City Council - Regular Meeting

is in favor of this, the city will invoice and collect the assessment, then transfer those dollars to the state to be used by the state to draw down those matching federal funds. And that's where the city's role stops. So really your role is as the assessor in this program, and then transferring those dollars on to the state of Louisiana. State of Louisiana is the, you know, Louisiana Department of Health are the folks working with the federal government working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make sure that these programs are running correctly at the federal level and making sure that those dollars then get paid back out to the hospitals to reimburse them for providing this healthcare to your local residents. They are allowed to retain, you all are allowed to retain $150,000 annually to cover administrative expenses. We recognize that this is a new program for the city and that there is some administrative work going on between the invoices, the assessments. Your folks have to deal with people like me calling them up, asking them, making sure things are going all right and trying to help out in any which way. So there is an $150,000 admin. At the end of the day, what this program does is it allows local hospitals to access much needed federal funding without using your general revenue or burdening the Lake Charles citizens. It helps them close that reimbursement gap to access those federal dollars that Louisiana Department of Health has worked and requested and been approved from the federal government. and approve the annual rate resolution. And I think I may have glossed over this point, but this is an annual issue. By law, you all have to set the rate annually. So if you don't like the program, we'll be back next year to request. Hopefully things are going well, and we do see the benefit of this in other areas of the state. It should be. So happy to answer any questions, and again, we appreciate your time and your support of this program.

Thank you, Mr. Newell. At this time, does any councilman have any questions for Mr. Newell?

Yeah. You're the only one speaking. I don't know who else has filled out cards. I can tell you that I am working absolutely with Christus and LCMH, and they are in support of this. Do we have any doctors here?

Well, I mean. Maybe one or two, yeah. One of them, because I'd like for one of them, or you, to put it in layman's terms. Tell the public how this translates. Like if I go to the doctor, what happens if I'm on Medicaid?

Yeah, if you're on Medicaid, right, the hospitals will see you. But hospitals will be reimbursed by the state government through that Medicaid program. But right now, and this is nationwide, this is not unique to Louisiana, those base payment rates are very low. And so they will still see you. They're not going to turn anybody away. I mean, that's why they get into the healthcare profession, because they want to take care of their community, right? But when they see those patients, the hospitals are taking them on at a loss. But the state has worked to close that gap through programs like this to access those federal dollars. And they can do this in a way where it's not putting this burden back on to your citizens because the hospitals have said, yes, we will participate. We will contribute. We would like to be assessed in this manner.

So this is in conjunction with Medicaid.

That's right. That's right, but I think it's important because this is to reimburse them for seeing Medicaid services. But these doctors don't just see Medicaid patients, and these hospitals don't just see Medicaid patients. So when the hospitals are financially secure, when they have access to the resources that other communities have access to through these same programs, that strengthens your entire healthcare community here in Lake Charles, right? Whether you're on Medicaid or not, it's going to make sure that those hospitals can plan for the future, that those hospitals can retain their doctors and recruit doctors and nurses, right, that those hospitals are going to have beds available when folks need them. It's not a magic wand to cure every issue out there, but it goes a long way in the right direction for the state and the community to work together to make sure that you have a strong and at least a stronger health care community.

Any other councilmen have any questions for Mr. Neal before we go to Dr. Jones?

Thank you. We appreciate your time.

At this time, we do have a court in support to speak. Dr. Allison Jones. How are you guys doing?

Thank you. Dr. Allison Jones, address is 1701 Oak Park Boulevard. I am the medical staff president of Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, as well as the president of the medical executive community. I first want to thank you guys for putting this on the agenda. And as I look out at my lovely colleagues here in the community, we do want to express our support of the LPPF. To keep it simple, this is extra funding that goes out to help us provide better care for all the patients in southwest Louisiana. It's a Medicaid participation funding, but the money ultimately goes back into the pot to help both hospitals provide care for the community to not be able to have to ship people out for different specialties all the time to try to keep people here in this community and provide excellent care so that's really the short end of the stick but i do want to say that we all wholeheartedly support this program and hope that you guys vote yes anyone have any questions for dr jones

What would be a telltale sign? He said that we can renew this every year. We're going to have to renew this. In your opinion, what would be a telltale sign that we don't renew?

If you guys have any problems, I mean, that's what I would think. If you all have problems with the administrative aspects, if you guys feel like it's too much for your plate, then I can see you guys not wanting to do it. But I can tell you that this company that's hired are planning on working with you guys with every step of the way so that this is just a conduit so that we can do this smoothly year after year.

So it won't present a burden to our workers? No, sir.

And just for clarification, Dr. Jones, that's the hospital side, but the patient side, they incur no extra cost?

No extra cost to them. They'll just have good care in southwest Louisiana.

Now, do you have to meet the same Medicare standards? I mean, it's the same standard. It's just helping to pay when Medicaid drops off.

Basically, Medicaid right now, let's say for every charge, every dollar that the hospitals charge, Medicaid pays us 50%. This just helps give us the other 50 cents, so we have $1 instead of 50 cents.

Gotcha.

Anyone else have a question for Dr. Jones? Thank you, Dr. Jones. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Next up, we do have a letter in support from Mr. Devon Hyde. He will provide information if requested.

Good evening, Council. I will say that I believe.

I'm sorry, Mr. Hyde. Could you please state your name and address for the board?

Oh, I apologize. Yes, Devon Hyde. I'm the President and Chief Executive Officer, Lake Charles Memorial Health System. My address is 1701 Oak Park Boulevard. I would offer that I don't believe that I have any further clarification other than Mr. Neal or Dr. Jones, but I'm certainly happy to answer any questions that the council may have.

Anyone have any questions for Mr. Hyde, administration, anybody? Thank you, Mr. Hyde.

Thank you, sir. Can I get my knee looked at while you got all these doctors here?

I've got a few in here, so we'll get you taken care of, council.

Next up, a letter in support, Mr. Paul Rainwater.

If no questions, I'm on the way. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Ringwood. Mr. Monte Wilson.

I'm just here in support. If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask. Answer.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Matthew Wallace.

Same for me. If you have questions, be happy to ask them on behalf of me.

Okay. At this time, the only comments we had was letters in support. And again, we're referring to number 19. Does any other councilman have any comments, suggestions, anything?

At this president before you vote, I just wanted to put on the record this this batch of statutes in Louisiana revised statutes 40 colon 1248.1 through 1248.10 has a number of requisite notices and I just wanted to note for the record that all those notices have been officially promulgated and published and all of those have been complied with leading to tonight's vote.

Thank you so much.

This is a great customer.

Mr. Stutes, we have to redo them as well.

no no no we would just have to redo we have to do the resolution setting the rate every year okay no sir we've we've actually enacted the participation program tonight i say we will assuming we will somebody want to thank you mr seuss somebody is someone you wish to speak oh i'm sorry

Please state your name and address for the record.

My name is James White, 2520 Oak Cliff Street, Lake Charles, Louisiana. Just as a citizen of Lake Charles, I just have a little question. How this information is going to be transferred or shared with the citizens of Lake Charles? Will we get some type of information in the mail or something of that nature?

mean if somebody wants to did you know there was publication in the Lake Lake Charles American Press about the participation program that was required by the statutes to be provided before we could even bring it to a vote but if if you're looking for some kind of like summary or a little synopsis or something like that I'm sure that the hospitals would be more than happy to provide that okay

Because we have a lot of senior citizens that probably don't look at the newspaper, you know, but would like to have that type of information shared with them, maybe through the insurance companies or whatever the case may be. I don't know. I was just wondering and concerned about that.

I'm sure they would be. Look, I can tell you they've been unbelievably helpful and transparent with us throughout this process. If there's any information that you feel would be helpful, I'm sure I could get them to provide that.

Mr. President, I do, being that Mr. White brought this question up, I do have a quick question for you. If you're not on Medicaid, do you benefit from this? Please step up to the podium.

Yes, counselor. It's the same way. These doctors see Medicaid patients. They see non-Medicaid patients. These nurses the same way at the hospitals. And so this secures those hospitals to get reimbursed. So they're not taking a loss when they see the Medicaid patients, which means they will be a stronger health care system for the entire community, whether you're on Medicaid or not.

So just to dig a little bit deeper on what Mr. White said, if I go to the hospital, this is automatically kicking in. I don't have to come in and ask.

It's automatically taken care of. That's right, the state takes care of that portion of that and doing the math on that portion of it. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Again, does anybody else, any other input for number 19?

Please vote. 641 extension, Mr. Weatherford abstain.

Did I need to abstain or just not vote?

Abstention is fine.

Thank you. Moving forward, number 24. A resolution to set the amount of the local hospital assessment payments for the City of Lake Charles Local Health Care Provider Participation Program for the state fiscal year 2027 to direct how the revenue derived from local hospital assessment payments is to be spent and to set the amount to be paid in collection fees. At this time, everyone who filled out a card in support of number 19, you also filled out a card in support of number 24. Is there anyone who wish to speak on behalf of number 24? Do any councilmen have any input?

Yeah, I got a question. I need explanation.

Councilman Marks.

I see it says a resolution to set the amount of local hospital assessment payments for the city of Lake Charles to local health care providers. Explain that.

Yeah, that's the assessment amount. So that's the invoicing and collection amount that the hospitals will be assessed. And we've given this document to the state of Louisiana, to Louisiana Department of Health, and they had an opportunity to let us know. that they were okay with this as well, that they were good with the numbers there. That's really just saying how much the hospitals will pay in. It's based on a calculation of the amount of federal funding that is available. So it has been decided for the first year? If you vote yes, it will be, yes. But Louisiana is working and is constantly talking with the federal government to secure those federal funds for this year, next year, as it goes forward. Can we know how much it is?

