing the property,

Right, because I need to quiet the title and then tell it.

Yeah, you'll have to board up all the windows. All right.

All right, some of them are already boarded, so that's fine. Okay, board the windows, and then what else?

No trespassing signs up. You can get with the police department and get a no trespassing letter.

Board windows and no trespassing signs, okay. And Ms. Marks. Sure, yes. Go ahead, Ms. Tom.

And we also, being that in the grass, it needs to be consistently cut up.

It is. I never got any letter from grass. Oh, no, no, no, no. You just asked what was the stipulation. Yes. Hey, hey, hey. I take care of that. Yes. Grass is always cut.

I know. You asked what you have to do in the meantime. I'm just reminding you.

Oh, yes.

That we have to secure it. And then what we'll do, we'll come back in 30 days because we don't want to say a longer time. But we need an update. So I need to come back? Yes, ma'am. To Louisiana?

Or you can contact.

You can contact the legal department. I need to contact okay yeah okay in 30 days so I'm gonna get a letter yeah we need to you know it's going to be your only notice we just have to have an update of what's going on because we can't to sit here and say give you 90 days would be unfair when you know that you could potentially not complete this transaction within 90 days so in 30 days make sure I'm understanding first come back here July 1st is the only notice you're going to receive to come back and provide an update

okay so just maybe show pictures that the windows are boarded no trespassing signs are done the grass is cut and the status of the quiet title okay what's going to yeah yeah just make sure you're here July 1st running the same problem Mr. LaRocca did provide a letter to the police department with the no trespassing that way if they're provide a letter to the police department

You just go up to the police department and tell them you want to get a no trespassing letter. And they'll walk you through all the process. No trespassing letter.

That means if somebody on the property, they can not have the contact to you to remove them. Yeah. Okay. Because you're telling them there's no trespass. Okay. I know that was a thing.

Okay.

They can take action.

Okay.

They can take action. Okay.

All right.

You good, Ms. Marks?

Okay.

All right. Thank you. So we're voting for Ms. Marks to come back in 30 days. Please vote. Number 10, an ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to end the agreement for demolition of a structure located at 808 Gulf Street. Melvin Reyes and Yolani Reyes, owners.

Mr. Hester. And this is a storm damage. It's a residential structure, and you can see in the pictures it has roof damage to the structure, exterior wall damage, window damage, all exposing the interior to severe weather damage to the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs of subject property and proof of service through certified mail.

Mr. Fundale, no cards. Anybody over there?

said anything about the property i've talked to the ones that own it and they were talking they were going both ways whether to tear it down or to repair it they never did call me back is the building secure it looked yeah all the windows are secured It does have some property standards issues. You can see on the side there's, to be honest, we've had complaints about it.

Oh, man.

But there's trash and debris on one side.

30 days. 30-60. 30-60. 30-60. 30-60. Please vote.

Over the floor.

Ordinances for final action. We don't have no consent. Oh, ordinance for final action. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into agreement for project number CP3242 South Sewer Loop. That's correct. Gulf Highway lift station. Yes, sir.

Hey, Mr. Hester. Will you, would you reach back out to those people that I just gave 30 days to and let them know they got 30 days, what we said? Okay. Yes.

No problem.

An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for project number CP3242, Southern Sewell Loop Golf Highway Lift Station. Mr. Marks, yes. Wagner Engineering Incorporated has reviewed bids open on May 19th. They're recommending that Dixie Overland Construction LLC submitted a base bid in the amount of $10 million. Just for clarification, do I read that one or the one in the back? Because I think this had a... Should be that one. Okay. Base bid in the amount of $10,875,000. I move that this bid be accepted as stated. Any questions or comments? Please vote. Number 12. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for project number CP3507, Lake Charles Events Center Green Rooms and amend the budget as necessary. Mr. Harvey.