It's here in the ordinance, Mr. Marks. If you'd like, I can read it in. Yes, please. Sure, and I just wanted to point out, because you started questioning him, this is also a point where we have to proclaim that this is a public hearing on the assessment amount. uh the resolution so in addition to us having our normal council discussion this is also considered to be under the state statutes the public hearing but i'll read in under the resolution which is file number 26-462 the it's paragraph a at the top of the first page and paragraph b i mean at the bottom of the first page and paragraph b at the top of the second page A, if the waiver to exclude certain providers is approved by CMS, the rate of the local hospital payments will be the following. 13% of each provider's net patient revenue for outpatient hospital services. This assessment will only be imposed on acute care hospitals with greater than 100 available beds. No assessment will be imposed on acute care hospitals with less than or equal to 100 available beds, licensed governmental rehabilitation psychiatric facilities, or licensed non-governmental long-term care acute hospitals with fewer than or equal to 100 available beds. Paragraph B, if the waiver to exclude certain providers is not approved by CMS, so it's a conditional, whether or not CMS improves, if the waiver to exclude certain providers is not approved by CMS, the rate of the local hospital payments will be 10.85% of each provider's net patient revenue for outpatient hospital services for non-governmental hospitals.

Thank you, Mr. Stutes. Yes. Anyone else have any questions? Mr. Young.

Yes, sir. Thank you. I just want to say thank you to both hospitals for coming up with a cooperative approach that really benefits Medicaid patients across the city. That's not always the case. And the efforts shown by both Christmas Health and Lake Charles Memorial to work together to accomplish this, I think, says a lot about our system here in southwest Louisiana. I also want to thank many of you for responding to the literally dozens of questions that I had about this. I think it's a complicated issue, but in the end, I do think that it's going to be one that affects everyone very positively here. Anyone's help comment before we vote?

One other question, Mr. President. A mayor wanted to talk?

Well, I just want to say that these assessments are self-assessments that the hospitals are making that's going to be paid to the state, and the state is going to utilize those funds to get more of a federal match so that the treatment of the Medicaid population, which is usually an uninsured or underinsured population, those that have restricted access to health care, so that that kind of treatment can be made feasible so the hospitals don't take a loss. We rate pretty poorly in terms of healthcare availability, so this is a great access to the uninsured and health outcomes hopefully would rise up and we have a more productive society.

I turned it off. I apologize. Item 24 is what you'll have to vote on annually. This is the rate resolution.

Now, Mr. Stooge, is it possible that that 150 go up for us every year?

That's up to the federal government. I have no idea.

think the the labor is going to be setting up the system but after that the system should run pretty smoothly and i'll find it you get a hundred and fifty thousand dollars yeah that come to the city does it go up yeah that's it and our finance director she's uh they're well prepared to get this set up all right thank you mayor simeon mr stokes anyone have any other questions in regards to number 24. please vote

6, 4, 1 abstention is Mr. Wetherford.

Now that the vote has been cast, I do want to thank every administrator, health care provider for showing up tonight on behalf of the city council. It truly shows amazing things are happening in Lake Charles, and I appreciate the strength in numbers. Thank you. Back to you, Mr. President. Thank you.

All right, we're going to call a quick recess to allow the folks who, everyone's welcome to stay, but just give you the opportunity to head home.

Thank you all for coming. We appreciate y'all.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you very much.

Any questions? Oh, you do? Yeah. Yeah, y'all got to stay.

They're actually taxing ourselves.

Yeah. Yeah.

This is the one I got to read in 22.

I'm going to bring that one up next so that he can... It's paid. Right. i think that's i think that's the key

I wonder if that's for a future one.

$33.50.

Calling our meeting back to order. I'm going to move one more item up because I know we have a lot of cards. I assume that we have a lot of people here that may want to address this topic potentially.

but I'm gonna move item number 21 up.

I'm gonna go ahead and read that in. All right, item 21, an ordinance to reconsider ordinance number 20563 passed and adopted on May 20th, 2026 regarding amending resolution number 313-23 to authorize the City of Lake Charles to modify the location and scope of RCIP-LDI-City of Lake Charles-LC Railroad Avenue revitalization in order to transfer funding to the gosport community center to re construct a recreation facility in cars for the united states department of housing and urban development national objectives for use of the funds for the cdbg dr program and before i um Ask Mr. Morse to comment. Could you explain exactly what we're considering here? I see is a motion to reconsider. So is it basically a motion that we vote whether we are or will not reconsider this item?

So this would be. Or what the procedure is. If this passes and it would have to pass by a vote of four, it would rescind ordinance number 20563. So you would go back to the way you were before ordinance 20563.

And then would we discuss it or would it be at a subsequent meeting?

If you were going to do something else with the funds, you'd have to handle the normal process for obligating funds, introducing the ordinance and laying, you know, Okay, so all this would do nothing other than obligating. It would just rescind ordinance number 20563.

Which was to remove the money from Railroad Avenue to Gosport. Yes. Okay. So that's basically what it does. And if it fails, then basically the funds are obligated to Gosport.

Okay. Yes. All right. Mr. Marks?

Yes, sir.

I want to make a clarity on that statement. The reason this is coming back is because I asked for this to be reconsidered. Now, if the rest of you councilmen decide to change our vote, that's something else. But the intent of this was to change my vote because to ask you to allow me to change my vote because I feel I did the public a disservice because some of the information we were given was inaccurate at the time that it was given to us. And I feel that influenced my vote. So now if you all feel the same way, then that's a whole different ball game. But I just want to be clear that I didn't ask for this to come back to change the whole vote. I want to change my vote.

Is there a mechanism to do that, Mr. Stoots?

Well, no, I mean, I think it's now on the agenda for reconsideration. So he would be public with his changing of the vote once y'all vote on item 21. Okay. There is no mechanism for him to just say, I would draw my prior vote.

Okay.

All right. But once you bring this item 21, he will be on record as changing his vote if he votes to approve 21. Okay.

All right.

You want to hit the cards first?

We do have cards. So let's, I was thinking that if.

Shouldn't we vote to see if it's going to change? Because it's on the agenda, we have to vote on it.

No, I think he's asking should we vote, and if we choose not to rescind, is there anything to dispute? We do have people here to discuss, so I think we want to let people discuss. Yes.

You have to hear the information to decide whether or not you want to change your vote. If you don't change your vote, you just vote the way you voted the last time.

I agree. All right. Some of these looks like they wanna speak and some just wanna provide information and some just wanna have their information read in. First card here is Joshua Maser.

Mr. Maser. I'm Joshua May sir, I own acts theater and may sir consulting 114 Hodges Street like Charles good evening mayor Simeon and members of the Council like I just said my name is Joshua May sir and I do own acts theater on railroad Avenue and I'm speaking not just as a property owner.

AXE Theater.

Yes, sir, AXE Theater. I'm not just speaking as a property owner or a businessman, but as an advocate for those individuals, residents, businesses, artists, nonprofits, including the recently established Melissa Maser Foundation. All of these are located there on Railroad Avenue, which is in the heart of the Nellie Electrical District. I support investment in Gosport and North Lake Charles. That community does deserve modern recreation facility, but helping Gosport should not mean abandoning railroad Avenue without a transparent explanation and a replacement plan the railroad Avenue project included sidewalks drainage transit improvements landscaping safer connections between Ryan and Reed Street these aren't cosmetic upgrades it's basic infrastructure and that infrastructure is needed to attract businesses protect property and reconnect this historic cultural corridor between downtown and let's just say the Amtrak station recently it was put out that this project was no longer feasible and at the agenda meeting I wholeheartedly agreed with councilman Harvey when he stated we need transparency and factual data and on what's going on, why the program's not feasible, especially since I do have a vested interest there. I've spoken with numerous residents, business owners, and even members of the council. Across the board, I think there's a lack of information or understanding. I've heard potential environmental concerns be cited. Once again, no quantifiable data. And if there is possible contamination, where is it? Why? What can we do about it? What testing remains? Could this project be redesigned to work better? What other funding could help keep that project alive? So before anything is decided, I'm asking you all to ask for a clear picture and then to help establish a public path forward for railroad avenue and this project as far as what my interest is there the melissa maser foundation has plans to support and invest in this community revitalize railroad avenue and specifically in the electrocultural district my profit or my property is a non-profit cultural hub in north lake charles some of our short-term goals includes using a the facility as a community garden, hosting arts festivals, events, public art, artist departments, and renew cultural activity in and around Dax Theater with the overarching view for Nellie Electric Cultural District. And I will continue, and my organization will continue to work hard regardless of how y'all choose to move and appoint the funds. But residents, businesses, and especially non-profits cannot repair public drainage, sidewalks, streets, lighting, and transit infrastructure by themselves. It's just not feasible. So don't make a choice between the two, regardless of how you choose to vote. I respectfully to ask for you to reconsider how you can operate with the most information possible given to you. So I humbly request that you all wait to decide on what to do until You all have a clear picture. So whenever I call my councilman, he can tell me why this project isn't feasible and why it seems like the city's bent on doing another project.

Mr. President, time has expired.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Next card wants their information read in. Jacob Rafferty.

Donnie give his address as well.

If you 1718 West Common Street. It's my understanding of the soil is not contaminated. There are Avenue location and the bond should not have been redirected to the gospel park project is also my understanding that there's enough funds for both projects. We'd like to see both projects pursued. Now we also have a quarter court for mom Leslie fame 1215 Kirkman Street. And she says she does not desire that information be read in but we will put it in the record.

She says you want to read it.

So let's see.

Mr. Weatherford, you weren't clear. Was that last one in favor of approving item 21 or opposing 21? I didn't catch that.

She says that she thought that the vote for the Gospel Park was a good vote and that if there's enough funds to do both projects, she'd like to see both projects done.

That's kind of a little of both. Right.

Okay. All right. Okay, we also have a request through the request to appear for Council meeting actions for an agenda meeting, but I'm Sierra font know 6675 East Highway 90 lot 25 later all 70615 as Misterio here. All right, we is calling whether she wanted to be read and so I will just make this part of the record as well. Okay, we have a request to speak. Mr. Mack Delafosse.

Yes, on that last one. I don't know if you said if they were for or against. We're trying to.

Okay, let's see. Okay. It looks like she's basically concerned about the condition of the sidewalks because it can be – she has some – she does go to Axe Theater a lot, and it looks like she has some disabilities, I guess, with mobility, and the sidewalks, she has concerns about the sidewalks around there. Okay, Mr. Delafosse, name and address for the record.

Mac Delafosse, 1917 19th Street, Lake Charles.

So I'm not here to speak out against the proposed movement of the funds. I think I would like to know a little bit more what Mr. Moritz was talking about in terms of how much money we're talking about being moved and the reason why he would want to reconsider this. I also come to you speaking from a resident of Central Lake Charles. When we talk about, you know, the things that you guys want to do with the Gosport Center, one of the things that I remember is there was a lot of FEMA funds that were utilized in rebuilding a lot of the things that were damaged in the Gosport Rec Center. And I don't know how much that was. Perhaps this board or someone can tell me how much that was that was used to refurbish the center. So now I understand you want to tear down and build a new one. So that brings me to the point where When I look at how many centers North Lake Charles has, I think it's three going on four, right within from broad on back. And we have nothing in the central part of the city in regards to a recreation center. The only thing you have is in Derrick Drive. So I don't know if funds can be utilized somewhere else, but you have the MLK Center, you have the Gospel Center, you have Price Miller Center, and I think Ward 3 is the property that was destroyed by the hurricane. They have something else going there too. It's just an idea that I would love for you guys to consider, instead of tearing down a perfectly good building, is to look at those funds and do something somewhere else that would be utilized for a central part of the city. If not, I'm pretty sure those folks that drove here today will know that the magnitude of the flooding that we encountered, so that money could also be used somewhere else. So that's mainly what I wanted, and I think It would benefit everybody to know how much money was used in that center because it was refurbished. And to tear a good building down and the bones are good, the structure is good, just to put another building up. And I don't know if this is going to be one of those resume you see hubs that we're also talking about. If not, that's another thing that's going in North Lake Charles. And I hate to split the city up, but I'm just saying if you look at the city and you want to divide it, then that's the only way we look at it. But there's nothing in the central part of the city. We talk about a resiliency hub that's going to come up here later. There's nothing in the central part of the city, or South Lake Charles for that matter. So there's just a lot of funds being used, and I would love for us to be able to see it somewhere else. Thank you.

Thank you. We also have a email from Rain Nations who is, looks like, in support of, also has concerns about the sidewalks in that area. So we'd like to see us do some improvements there. I don't see that there's any commentary about whether it's good or bad for the is neutral or doesn't discuss the Gosport Park, but it talks about investing in railroad Avenue. Enhancing that area would enhance economic opportunity and be in support of the arts as acts theater is there. Also have another email support from Garrett manual. And he is also associated with acts and discusses about the needs for enhancements in the road Avenue area in the Nellie Lutcher cultural district. Let's see if Mr. manual has this. There's no address here, so. We also have a request to appear before Council, JoJo Alexander. And he discusses the Dixie Theater that was that is now owned by Ms. Melissa Maser. I assume that is the old Axe Theater as well. So I'm familiar with that building. It is an old historic building. And just is in support of some improvements being done in that area as well. Okay, we have a e-mail from Lydia Delcambre, 1208 Texas Street, Sulphur, Louisiana, 70663. And she is asking us to not reallocate funds from Railroad Avenue project to the Gosport Park expansion. and talks about is to restore critical, um, everyday infrastructure, um, that would, um, help, um, restore that area of town. Okay. You're here. Okay. Okay. Um, please approach my end. Um, when you get to state your, uh, of course RSA, your name and address, but if you could do that for the record and then discuss your, um, what you'd like to see happen.

Hi, everyone. Hi, council members. I'm Lydia Delcambre. I'm from Sulphur, Louisiana, but I work downtown. And I'm working with the Melissa Mazur Foundation to help with acts. I have already learned a lot tonight, so thank you all for allowing us to come out here and listen to what you all want to provide for us. I'm here tonight to strongly urge you to not reallocate the grant funds from the Railroad Avenue project over to the Gaussport park expansion i understand sorry guys i'm still warming up i got all wet out there i understand why shifting these funds to a park is appealing from a leadership perspective park expansions are highly visible positive projects that constant constituents can see and enjoy but we can catch a constituent eye and gain their support while still focusing on critical infrastructure Restoring the streets, lighting, and drainage on Railroad Avenue can be done in a way that is just as visually stunning, modern, and transformative for this neighborhood. Our community received these grant funds to restore critical everyday infrastructure that our citizens desperately needed after a major storm. Walking away from Railroad Avenue because testing revealed soil contamination or other things or inconclusive things. Avoiding that out of financial caution is an outdated approach to engineering, assuming that the city stopped the project because traditional dig and dump excavation is too expensive and risks liberating the toxic particles out into the air and the water. I get that. But there is a modern, cost-effective alternative that allows us to restore community infrastructure without breaking deep ground. We can do bio-autonomy and nature-based solutions. So instead of deep excavation, we can deploy phytostabilization. By planting specific deep rooted native vegetation along that corridor, we can naturally anchor and lock those contaminants safely in place. On top of this stable layer, we can implement shallow sloped hybrid drainage networks and permeable sidewalks. This completely fixes flooding issues by filtering stormwater horizontally at a surface level, preventing it from ever displacing the deep toxic contamination. Furthermore, we can manage severe heat waves and improve public safety by installing fast growing green canopies on those corridors, like over sidewalks. and off-grid solar kinetic lighting, these smart lights operate autonomously. They require minimal anchoring. This means zero deep trenching into toxic soil. So diverting these funds to a park expansion doesn't fix the broken community infrastructure. It just abandons the residents of Railroad Avenue. And I ask the council to pause this reallocation, look at the science, and safely rebuild the infrastructure. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Okay, and we have a call from Ashley Royer, 900 Cherrydale Street, Lake Charles, 70607. She does not wish to speak but is in support of enhancing Railroad Avenue. All right. Here is from Lauren Fontenot, Studio L Dance Company, 809 Kirby Street. She will provide information if requested, but she does want me to read this into the record, so I will do that. My name is Lauren Fontenot. I'm owner of Studio Dance Company located in Central School. I've been dancing for nearly my entire life, but my real introduction to theater was only 10 years ago when I auditioned to play at Axe Theater. Since then, I have choreographed, danced in, and held rehearsals for numerous shows at Axe. Admittedly, my first impression of the theater was cool, but the surrounding area had me worried a bit, especially at night. With very little lighting and uneven walkways and roads, I'd be lying if I said I ever felt safe outside. I can only imagine what new roads, sidewalks, and streetlights would do for Axe Theater, a home away from home for many of us, and for potential future business nearby as well. Fresh pavement will provide safer travel for everyone, especially disabled performers and patrons of our community. Additionally, it would provide new parking space, eliminating the need to move rehearsals to other venues during bad weather. Our community has so much talent that deserves to be seen by locals as well as those traveling from out of town. There's no need for people to travel elsewhere to see high-end show. We've got all the talent here, and people who travel here to see our productions are more likely to invest in our community. They feel safe and clean. Please consider supporting grant funding for Road, Avenue, and the Historic District to help preserve what we already have and to provide new opportunities for future performers and patrons in our community. Thank you for your time, Lauren Fonda, owner of Studio L Dance Company. Okay, we also have Debbie Braum, 5733 Delord Lane, Lake Charles, 70605. She also would like her statement read into the record.

So here we go.