Yes, Mr. President. I recommend that the owner, I'm sorry, I recommend that The apparent low bidder is Seth Priola Construction with a base bid of $1,019,000 This project also included three alternates Alternate one to include east and west restroom, shower and dressing room renovation for $558,000 Alternate two to include lockers and curtain system uh added to alternate one scope of eighty thousand for eighty thousand dollars in alternate number three to include south restroom showers dressing rooms and lounges east and west sides of the arena green rooms for four hundred and nine thousand dollars based on the adjusted afc of one million six hundred thousand dollars we i recommend that we accept the

I'm sorry recommend the acceptance of alternate one only which brings the total cost for construction to one million five hundred seventy seven thousand dollars I move that we accept this bid questions or comments I have a question I would like this explained it says number one include east and west restroom shower and dressing room renovation five hundred fifty eight thousand but then it goes to the bottom and says we accept the number one, and it's $1,577,000. Mr. Marks, if I may. Yes, explain it.

We're accepting the base bid and alternate one. We're not accepting alternate two or alternate three based on available funds for construction.

So the base bid was?

$1,897,000.

Okay, and when you add it to it, okay, got you covered. Any other questions or comments? Please vote. Number 13, an ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement to purchase road-based limestone aggregate per specifications for use by the Public Works Department. Mr. Weatherford.

Yes, sir. We only had one responsive and responsible bidder, and that was Apex Aggregate Supply. And it's actually a bid on, I want to say it's two items, but one is with it. If we pick it up, if it's delivered, we had no bid on gray 57-610 rock, but we do have white, off-white 610. If we pick it up, the price is $49.74, and if it's delivered, the price for the same is $52.24. and white off white number 57 pickup bid is $58.04 and the delivered price is $50.54. So I move that we accept this bid.

Any questions or comments? Please vote. Number 14. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter an agreement to purchase replacement retractable telescopic riser seating in the Coliseum at the Lake Charles Events Center. Rebid. Mr. Harvey.

Yes, Mr. President. I move that we accept the lowest responsible and responsible bid of an Irwin Seating Company for $587,487.12. I move that we accept this bid. Any questions or comments? Please vote.

Number 15, an ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for the purchase of bus stop signage for use by the Public Works Department, Transit Division. Mr. Young.

Yes, Mr. President. Received a total of three bids. I move that we accept the lowest responsive and responsible bid, which was Duo Guard Industries in the amount of $67,365.

Question. Mr. Cardone, is this some signage that we make money off of like advertisement?

I believe it's 242 signs that are going to be placed at the bus stop transit center. It's informational signage for the patrons that use it.

Not advertisement, like the buses. Okay. All right. Thank you. Please vote. Number 16, an ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for the purchase of one new service body crane for use by Public Works Department, Wastewater Division. Mr. Visanoff.

Yes, we received three bids. The lowest bid, responsive and responsible bid was truck and trailer for the amount of $65,905.53. I recommend we accept that bid.

Any questions or comments? Please vote. Number 17, an ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for the purchase of water infrastructure maintenance and repair parts for use by the Public Works Department Water Division. Mr. Fundale.

There were four bids. I move that we accept the recommendation that Lafayette Wind Water Works and Ferguson Water Works lowest responsible and lowest responsive and responsible bidders meeting the specification with with laughing at waterworks category 10 at $57,141.74. Ferguson waterworks categories 1, 2, 13, 14, 16, 1033, $775.30 be accepted. Mr. Fonda, if I might, it's $133,000. $173,000. No, $133,775.30.

Okay, sorry. That's all right. All right. Question, comments? Please vote.

Number 20, an ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter in a rental agreement with rent.fund to provide onsite automated kiosks for rental of equipment to be used for game and sport recreational activities at various parks throughout the city. Number, is mic still here? So I just want to get some clarity on this. Are we going to be renting these things out regularly?

That's the goal. We want to buy the kiosk and have the ability for people to swipe and pay for momentary use of cornhole paddles for pickleball, ping pong. So this is a new thing so people can have that readily available for them. So does that have to be manned? It does not.