I strongly support improving the sidewalks and lighting around Axe Theater. I have personally experienced how unsafe this can be. I was I was in the greatest Christmas pageant ever in December 1924, I'm sorry, 2024. And my mother came to watch both her child and her grandchild perform after having knee surgery in February 2024. She had to park across the street because there was no nearby parking to get to the theater. She had to step over a curb and walk directly into the roadway because there was no sidewalks. The area was also very poorly lit, making it even more difficult and unsafe to navigate at night. She came because she wanted to support her family, but no one, especially seniors or those with mobility challenges, should have to risk their safety just to attend a community event. This theater is an important, growing part of our community. Many grandparents, parents, and other family members come to watch their children and grandchildren perform. Adding sidewalks and improving the lighting would make the areas much safer, more accessible, and more welcoming for everyone. I hope you will approve these much-needed improvements to help ensure that all community members can safely enjoy everything our theater has to offer. All right, another information to be read in. Marky Hebert, 1425 La Salette Avenue, Sulphur, Louisiana, 70663, representing Axe Theater. Good evening, my name is Mark Yaber. I'm here representing myself in Axe Theater. I have served on executive board of Axe for the past 10 years and during that time I witnessed firsthand the extraordinary commitment that people have made to this theater railroad avenue and the surrounding community over the years, volunteers, board members, performers. Families, local businesses, and community organizations have contributed thousands of hours of unpaid work to preserve and improve this historic theater. They have cleaned, repaired, painted, raised money, produced shows, welcomed visitors, and worked tirelessly to create something positive for Lake Charles. The proposed repairs and funding for Railroad Avenue project need to remain in place. For too long, it is felt as though Railroad Avenue has been forgotten by the city. This area has an important cultural history, particularly as part of the Nellie Electric Cultural District, but it continues to struggle with inadequate sidewalks, poor lighting, drainage concerns, deteriorating infrastructure, and accessibility problems, and people work to revitalize this area. not asking the city to do everything. We are already doing the work. We're investing our own time, money, energy, and resources. What we are asking is for the city to honor commitment and provide the basic public infrastructure that this neighborhood and its residents deserve. Axe Theater brings people together from across the region. Children perform here, families gather here, artists create here, audiences support downtown business when they attend our production and events. Please do not take these resources away from railroad Avenue Keep funny committed this project and helps preserve the cultural history of this area while building a safer and stronger future for the entire community All right another card scholar Macmillan 35 45 st. Nick Street Lake Charles, Louisiana 70605 representing herself and Storyteller Studios, LLC. She would like this to read into the record. Good evening, my name is Scholar McMillan. I'm submitting these comments on behalf of myself and the Storyteller Studios, LLC. Storyteller Studios recently hosted an inaugural film festival at Axe Theater. It was an exciting opportunity to bring filmmakers, artists, volunteers, organizations, community members together to celebrate creativity and storytelling in Lake Charles. Volunteers, representatives from Axe Theater and other local artists did an incredible job supporting our event. They gave their time, energy, and resources to make the festival successful and welcoming. Their dedication showed how much potential Exeter Road Avenue area have as a home for arts, cultural, film, and community events. Unfortunately, the condition of the surrounding roads, sidewalks, lighting, and other infrastructure make it difficult for attendees to safely and comfortably navigate the area. Guests should not have to struggle with broken and missing sidewalks, unsafe walking conditions, inadequate lighting, or poor access simply because they are attending an event that benefits our community. It is sad to see so many people working hard to improve this area while feeling that they are doing so without adequate support from the city, volunteers, and community organizations that have invested thousands of hours into Axe Theater and Riverwood Avenue, but private citizens and Nonprofits cannot repair public streets sidewalks lighting infrastructure on their own the funding and plan improvements for a road having a project need to remain in place this area has a rich cultural history and tremendous potential, but it needs Meaningful investment from the city. Please support the people who are already working to revitalize Road Avenue Keep the funding committed to this project and help make the area safer more accessible more welcoming for future festivals performances and community events and All right. I have another core Christina Webster for one we have new software we have some of 6, 3, 3. We shall also like the information we ran into the record. I'm giving to understand that the grant funds that were originally allocated for the pruner Avenue in the local culture this year being considered to be diverted another project while the community centers worthwhile project in the collect of the basic infrastructure along railroad Avenue. Should not continue. It is a disservice to the residents as well as anyone looking at the area for future development The there are critical infrastructure repairs that need attention such as road work and sidewalk Walk repairs in the area should the council decide to move forward the reallocation The citizens who live along railroad Avenue deserve to have a timeline and an actionable plan from the city Getting close We also have another card to be read in. Catherine Cole, 1859 Hoyfair Drive. No zip or city. Representing their self. I am writing today with an urgent request. Please give railroad avenue projects a green light and ensure that these funds remain fully dedicated to the Nell Ultra Cultural District. The funding should not be treated as an optional resource that can be redirected elsewhere. Lake Charles has many important needs, but other funding sources exist to support general businesses, nonprofits, and community projects. Nell Ultra Cultural District requires focused investment of its own, especially after years of inadequate infrastructure and limited attention. Most importantly, people who live, work, perform, and attend these events in this neighborhood deserve safe, well-maintained streets, sidewalks, lighting, and public spaces. As a special education educator in Southwest Louisiana, I understand how essential accessibility is. The current condition of this area creates serious barriers for individuals with disabilities, mobility challenges, sensory needs, and other accessibility concerns. A cultural district cannot truly serve the entire community when some residents and visitors cannot safely navigate it. Investing in railroad avenue also makes strong economic sense. The corridor experiences frequent rail traffic, placing this part of Lake Charles in direct view of countless travelers. By repairing the infrastructure, improving its appearance, and creating a safer, more inviting environment, the city can transform an overlooked corridor into a cultural gateway and a stronger driver of tourism. With proper investment in that, an electro-cultural district can become a true gem for the Lake Charles environment destination, where the arts and local non-profit small business families and visitors thrive together, even if other city funds are shifted out so the broader plan where this district must be approved and allowed to move forward. The project is not a luxury investment in public safety, accessibility, economic growth, cultural preservation in the future. City of Lake Charles, I strongly urge you vote to keep the original plan, keep these funds where they can help over 1,600 residents as intended. We have another card from someone that would like to speak. Ms. Amber Hembree. Ms. Hembree, are you still here? And state your name and address for the record and let us know what you'd like to see happen here. Yes, sir.

Hi, welcome. My name is Amber Hanbury. I live at 5020 Pecan Acres Street, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and I would like to speak for the funding to go to Railroad Avenue. Good evening, Mayor, council members, and members of our community. My name is Amber Page, and thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm here because I believe investing in the Nellie Letcher Cultural District and Railroad Avenue is an investment in the future of all of Lake Charles. The question isn't whether we can afford to invest in this district. The question is whether we can afford not to. The Just Imagine SWLA Master Plan found that 82% of respondents said that they would visit a Nellie Lutcher district with restaurants, gathering spaces, and entertainment. It also found that 90% of respondents supported investing in the district's natural and cultural resources. Those numbers tell us that our community believes in this vision. The same master plan says art celebrates the history and culture of a region in the way that little else can. It also states that creative industries are key to the future economic growth of southwest Louisiana. This project isn't just about preserving history, it's about creating opportunity. Nationally, the art and cultural sector contributed $1.2 trillion to the US economy in 2023, supporting 5.4 million jobs and making up to 4.2% of our nation's GDP. Americans for the Art also found that nonprofit arts and cultural generated $1.15.7 billion in economic activity and $29.1 billion in tax revenue. These numbers show that the arts are not simply an expense, they are an investment that can generate economic growth. The Nellie Letcher Cultural District already has something priceless, history, music, culture, and a legacy of one of Lake Charles' greatest artists. Nellie Letcher put our city on the national stage. We have the opportunity to build a destination that honors that legacy while creating new opportunities for local artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Imagine a district that hosts art walks, concerts, food festivals, cultural celebrations, and community events throughout the year. Those events bring visitors to in our restaurants shop in our stores say in our hotels and support local businesses that activity creates jobs increases sales tax revenue and encourages additional private investment goes for already serves an important role by providing recreation and community space for residents then Ellie lecture cultural district can serve a different but equally important role as a cultural and tourism this destination these neighborhoods don't have to compete they can come compliment one another. A thriving cultural district has the potential to bring new visitors and new revenue into Lake Charles. As our local economy grows, so does our ability to invest in other priorities across the city, including parks, infrastructure, community centers, and neighbors like Gooseport. The Just Imagine SWLA Master Plan reminds us that development attracts more development. When we invest in projects that bring people together... Ms. President, time has expired. Okay, but I am in favor of keeping the funds at Railroad Avenue.

You need a motion and a second and a vote.

It's okay.

Thank you.

All right, we have another card. You're sure oh good here as or 617 pelican drive. It is in support and does not want them need information read into the record. Another card. I was that that I was and I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that right. And she would like to speak. So if you could, proceed with the microphone and name and address for the record and state your case.

My name is Miriam Abouzed. My address is 129 Abella Way, Seoul for LA, but I am a Lake Charles business owner and participate with the Melissa Maser Foundation. So, first, I want to say I appreciate sitting around this conversation. I really enjoyed hearing everyone's voices, opinions. I've heard a lot of practicalities and a lot of creative possibilities. I do hope my words can touch between the two of these. This fund reallocation should not only be paused for acts, but for the greater I-10 corridor area. This area, how often are we driving past it? Close your eyes for a second. Think about driving past Enterprise. What do you see? A gas station, some empty lots. busted infrastructure. Now close your eyes and imagine a restaurant, an art house, a little festival space, an Airbnb. Some people mentioned housing, rental housing for artists. All of these things are possible for our area and very sustainable in cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which I do believe Lake Charles will be seeing transplants from in the coming 10 years. We deserve and have people willing, creative individuals willing to create a space for them, but as Joshua Mazur has stated, we cannot do that for streets. We can do that for art houses and buildings and businesses. We look to our city to support us in our drainage and our lighting and keeping us safe. I do ask that you pause this fund reallocation and continue to support creatives who want to stay in Lake Charles and bring further residents who do not depend on big conglomerate businesses or alternative. There is a reality in which Gosport does get funding and continues to grow in its recreation for children, which I do believe was mentioned. They have some already. But when you once again look at that I-10 corridor, what do you see? And what could you see? So once again, I just ask that you please pause that funding and keep it with Railroad Avenue. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. We also have a card from Rebecca, Rebecca Guillory, just the lane like Charles, Louisiana, representing other railroad avenue. I believe it is in the community's best interest to keep the funds where they were originally planned for and focus on the restoration of what we have instead of the expansion. And the last card we have Kathy Heath, 1535 John Drive, Lake Charles, 70605, representing Axe Theater. Also wants this read into the record. We can't ignore the need to support Railroad Avenue, the Nellie Electric Cultural District and the residents there. Sidewalk streets and additional lighting or critical infrastructure repairs. This project needs to move forward as planned if the funds are moved Then the city needs to have a plan in place to address the needs identified for railroad Avenue and provide people with the reason the Project is no longer feasible. There are four or more empty loss on railroad Avenue the potential for business and residential growth as much as is much, I can't read, is much higher than the other project. Regardless of where the grant money goes, the Railroad Avenue project needs to move forward. We need an action plan and timeline from the city as the current president of Axe Theater, which is a longstanding community opportunity for the arts, ask that you consider this. So that's all the cards that we have. Any questions or comments from the council? And then I'll go to the administration.

Yes.

Yes, sir.

First of all, I want to expound on why I wanted to change my vote. When we originally went into discussions about this, we were told by the administration that we were on a deadline, that we couldn't do any new projects. that the area was contaminated. And so we fought it, we asked, Mr. Harvey asked in a meeting I said with Mr. Harvey and Mr. Bilbo with the administration where we asked, okay, if we're gonna do this, let's be transparent with the community. Let's come forward and tell them why we're moving the money, what the reasoning is behind it. And we all agree, hey, we were at a standstill at that point. So I thought because of the contamination, because of the deadlines and we couldn't have any new projects. Well, upon further digging and further, I wrote to OCD and found out that the deadlines was in October of this year. So at that time, we lost almost a year talking about this, being told that we couldn't do any new projects, and we were under a deadline. Then I did some more research and I found out unless the administration has some new documents that they came up with in the last week or so, that there was no contamination in the area that we were looking to do the project in with the last administration. So at that point, I felt like I had let the community down. because we were told one thing and that wasn't so. And part of this funding allocation, by the way, the funding allocation is approximately $4 million. And we were told all of these things. And one of the requirements was we had to have a community meeting prior to making this decision. Those cards prove that we were out of line. We shouldn't be voting on this without having the community input meeting. The mayor himself told me that OCD said that we had to have community meetings, that these were all new projects. So we needed to go to the community for input about this. Not only that, if the area is not contaminated, why can't we do whatever the project that Mr. Harvey had brought forth for Railroad Avenue? Why can't we do it? My decision was based on what we were told. And I didn't want us to lose the money. I thought the Gospel Project is and was a good project, but Railroad Avenue needs work. It's been neglected for years on top of years on top of years. And finally, we got some money to help that community. And now we're finna move it again. And we don't have to. We don't have to. So I'm asking the council to consider if it were your neighborhood. I know a lot of people say, oh, mind your district and other. I'm a city councilman for Lake Charles. This is the Lake Charles City Council. We make decisions on the whole city when it's laid before us. And these are one of those situations from the cards, from what we know, that community needs this money. That community should have this money. And that's why I'm asking, if I'm not mistaken, the vote at the time was six to one. Mr. Villanueva was the only one that voted against it. I'm going on record this time and saying I'm changing my vote and I'm against it as well. That money should stay at Railroad Avenue.

OK, a couple of questions. What administration decided to not fund this project?

If you don't mind, I'd like to give the, I think I can answer all the things that have come up if I could just get the chance to. I can tell you about everything. Yeah, come on. I think they're on my feet, so I'll get up to them.

MR. PRESIDENT, WHILE HE'S WALKING UP, MAKE SURE BEFORE Y'ALL SUBMIT IT TO A VOTE, I WANT TO MAKE SURE I OUTLINE FOR Y'ALL EXACTLY WHAT A YES AND A NO VOTE IS ON THIS SO WE DON'T HAVE ANY CONFUSION.

I KNOW THERE'S A LOT OF CONCERN ABOUT RAILROAD AVENUE. I CAN TELL YOU, WHEN MY ADMINISTRATION CAME INTO OFFICE, THAT PROJECT WAS ALREADY CANCELED BY THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION. At that point, I didn't ask why or anything else. All I knew is that there was some concerns about if there was any type of environmental issues out there. So this was $4 million that needed to be either, we had three options. We either send it back to the federal government, or we put it in an existing project that already been approved, or we propose something, some other place to put it. The railroad avenue, once all this came up, and I talked to you about that, I didn't mislead or misstate anything. There's actually an environmental assessment on this area. The entire railroad avenue corridor is 3.1 acres. That area had a phase one environmental study done. And these types of funds, disaster recovery funds, these are not normal taxpayer funds. These are grant monies that's allocated for disaster recovery. Those funds required an environmental assessment on any site that those funds were going to be used for. An environmental assessment was done. It's like 960-something pages worth of assessment that was done. And they found various areas in and around that site that had some environmental concerns. In fact, as I recall, I didn't look at this until this came up to go and see exactly what. My administration has been moving toward how best to put these monies where we can actually use them in our community. What the previous administration had done with them was not my concern. All I knew is that there was $4 million that was available to do something with, and my option was not to send it back to the federal government. So afterward, and I did send the environmental assessment to each of the councilmen, one thing that it did show, it showed that within .1 mile of that particular area study, there had been a Superfund site. That's within walking distance. There was other records of environmental contamination in various places. There's no testing that showed any type of environmental contamination. They're just going based on the records. Based on those records, the study required that a phase one would not be enough. They required a phase two. A phase two meant that now you had to go into other people's properties and start drilling into their yards and starting to see if there is contamination. And I'm familiar with that, not only through my law practice, but when we did the Enterprise Boulevard extension, when we started doing that extension, we ran into an issue, too, where we had to do a phase two environmental assessment in one part. And when we did go and drill on a private piece of property, we hit a tank that was full of leaded gasoline, and we had to take emergency measures to get that out. It was across from a daycare center. So I would imagine that the previous administration realized that that was a phase two environmental assessment that needed to be done and said look uh if that's the case this may not this may not qualify for these funds anyway and cancel the project we come into office and there's there's those that that project is already canceled and you're right mr marks we had an original deadline with these funds we worked with uh with the off the community development uh primarily because of the time that we delayed on the sports complex and they did give an extension The extension comes to my office, I just think it's for the sports complex. But the fact of the matter is, the deadline is October 15th. The consultants require 90 days to get anything in that the government requires. That 90-day deadline was July 15th. So we came to the council with this particular deadline. this particular project for a reason. To those that are part of the acts theater community, I understand exactly what you're saying. When I grew up, that was the Dixie Theater. I used to go watch the Bruce Lee movies there. This past weekend, I was at the Britannia Theater in New Orleans, a 114-year-old theater in the middle of a neighborhood. I know the arts and culture and what it could do. But this particular pot of money could not be used to go after this project. And we didn't move money. That project was canceled. That money was not there anymore. So that money was sitting out there and then needed to have something done to it. So in looking around, we weren't going to give the money back. We could have put in an existing project that had already been approved. But we looked around and saw what would be the highest and best use. There was talk about multiple parks in the North Lake Charles area. What is unique about Gosport is something that occurred right when my administration came in. a swimming pool was put in there. There's no other swimming pools in the northern part of Lake Charles. There used to be one at Price Miller, but that was destroyed from the hurricane. a brand-new swimming pool. You also had a splash pad that was there for years that they didn't make the parts anymore. It's nonfunctional. The building that was referenced was built in the 1940s. You know, my faith says you don't put new wine in old wineskins. So I said there's an opportunity here to do something transformative. But Gosport wasn't just a project, and my thoughts my administration's goal is not just to spend money it's to invest money and get a return to our community so when you look around the gospel at recreation center and you look around many of those areas and this council is very familiar with it there's a lot of empty property now because a lot of homes didn't survive the hurricanes they got they got demolished but you have empty lots throughout this neighborhood around here You've got existing streets, water, sewer, electricity, all the infrastructure that would normally be placed, and the taxpayers have already invested in that. So I saw it as an opportunity for infield development. And infield development in this area, which is outside the 500-year floodplain, makes sense to put in housing, but you build recreation centers around that. So that was the infield development, but we also did it for a second reason. And it's a personal reason to me, because when I was first about to come into office, there was a high school graduation party on University. And it was at an Airbnb. Word got out on social media. Everybody came to this place, and they had a shooting, and a 16-year-old didn't go home that night. And I realized that our children do not have safe places to just go out and be children. And I think our recreation centers are going to be those places. I think a place like Gosport, in the middle of a community, in a swimming pool when we're dealing with 100-degree days, is a very good investment in our community. I think a place where we can have people go through detectives like they went through here and have a clear bag policy and let our kids go in means that 16-year-olds are going to go home that night. So this was a project that was already canceled. And I can tell you, Railroad Avenue will not be forgotten. I am gonna try to find ways to get this done. And if anyone doesn't believe it, I challenge them to come up with something better. But I know that Gosport is in immediate need. The children of our city have immediate needs. The infield development to find affordable and quality housing is immediate need. And I will stand on that all day long. These fund restrictions were in place before I came in. We are past the deadline that the consultants need to get this done. We passed this. It is passed. It has already been announced at one of the summer camps that this was coming. We put out a video to give the people what's coming because I hear the same thing you hear about lack of investment in the community. And I hope that we can get something done in the next year. The community is going to require lift because of the concerns out there. But gospel gospel, it checks a lot of boxes. So I'm going to ask this council. There's no misleading done. There's nothing. There's no hidden agenda. This this project was already canceled when we came in. I'm just trying to invest these funds in a way where we're going to improve our quality of life, get housing for people, give our children a safe environment to just be children and allow community to grow. I wish you wouldn't change your vote Mr. Martin I wish this was a 7-0 vote to support this because this is a very very transformational project and I heard the concerns about the central city the same thing we're looking at in Yuba Park we're not stopping that just here but this is the funds there's a fund there's a deadline and we're just trying to make this work so All I can say is that this is the recommendation that the council made that the administration made to the council. The council passed it. That ordinance is required for us to to put that into the change of scope for also community development, which they've already they already aware of it. So if we if you go back and reverse this and take those funds out, I have no other place to put them. I'm not gonna give them to the federal government, we're just gonna put them in another project. But they cannot go back to Railroad Avenue because until a phase two environmental is done and shows that that is environmentally safe, those funds will not be applicable for that particular area. Any other questions?