All right. I'd like to comment on, Mike, I want to congratulate you and the recreation department. Y'all doing some good work, man.

I appreciate that. I suck at that.

All right. Any other questions or comments for Mike? Please vote. And 21, an ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter in a subrecipient professional service agreement with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, CPRA, for administering a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, for construction of a kayak launch. That's you again, Mike?

Yes, sir.

Where is that going to be? At Riverside?

Just in case you want to ask questions from them.

Would you want them to come up? I mean, if you can ask them, it's fine.

Y'all come up just in case. The location for this one is Penn and Lake. So when we went out for the CNI grant, we talked about several different things. We checked a lot of boxes to make sure that that park facilitated all the needs that allowed us to win that. The one of the things I noticed is that I would love for that kayak launch to be on a waterfront that is actually truly accessible to a lot more waterways. And Penn and Lake, being that it's a small little spit of land, it's really not able to develop. This is actually perfect for that. And this is right off of a main corridor. You can pull up, get on your kayak and run. So this is actually a great spot.

Where's that at? Can we put it up on the map, please?

Just north of 18th Street. First Street on the right.

So it's not actually on contraband by you, but it's a little way. It's not far off. It's a short little paddle that way. Yeah, you can get there in a minute.

So just go ahead. You want to see it? No, I'm good. So I just want out of curiosity, Mayor, does this what the insurance policies that we have, does this put us in a have to pay more for insurance? we're self-insured for for a pretty good bit so that's under the current policy that we have so this is not going to affect no sir this little thing is not going to affect our insurance okay all right just want to know when people are there in that water are we responsible for them so there's uh there is state ordinances that talk about you go at your own risk because otherwise you would have parks anywhere can we post that on the new page

I'm sure we could find that state ordinance and have that out there, but that's how that works. Okay. All right.

Any other questions or comments?

This is similar to the kayak launch at Riverside Park that we opened a couple of years ago, too. So hopefully we can put a few more and connect them. Yeah.

I would like to recognize Ms. Jill because, I don't know, look, this is a great grant, a great opportunity. We knew the things that we wanted to accomplish, but I was big on not spending too much of our money, trying to spend somebody else's money, and she found the money for us. Would you all give two minutes to her just so she can speak? Sure. Thank you.

unnecessary but um thank you very much we are um the community foundation i'm do i need to say my name and all of that okay jill galmarini 3436 pontiac drive i'm the director of civic initiatives with the community foundation of southwest louisiana i administer the just imagine 50-year resilience master plan for calcasieu and cameron parishes this kayak launch is just exciting for us because it overlaps a couple of different projects within the plan we talked about the Bayou Greenbelt project as well as the mid-city neighborhood transformation so anytime we can um benefit multiple projects in the plan with one um with one project and i will just say that through the course of the just imagine plan we have had the opportunity to make really strong partnerships with other state organizations like cpra and the coalition to restore coastal louisiana so The fact that they came to us to want to go into a partnership to secure this kind of funding so that we could do something that would benefit the city further is really exciting to us and we look forward to other opportunities to do that in the future. so this program did they don't provide the kayaks they just give us a it's a as i understand it's a reimbursement so they've provided the funding so we can purchase all the things that we need to do to build the launch and the park around it um and then we're re the we are reimbursed yes so are they they participating in any way the people that gave the grant Yes, they were on a trip to Amsterdam right now, so they could not be here because they're trying to figure out more ways to protect our coast. But yes, CPRA is very active in our community. When we talk about different coastal restoration projects, The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana also has active participation. I was just in Cameron a couple weeks ago planning marsh grass with them. And they are actually preparing a summit for Southwest Louisiana in the fall. So they are trying to highlight what's happening here in Southwest Louisiana.

Can you invite them to the council?

I will absolutely do that, yes.

What about the national oceanic atmosphere?

That's the budget line item that it comes out of. So CPRA is the administrator of the grant here. So they will receive the money from NOAA and then administer it.