Yeah, Mr. President. And I was talking, I went to a meeting last week and I found out this information and I was asking questions since we didn't we didn't turn this down and I'm just I believe like magdala falls I believe I wanted something in the central late Charles too but I wouldn't take anything from not late Charles because that's where it was designed to go And today I get so many calls about people complaining about kids playing basketball at night or on the sidewalk or in streets. I believe that Gospel Direct believes you need to have this. We need to have somewhere We complain about the kids fighting behind the civics and we complain about them doing things. I believe that we should have had a place that they can go and secure and be kids, monitored. And if we couldn't, and which I was told we couldn't go back and spend the money on Railroad Avenue, even though Railroad Avenue believes, I believe it need all the faith living it can. Like I went to the Dixie, Bruce Lee, King Kong, Godzilla. I do believe all that. I'm willing to share... some of my money that I got to district C to help with the sidewalks. If we if we concerned about sidewalks and lighting, we can give them that. But if we can't give them money to redo the whole thing because of this phase two, let's let's give them the sidewalks. I think together we can come together and say, hey, whatever it costs to get the sidewalks, the lighting. But I was told, because I went to the meeting, that we couldn't give them back the money that was taken away because of we can't do this phase two. So me, I won't ask to secede. Let's come up with what it's going to take to get the sidewalks, the overlay, whatever it is that's going to give them what they need, but still take care of gospel because I get calls about kids playing basketball. I didn't grow up where we had a full court. We played basketball on the street. So let's give them that could be here to support the kids. I don't. Is it enough money to do both anyway?

I don't think so.

So it's not enough to money to do both. I'm just trying to get the questions acts that people are going to acts. Uh, is it possible us to get these sidewalks? everything fish can we get have a meeting so we can get a plan to fix these sidewalks and lighting and what else y'all got a concern for and that that particular area mr president no i'm just can i i think that's not part of this discussion Wait, didn't the city offer this at one time, right?

No. This Railroad Avenue is in CAPTA Improvement campaign. So there is already in the queue for different things. It may not be what was planned on this particular, with these particular funds, which can't be used. But yeah, as I said, Railroad Avenue is not gonna be forgotten.

But I'm talking about if we vote to take this money away from Gosport, we can't spend it on – Cannot. We can't spend it. No. So we'll be taken away and have nothing to do with it. Right. Okay.

Mr. President, may I speak? Oh, go ahead, Mr. Beeson. Yeah. I just feel it's necessary to speak about my vote because it was a 6-1 vote, and I want to make sure everybody understands why I voted the way I did. It has nothing to do with Gosport Park or Railroad Avenue. I believe what Mr. Delafal said. I don't know how much money we spent on that building, but I've driven by it several times, and it looks to be in good shape. I understand, Mr. Mayor, it's an old building, but I want people to understand that's why I thought it was better to invest the money somewhere else. Nothing opposed to Railroad Avenue. But so I wanted to clarify that. Let me ask you this, so what you're saying is we can't move forward with this expenditure on Railroad Avenue if, like it is, with just a phase one. We need a phase two in order to do that, and we don't have time. And my next question was what Mr. Bilbo said. And I know it's a conversation for later, but what then do we do at Railroad Avenue? Because I never saw this spirited, Following for railroad Avenue the last time we discussed this and I don't I don't I don't remember this many people coming in support of it But we need to look in the future and I trust you and I'm gonna trust the administration that we will because if not this What do we do at railroad Avenue? I I did visit there a lot when I was a kid the Red Star drugstore I don't know if y'all some of y'all remember that mr. Harvey owned it, but we have to do something for road Avenue and if these funds are not available Then I agree But I know this is about, do we revisit the vote? And I was the only vote no, and I don't think that's gonna change the decision. But I want people to understand what my reasoning was for that. So, thank you.

Mr. President, we always talking about transparency. I got a letter right here from OCD, sent to the mayor, dated April 16th, 2026. One of the topics on here is cancellation of the LCRR Avenue revitalization. This is a letter sent on April 16th on this administration where this was canceled. It was tied to the sports complex based upon contingencies. They know the letter I'm talking about. The second thing is, Why haven't we gotten any documentation of contamination? We're talking about a phase one. That's all mouth. I spent a whole weekend reading up on this, this original contamination that that occurred on the integer site. It came out and I think it was 1988 that it all happened. By 2005, it was all capped off. Let me tell you how I know this. River Road are building two and $3 million houses on River Road. Part of the contempt, they went so far as to put brick pilings in the river to support it. They kept the whales off. All we talking about is word of mouth. Where's the documentation that shows we need a phase two? Where's the documentation that shows that area from East Rhine Street as far west as Enterprise Boulevard is contaminated? You go and you read it. Everybody can go and chat GPT. It was a contamination site at the integer site. That's what happened there. They said in that one area, the best development for that area would be commercial. But I'm looking at River Road built two and three million dollar houses. Same distance. Let me finish, man, please. We get in front of people and we tell them that it happened on the last administration. It did not. That letter that we all received stated April 16th, 2026, cancellation, sports complex, has the CEA with the Rita Contrita. That's on the letter. That's not no made up. We said in a meeting, me, Mr. Bilbo was there, Mr. Harvey was there. When Mr. Harvey asked him, let's go to the public and tell them what is contaminated, why it's contaminated, and let's make a statement to this so we wouldn't have discussions like this. We were supposed to have a community input meeting because we were told we couldn't have no new projects. And it comes back and find out we can have new projects that warrants community input. Mr. Visanoff, that's why you didn't hear all these things. Because we didn't give them the opportunity. Just like the other new projects. We are mandated by OCD to have community input. But we got designs and things put out. We got announcements made before we even had all the information. Now, if it's a contamination, let's get the documentation. Put it in front of us.

Mr. Marks.

I believe we did receive that on July 29th. It was forwarded from Renee. It's a 960-page document.

No, that's a document stating what happened. There's nothing on that. Show me on there where it says it's contaminated. And if it's contaminated, show me the areas that's contaminated.

Section nine says that it requires, you said there was no, you saw nothing say in the phase two. Section nine of that report said a phase one showed areas of concern and it was requiring a phase two.

Okay, where is it contaminated? I asked you in the meeting, Mayor, what areas are contaminated?

That's all we're asking. That's why you do a phase two.

Okay, so why we didn't do it? What if it's not contaminated? You have to ask the previous administration. Mayor, there's a letter dated April 16th that say this was canceled. April 16th of 2026.

I think we can keep going. No, Mayor.

We have our right. We can't miss. This is $4 million that we are talking about taken from a community. And I'm listening to this. This scripted, put together thing. Yes. It was contaminated at one time. But tell me how people are building $2 and $3 million houses in the same area. Why can't we just tell the public, hey, let's do the phase two. These areas are contaminated and we don't have to worry about it no more. But we've been told things to rush our vote. We shouldn't even be voting without the community input. That's a requirement.

Did we have community input there on the new project?

These are actually, these meetings are actually community input. These are public meetings.

So these meetings are the public input? Wow.

Guys, look. Hold on. I will say this. Mr. President. Let me be very clear.

One at a time. Mayor came in a meeting like this and told me personally, OCD said we had to have community input and we had to have meetings. He said he was going to ask them if we could use these meetings as it. I said, man, that's not going to work because the input. We never went back to that. We never went back to that.

So that's why these people are coming here now to put their input in there. and as a council, we done voted on this, and obviously, all of these people didn't show up when we voted, so obviously, we didn't have the information, and it was not clear to the community, but we voted on it as a council. Now, as a council, we're responsible for that. I mean, that project was not canceled until we vote, These projects is just like the previous project with with second harvest. That project is not castle until we vote. But we're not aware of these things.

Mr. Carlisle

I would just I was just gonna say I think we had a meeting with all the council members and the previous city attorney David Morgan tried to explain to all the council members the environmental study the environmental phase one environmental phase two and while that recommendation was given to the previous administration not to move forward with the project and that was a decision of the previous administration that's all I can tell you and he sat down

that's not so mr cardone i was in the meeting and i was in it too and and mr morgan walked through the environmental one and tried to explain what the environment man yeah i can't believe y'all sitting here doing this boy and so it's it's a decision the city council can mr harvey said in a meeting and actual when mr morgan told us about this contamination mr harvey asked let's get documentation the response was i would not open up this door That's what we were told in the meeting. Me, Mr. Bilbo, and Mr. Harvey. We were sitting in the meeting. They said, I would not open this up. All we asked for, give us the proof to give to the community that this area is contaminated.

That's it. I'm changing my votes. Y'all can vote the way y'all want to vote. That's a true statement. That's the true statement what Mr. Morgan stated. It was his recommendation not to move forward with the phase two.

So how far is this from this contamination? We just moved the sports center in the same general area. So how far is that, all of these existing contaminants, do we have the report back on the sports complex for as contamination? Do we have that report now?

Then it passed. Wait, wait, hold on.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Watch how you talk to me. I'm about as patient as I can be with this. I'm sitting here at the invitation of the council. I can go up to the 10th floor and go back to work. OCD, the state has approved the site for the sports complex, which means it has past environmental concerns.

Where's the documentation for Railroad Avenue that proves that it's contaminated? That's all I'm asking.

Just so you know, I really do not have a respect for the property owners. It's not something we should talk about in a public forum, but all of you were provided with a copy of this Phase 1, and I'm looking at it right now. And I'm looking at executive summary, and if you look at the last sentence, to say that there are no issues is not correct. The last sentence of the executive summary makes it very clear that there are issues with the property. The opinion at the very end of phase one on page 23 makes it very clear that there are RECs with the property. So to say that there's not issues is not correct. And there are a lot of issues identified and associated with a phase two. And the last administration made it very clear in a meeting I was present at, so was Mr. Cardone, so were you, that the decision was made not to pursue a phase two. And this property could not be developed and this program could not go forward without a phase two.

And that decision was made in the last administration. What properties, Mr. Stutes? I'm looking at the report. I understand. I read the same report you read. But nobody is saying the property, that the contaminated area was the integer site.

That's not correct. That's not what this is saying.

All I'm asking for is proof for those areas. It's on page 23. No, it's in the executive summary.

What areas? Okay. I'm not going to argue with you about what it says. I'm not going to argue back either. Y'all have it.

Yeah, it says that there's contamination. It doesn't state specifically where the contamination may be.

I mean, I really don't want to read from this report in a public meeting.

What happens is a phase one environmental is basically a look-see. If there's areas of concern, then they require phase two. The phase two actually drills down and finds out It's an actual soil sampling where you find the exact areas. They don't have a, the administrator decided we're not gonna do a phase two. Now, if you wanna find out the exact areas, that has to be a phase two. But there's a number of property owners that would have to give permission to go into their properties. And that's, I think that might be the reason why they didn't.

And they're not required to do that.

They are not.

We cannot force them to do that.

Mr. President, I was on the last administration. The person that they're talking about from the last administration, when they say they sat in a meeting, that was the same meeting that me, Mr. Bilbo, and Mr. Harvey was in. They said exactly what they're saying right now. And I ask the same thing I'm asking right now. Prove that that area that was supposed to have the project is contaminated. That's all I'm saying. And for the sake of this discussion, we can go ahead and vote. We can go out and vote. I told you what my purpose here was to change my vote.

If y'all are ready to vote, I'll.

Any other comment, Mr.

Anybody else have anything to go before I make my statement?

I'd say, real quick, I do think, it's been a while since I've been down River Avenue, but I'm quite sure that sidewalks need to be around. I think we should. And there is a couple, right, there's some money, I guess, set aside. I'm not sure how much, but there's some set aside to do that. So I think we'd certainly need to take a look at that.

Mr. Weatherford, I can comment. We don't have $4 million to do Railroad Avenue. That was originally put in. Right, but it's not going to cost $4 million to restore sidewalks. We have money in the overlay program this year to do part of Railroad Avenue. We're putting money in it next year's capital to do the overlay. The road needs it. We acknowledge that. It's going to get done, and that part of it is in the budget.

So a lot of the concerns were at the sound line. Most of the concern was about the sidewalks.

No, no, I understand what you're saying.

But from today's discussion, the primary issues that were discussed were infrastructure, and it was mostly the sidewalks and lighting. And I guess we could get with energy regarding the lighting. And now we can light the street. We can't light private property. The city is not allowed to do that. But we can certainly light the streets. And I haven't been there in a while, and I haven't been there at night. So I think... At least I think two or three of the councilmen and probably all are in support of trying to improve the sidewalks and the road and the lighting there, which can be done for a lot less than $4 million, or I have money allocated to overlay the road in phases. And there's a lot of street, I mean, not to get into it, Certain areas need this and that. I mean, Sail Road is in dire need of repair, and it will be being done in phase, or I guess in the second phase of the Lake Charles Rebound project. And I know that in Mr. Young's district, Sally Street's going to be redone, but that is a Hurricane Rita project that was delayed for a lot of good reasons, but that's also an issue that we need to.

There's many areas of the whole community that could use some road improvements and drainage improvements.

So just wanted to go on record that I am supportive of improving that area. And I understand that we really don't have time. The phase two can't be done and completed by the time of the deadline. And we're not even sure if we can do a full phase two because we would have to have private individuals agree to have drilling done on their property, which they cannot be compelled to do.

That is correct.

Before Mr. Harvey speaks, and if we start putting out public information about people's private property, would that give them a chance that their property value would decrease by we just putting out information that in public about what could be on their private property, and if so would happen, who would be liable? We're talking one of the not as fortunate areas of the town. So we would do this phase two and find out that it's on someone's private property that they got an issue, who would have to take care of it? Would that be on the city or would that be on the people's, their self?

Just opinion.

If you own property that is environmentally contaminated, you're ultimately the responsible person along with the people in chain and title all the way back to the person who actually did the polluting. That's why when you get mortgages and everything else, environmental assessments are part of any type of property transfer because nobody wants to assume that liability.

No one wants to be in that chain of title. No one understands the potential liability who really wants to be in that.

But you've done it when you say an area needs a phase two. Whether the city does the phase two or not, you're already telling the area that something is wrong with it with no proof.

Sir, you had something that you wanted to come back with questions that I have based off of that. I am a grant writer. So at one point, this railroad Avenue project was approved, and the need was deemed suitable for that federal grant. Okay. So I understand that if y'all don't vote and I'm sorry for y'all to be in this position. So obviously you would need to vote to make sure Gosport gets that money instead of just going away. However, As a person heavily invested in my entirety of my life savings and the railroad Avenue. Y'all definitely have my permission to come and do a phase two on my property. And I guarantee you the majority of people there will agree also, you can't say there might be a potential issue. I have patrons that come here, I have family, I live in an RV for a period of time. So my question is, if the grant was canceled, we can't turn around and just say, oh, well, we're at the deadline here now for the phase two. Because if it was, y'all, this isn't your full-time job, I understand that. Y'all work with the items and the information given to you. However, whenever the previous administration canceled that project, Did it get brought to vote? Were you all aware or understood the significance of what would happen when that project was canceled and what it would mean? How much does a phase two cost? My understanding was that it's between four to eight weeks for a phase two. Why hasn't there been a discussion beforehand to see, hey, I got a new administration.

I want to take care of things.

And this isn't a pointed comment towards you or where the money needs to go. But my concern isn't any less. whether or not the city comes up with the funds i have plans to put community parks in and use that entire space and i own about a fifth of that block right there at the 800 railroad avenue and reed street area that i've set aside as stewardship and for public use and perpetued so it's very important especially if i'm going to be doing any type of projects there for the community for my non-profits or out of my non-profits what the issue is so if anything Mister mayor it gave me more questions and I encourage you I don't want to speak offline about it I want everything transparent because if I have these questions other people are going to have the questions too. So with respect I don't want to sidebar after the meeting with you about it. I would just like to know because as a grant writer this kind of it intrigues me where the money Understand where it is. But why was the decision made and that's a question you're gonna have to figure out from the previous administration But I do encourage you all to hold yourselves accountable for the actions that you and For your constituents, okay Yeah, I get it. It could decrease property values But I don't think they can get much worse than what they already are on railroad Avenue. All right, and So regardless have an actionable plan appreciate all y'all's candor and support for that area and I'm sure the residents do too because whenever I canvass the area last week leading up to this the majority I'm just didn't care because how marginalized they feel three minutes is expired mr. president so this project was approved

Am I understanding it right? It was approved.

That is not correct. I just got off the phone with Mr. Morgan. He specifically said that there was a resolution that authorized proceeding with CDBGR proposed grant funding and that originally Railroad Avenue was intended to be part of that. that the phase one came back the way it did we've all seen it and that based upon mr. Morgan's recommendation to the previous mayor plans were abandoned to pursue a grant in favor of railroad that is correct it was not specifically brought before the council and no vote was done to dedicate funds to railroad Avenue in It was part of the list of projects that were envisioned. The phase one was obtained. When the phase one was obtained and it says what it says and there's no reason to argue anymore about what it says, Mr. Morgan's recommendation to Mayor Hunter was to abandon any efforts to pursue this grant at Railroad Avenue. And that's exactly what transpired. That's exactly what he told us in the meeting. But he just confirmed that to me in a phone call.

My question is, when FEMA approves a project, Is all the stuff done or do they approve it contingent on other things?

Well, there's various levels of approvals.

First of all, this isn't FEMA.

Yeah, it's not FEMA. Not FEMA.

CBG.

Y'all know what I'm talking about. OCD. OCD. So do they approve a project with everything being done on it or not? Simple question. That's my question. Any answer?

The phase one is part of the application process. I understand what you're asking.

Right. So no, they do not. You know, they make they'll give you temporary approval. So they do give you temporary preliminary approval, preliminary approval. You have to do all of these things, including environmental.

So my question is, is the sports complex Preliminary approved with everything else done or not?

The sports complex, the application has been approved. But you still have to do everything environmentally?

You haven't done the environmental.

I'm just I'm speaking in general. I'm sorry, it would kind of change things up on me. But I was just talking about in general how things usually happen, they approve your application. And then you have to do everything to make you know, to have things in place, depending on what you're doing, environmental, all of this other fun stuff. And then they basically give you final approval at that point.

And I'm sorry. Mark, excuse me. But The other thing with the community input, how did we do community input on all these other projects?

Okay, so what the first thing that we had to do was have meetings.

So so we had to add a gender meeting. No.

No, no, these are what I would add the community in the community. Alan August here.

So why did we Why did we change it? for this project. How did we change it for this project? Which this is a new project that the city council approved approved to do. Okay, so do guys for and there was no, it didn't go through that process.

No, because what they what they wanted us to do at this point is basically you're going in and you're doing a new application You do, basically it's like what's considered an amendment to what you had done previously. That does not require you to go and hold a meeting.

My next question is, is there paperwork that we sent to these people on this project that we approved?

Is there any paperwork?

Because we voted as a council on a project that there's no paperwork that none of us were able to see. and we approved it as the council.

Mark, if you could explain to them what is to be submitted by October 15th.

Okay, so listen Mark. When I look at say the Hope Center, I see line item, they doing this, they doing this, they doing that, they doing this. That was sent in to femur, I mean, nothing. Oh, she OCD. And that is how they got they approved that project. Well, right.