Any other questions or comments? Please vote. Number 24, an ordinance amending Chapter 13, Section 13-42 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Lake Charles regarding maintenance and quiet order of a business establishment. What is this?

That's the one that I want to change from two blocks to 300 miles. 300 feet. Hey, we now have no development.

Leave me out of it. Leave me out of it. Okay, San Antonio.

All right. Just to give a little bit of history, so we'll know exactly what we're up against. On the last council, when we were on it, we dealt with the issue where a lot of businesses were complaining about clubs using their parking lots. you know like if you got a club and you only have so much of a parking spot the crowd will go down the street and park at another place and the businesses were complaining about trash fights and all these other kind of things in fact we had an incident uh happened on ryan street that me and mr rubin were a part of and as i told mr bilbo before i'm in favor of shortening it because when he brought up the fact about how long a block could be That really jogged my understanding of, but at the same time, it is my recommendation that we amend it and that the feat that he's talking about starts at the end of the property and not the door of the property. so in other words if my property is here my 300 feet gonna start from the end of my property to wherever it ends at as opposed to starting at the door because by the time you get out the parking lot you probably got 150 feet already and you're already covered because that's your parking lot so uh i'm saying that that's my recommendation because i know we're going to get pushback from the businesses that came and complained the last time for us to do this so that's just giving a little bit of background on why that ordinance was put in place the first time any other uh questions well for me i i wanted to be balanced

get an alcohol license is from the front door so why change it responsible to the end of the parking lot you got we got to make it equal so the cops can be consistent all the time we got one one thing we got to control from from the front door your place because most parking lots if they had 150 feet we wouldn't have a lot of issues because that would cover most of your problem so you really don't have that much size so we want to make it consistent throughout so everybody know That the 300 feet is the same 300 feet from the front door of your property, from the front door of your business like it is to get a liquor license. If you're in a school zone, a church zone, we got to get consistent. All the constant change of the rules will keep us in trouble because we keep wanting to make adjustments, just keeping everything balanced. Well, the consistency is every property is not the same. But the front doors is. No, it's not.

No, it's not front door.

It's actually edge of the edge of the premises. The alcohol measurement is measured from the premises, which could be the corner of the building. Because people were putting the door in the back and it was increasing the distance. So it's from the premises of the building. That's correct.

The premises of the building. That's alcohol. What I am saying is when we talk about consistency, my my the edge of my property to the front of my property might be 50 feet. This next person might have a bigger space and it might be 100 feet. So you're eating up in your property. So if you go to the edge of the property, you're 300 feet. It would remedy the business complaining. and having problems on your property. Cool. You know what I'm saying? So I'm agreeing with the two blocks because I never realized how long two blocks was on certain streets.

Understandable. I thought it was front door. The last time I heard it was front door. We're going home. But I'm fine with the edge of the property. Edge of the property. I'm fine. That's still better than two blocks. I make a motion. Mr. Young, you want to say something?

Do we have to do two amendments separately?

OK. What do you mean, two?

I would like to offer an amendment as well.

Well, go ahead. We may incorporate it. Go ahead.

OK. So I was very interested in this. First of all, thank you to Councilman Bilbo for looking into this. I totally agree. It takes the vague ambiguity out of the linear feet. I also appreciate the intent of the fact is to help protect business owners and help law enforcement get involved outside of their property whenever needed to. The one concern that I had that I heard from both legal and from Lake Charles Police Department was the use of the word shall under subsection A. And I did discuss with Councilman Bilbo. He said that he would be agreeable to changing that to May. So essentially, We wouldn't be overriding our noise ordinances. We wouldn't be taking away the validity of our provisions that require that businesses sublet an orderly business if we change it from shall to may. And Mr. Rubin had specifically advised on that. I'm not understanding. So that we are not undermining our own ordinances that require they cooperate with noise ordinances and the provisions that specifically relate to letting an orderly business, he recommended that rather than it say a business owner shall not be subject to an infraction if an incident occurs within the 300-foot area, that it be changed to say a business owner may not be subject to an infraction.

When I turned it in, it said shall, and that superseded.

Shall means you will.

Yeah. They mean it's possible. It's possible that you still can get in. It was superseding all the other ordinances. Once I understood, I said, you're right.

The other clarification, so it's clear and there's no ambiguity, it should stay from a property line of the establishment. That way your measurement points are defined. It's not from the president.

So I'm making an amendment at this point. that shall be changed to May, along with the measurement being from the property line, how many feet? 300. 300 feet. Everybody got it? Second?

Second.

Any questions or comments?

Yes, I have a question and a comment. Okay, so I'm with this, but this was placed on the agenda on the 12th. We had, it was our responsibility to, and it just says, noise audience and, no, I'm on the wrong one. When was it? What number is this? It's number 24. 24, so let me go to 24. So it was placed on the agenda on the 12th and the reading of it at face value, I missed what we were discussing.

Well, it's an ordinance already in place.

Yes. What I'm saying is I'm really getting into detail for the first time at this meeting. And I'm wondering, it was just my responsibility to go read up on it? It first said two blocks.

now we're changing it to 300 feet from the property line because two blocks yeah I don't know what to answer your question Mr. Fundale yes it was your responsibility or Mr. Bilbo's responsibility to share that with the council okay yours to seek it and his to put it out because he was trying to get something changed and then with the introduction we just went with the same thing because once it was introduced that means it was put on the agenda and then it has to go through a process so when it was introduced we don't have any discussion no it's just an introduction okay all right all right any other everybody understand the amendment yes please vote we're voting on the amendment right now yes for the amendment please vote and as amended as amended please vote yes sir

Just for clarity, I was a part of the last council discussion when we created this ordinance. Can we get a comparison and contrast for the viewers who are viewing this to see what we're changing? Because I know we're talking feet and distance and property line to property line, but what is going to now be the difference going forward? for those people that hear about it because this is going to be the only official communication that they're going to get.

The difference is going to be instead of going from here to the church.

I get it, but can we get this formally on the record because this is going to be the only time those constituents and those owners are going to hear this. They're not going to be referencing. You mean like written? Yeah, so can we get it formally stated just so that these owners and these residents know what we're changing tonight? Because we're having discussions saying door-to-door, feet-to-feet, the average constituent is not going to be able to. As soon as it's adopted, it should go into muni codes.

I guess what Mr. Harvest is saying, can we put that on? Well, it's already on the city website.

It should be on the website, and then it'll be on muni code as soon as we adopt it. Yeah.

But we can advertise to somehow that that ordinance has been changed. So they're notable.

You can authorize and ask Mrs. Katie to put anything you want on the website.

Only reason I'm asking this is because if you look at the current tone of our nightlife and what's happening at nighttime, I think people need to be made aware of this decision that's changing tonight because it's definitely going to alter some things, not just for our Lake Charles Police Department, but for our business owners as well.

Katie, is that something you could accentuate on the website? Let

people know that's a very easily done thing and I think what we could do once the ordinance is updated we could use some plain language to explain it but we could link to the actual ordinance content on the alcohol review board page is probably the most appropriate place for it put mr. Bibble on there and let him explain mr. Bibble don't you mind talking I'll bring the camera crew you let me know here's Tommy's cell phone Mr. Harvey brought up something

Mr. Stutes, what are we changing for the police department? They still got the same job.

No, it's just changing it.

Yeah, basically what this does, it clarifies. We know that it's a measurement from the property line, and it's a set at 300 feet. Two blocks could be 500 feet. It could be 700 feet. It could be anything.

But just for clarity, it's making it's clarifying what the business is liable for so instead of being responsible for all the way down the street he's only responsible to right here now everything past that uh from what i'm told chief the business can call on themselves right So the business can make a complaint when they clear their parking lot and they close down, they can call and say, hey, people are still hanging around on my business. I need to get them off at that point. You follow me? Okay. Did we vote already?

No, you didn't vote on the actual ordinance. You only voted on the amendment.

So vote as amended. Please vote. anybody got anything they want to pull this following resolutions may be adopted by consent anybody want to pull anything I need to go read them I know that most of them are all resolutions I have one all right anybody got anything All right, I would like to pull number 25. Go ahead, 25. And Mayor, I don't know if this falls under one of your visions, but can you explain what is our intent with this, number 25?

Well, this involves the former wildlife fisheries building property that was on the lakefront next to Visit Lake Charles. The building's been demolished, it's grass now, and there's a developer that wanted to develop a food and beverage recreation establishment. But before that could be done, we'd have to put that out for general proposals for the public. So what we're doing, because they've already sent proposals renderings of what they want to do. We have to do RFP process that was done for Port Wonder, Prineagle, and all those. So before that could be done, we have to put out a request for proposals, give the public a chance to bid on that too, and then bring those bids to you guys to make a decision about whether to accept.

Is it possible for us to put some requirements that you would like to have every company mandatorily put there? Like, as an example, if we wanted a stage or that whoever gets this bid, are they required to put a stage there? You know, if you want.

We're going to do that. Okay. We're going to do exactly very similar to what we did, like the mayor mentioned, with Crying Eagle. We're going to put some provisions in there. It's just by law we're required to advertise for request for proposal. Okay. So we'll put those provisions in.

Any other questions? Do we have a drawing?

No, this is not specific to that. They just requested to do it, but we told them that the general public has to have the opportunity to bid also for that.

One guy approached us, and now we have to open it up for anybody who wants to try and propose it.

And we do reserve the right to visualize what they're putting out before. Absolutely.

They're going to have to give that to you. And we'd have to come back for that approval.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Number 25, a resolution authorizing the City of Lake Charles to solicit proposals and advertise for a developer to design, build, finance, own, operate, and maintain a food and beverage and recreational establishment on an acre more or less to be leased and track three of the lakefront of the City of Lake Charles, all in accordance with and authorized by Title 41, Section 1214 of the Louisiana Revised Statute of 1950 as amended. One other question, Mayor, will they have to, any person, who's operating this have to put the city as a rider on the insurance on the insurance yeah absolutely yeah additional insurance yeah please vote Mr. Mark I'd like to pull a 27 for some questions 27 a resolution set in date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 1302 11th street Stephen Daniel Peters and Betty Louise Allen Peters owners Mr. Fundale all I'm asking is

By setting this resolution, what does that mean on this property?

We're just setting the date. Setting the date to have a hearing. Have it, okay.

That's it.

All right. Number 27, please vote. All right, here we go.

Do we need to state? What's the hearing date going to be on that?

It's going to be the same as the others, right? It's administrative hearings what it's being set for, right, Rene?

So all of these are July 15th? Yeah. The dates to be set on all of these are July 15th. 26. A resolution accepting project number CP-3274 Red Davis McAllister Water Main Extension as substantially complete and authorizing the advertisement of a 45-day lien period. 28. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 1400 McNabb Street, Isaac Jackson Estate, Bueller Antwine Jackson Owners. 29. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 1300 Wendell Street, Austin Rogers Fontenot Estate owners. 30. A resolution set in date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 738 Iberville Street. Swimming pool only. Nakia Yvette Guillory owner. 31. A resolution set in date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 304 Cocker Street. Betty Jane Jefferson, Lisa S. Jefferson, Leslie M. Jefferson, and Jessica L. Jefferson owners. 32. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 312 Maple Street. Marlene Johnson Marks, owner. 33. A resolution authorizing the city of Lake Charles to advertise and receive sealed bids for project number CP3433-2022 drainage infrastructure improvements. Package number one.

For which one?

33? 33 resolution. Mr. Bilbo, will you take that? all right now all right please vote the following on itself for introduction by consent and will be read into the record the day following this meeting at 9 a.m. in the City Council chambers and City