Let me just know. Hold on one second. Okay. So we're talking about two different entities here. You have heard you have OCD. Okay. The first, the Hope Center, fire department, the apartment complexes, the new ones that you see in town, and the business incubation or business innovation center, that was done through an action plan. That is, you know, we went to the same places that we did with what I'm about to tell you about in a second. But we had meetings, had community input. But then when the OCD money comes, which is with this, what we're talking about today was funded their process. We had the meetings, but their process is different from the action plan that we have to do for with HUD. They have individual applications that we're required to do. So what we're doing here, you're getting you got approval on doing this project basically is, you know, it's verbal. They gave approval, said, Hey, yeah, this this project do. But now you got to do the application and it has to be in by April. I'm sorry, October 15.

Mark, Max yourself. I want to read something to you. This letter serves as a formal notification from the Louisiana Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery that the project application submitted by the City of Lake Charles as identified in the enclosed project list have been approved or conditionally approved for funding under the resilient Communities Infrastructure Program. Effective changes as of the date of this letter, April 16th, 2026, conditional award of the LC Indoor Rec applications contingent upon Katrina Rita program income CEA execution and cancellation of the Lake Charles Railroad Avenue Revitalization Program. Dated April 16th, 2026. Do you remember that letter? Well, you may not remember it, but we got it. And it states that as of this letter, the railroad avenue was canceled and the indoor sports facility was conditionally approved.

So just to let you know, and this is going back, of course. I can't give the exact date, but last year, 2025, around March or April, when the decision was made, by the former administration to cancel Railroad Avenue, they actually let the state know that. So it just, they actually just never did a letter to cancel it. So I think that's important to keep in perspective.

But regardless of whether, cancel, who canceled, whatever, cancel that. Where's the documentation to prove it? We got a lot of people coming up here saying and making it sound good, but there is no proof to say that that area is contaminated. That's all my point is.

Yeah, I can't answer that.

I don't expect you to. I don't expect you to.

But anyway, that's the that's the process that, you know, you were asking about.

where are we now waiting on mr harvey now yes thank you mr president i want to make sure i'm being very respectful um and what i'm saying first of all i don't want to accuse anybody anything but what i can say i can stand one thousand percent and say i know i'm one thousand percent accurate let's take the filters and emotions off there's some things that are being said that's just not true I'm not about to debate on who's telling the truth or who's not telling the truth, because I know the truth. I've said in these meetings, whether they've been the previous administration or the current administration. Listen, one thing I have said time and time again is that when we're gonna make this decision about the Railroad Avenue project, that we please be transparent, that we please release something to the public, and that we have public meetings. I don't know how many people came up here tonight for number 21, but it's an amazing amount of people who came in support of us not moving the funding. Had we just been proactive versus reactive and communicated with the constituents like I asked a very long time ago, I don't think we would be in this situation. I'm also baffled by the fact that we keep going off of he say, she say, but when we're asking for documentation, we can never get hard evidence. I've asked time and time again that you guys please communicate with me via email. And I'm asking that you communicate with me via email because we keep going back and forth on the he say, the she say, the previous administration, the current administration. i don't take it likely about i get it people going to pick sides and say well that was them and this this is us i get that but there's three councilmen who was a part of this last council council member and a major part of the previous administration is on this current administration it's somehow some people get amnesia when we start talking about particular projects extensively in district a I'm going to say this time and time again, and I apologize to my colleagues to my left and to my right. But time and time again, we spent this first year arguing about projects in District 8. And I've said this from the first project, whether it be the sports complex to the project we're talking about now. We keep talking about one Lake Charles, but at the end of the day, the conversation consistently bees around, what can we derail, deny, or do not approve inside of District 8? And all I've asked for was, hey, let's have clear-cut transparency and communication, and let's let the constituents know what we're doing. It's the reason why these people are speaking out tonight. They're speaking out because they haven't been informed. They've been informed in local community meetings, but they haven't gotten official word like I've asked time and time again, like we've been required to let the community know what we're doing. So we get up here and we have these long, elongated conversations, and it looks like we pitting each other against each other, but it's because every time we walk into a room or we have small group meetings, the narrative shift, the conversation shift. And I almost think it's intentional. So again, I wanna make sure I'm respectful in what I'm saying, but I know I'm truthful in what I'm saying. And again, I've said time and time again, just put it on paper. Because if you put it on paper or you respond to me in email, the small group meetings are not beneficial. They're not. The narrative changes and the wording changes. I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but I know what I'm saying. And when I say that people have not been truthful with what they're giving us information, that's the reason I voted the way I voted the first time. Listen, I represent District A wholeheartedly. So I would be a fool to not vote for a project of this magnitude that's coming to my district. But I also made my decision based on the fact of what I was told about Railroad Avenue. I just want to make sure I'm clear with that. I'm going to make sure I'm very, very clear with that. And I did it. I know there's going to be some communication and some things I would just rather hold for what I have to say, because I want to make sure I'm being very respectful and very transparent. But I expect the same thing in return. And I'm going to ask again, is if I request some information from the administration, could you guys please respond to me via email? Because it's time and time again I'm not getting a response. just want the truth so i can convey that back to my constituents again tonight my vote is going to stay the same because i'm not going to cast a vote to cancel a project that we've publicly came out and told the people that we're going to build a gospel recreation center that wouldn't be fair to the constituents that we came out and said it but i also want to apologize to the people who are here to advocate for railroad avenue because i initially made that vote based on misinformation So again, my vote will stay the same tonight. And I apologize to everyone on the Railroad Avenue area, because many people don't know, but during my first term, that was the major focal point, was the revitalization of Railroad Avenue, because it is a forgotten area. Most of my calls and most of the complaints come from the Railroad Avenue area. We know it's an underserved area. We know it's been marginalized for a very long time. So I apologize to you tonight that I cannot cast my vote to support the $4 million standard, for whatever reasons it may be. But I also want to say that it just wouldn't be right for me to change my vote, being that we've publicly announced to the constituents what we're doing at Gosport Rec. And at the end of the day, we've made a promise, and people are expecting that. That's all I have, Mr. President.

Mr. Weatherford, do you want me to clarify the vote? If y'all are ready to vote on item 2126-447, a yes vote is a vote to rescind ordinance number 20563 and the funds would no longer be approved and allocated to Gosport. That's a yes vote. A no vote leaves ordinance 20563 intact and the CDBG-DR funds will still be allocated to Gosport. Everybody clear? So a yes vote would rescind the prior ordinance and the funds would no longer be allocated to Gosport. A no vote leaves intact ordinance number 20563 and the funds would remain allocated to Gosport.

Any other questions or comments? Please vote.

Mr. Fondale? Okay. So we have six no votes and one yes vote. The one yes vote was from Mr. Marks.

All right. Moving on. I'm going to go back to public hearings. Item for an orange are in demolition. I say like Charles to enter into an agreement for demolition structure located 1610 Graham Street Allen J Mitchell owner.

Mr.

There is Mr. Hester here.

Mr. President. Yes, sir. To say Mr. Hester some time. This is the one with Project Build a Future.

Okay.

We said last time that we would keep deferring it if they hadn't done the paperwork yet. Do you remember that, Mr. Stoops?

This is the one with Alan Mitchell?

Yes.

Yes, I do remember that. Yes. So you wanted to defer? Yes. Yeah, we did say that, that we would

Okay, so when would you like to defer to?

I said I wanted to hold indefinitely. I don't want to do that, but I would at least say for 60 days. October 7th.

October 7th meeting. Okay, we'll defer this item to October 7th. Please vote. All right, item five, Maritime Demolition Authority-Lake Charles Inerton Agreement for Demolition Structure located at 1703 Winterhalter Street, Bradley Joseph Calais. Armentine Pete, Armentine Pat, Henry Joseph Calais Jr., Lula Marie Calais, Mary Calais, Savoy, Louis Calais, Ruby Marie Calais, Adley Joseph Calais, Gustine Calais, James Phillip Calais, Adele Broussard, Norris Calais, Audrey Mae LeBlanc, and Marjorie Senegal Owners.

Good evening City Council and this is a storm damage structure and you can see in the pictures. It has a lot of interior damage it has route damage as exterior wall damage when the damage all supposed and then to to severe weather damage of the structure and we've had complaints about it being open to the public.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer an erect photograph to the subject property and proof of service through certified mail and appointment of a curator. This is a rehearing from July 1st. Mr. President, please call out to see if anyone is here to speak on this property.

Do we have anyone here present in the room to speak to this item? Okay, seeing none. All right, this is Mr. Fondell's issue. What would you like to see happen here?

So, anybody ever spoke? For this problem.

We've had a lot of complaints about it too. 1515. Okay.

All right, I am 6 and our time demolition of rice a late Charles and her agreement for demolition structure located 2007 7th Avenue meters and want owner.

And this is a residential storm damage structure and you can see in the pictures. There's a lot of damage to the roof, especially in the back of the House. There's exterior wall damage. There's a lot of broken windows on the structure. It's all exposed to the interior of severe weather damage of this structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs the subject property and proof of service through electronic mail. This is rehearing from July 1st. Mr. President, please call out Mr. Antoine should be in attendance.

All right. Mr. Antoine, are you here?

You left.

All right. Did he lead as he had any discussions with staff about what he wants to happen with his staff?

I spoke with Demetrius on several occasions. He lives in Beaumont. He's planning on selling the property, but unimproved. So structure needs to be demolished. So he's not necessarily contesting the demolition.

Okay.

Okay. This is Mr. Bilbo's district.

1515.

All right. Any comments or questions?

Please vote.

All right, I just item seven is deferred to September 2. Item eight and orange are in demolition. I say like Charles and return agreement for demolition structure located 2436 Poplar Street, john lad, James Lee white, Charlie Carter, Willie Rogers, white, Jr. Marie Thomas, Samuel White estate, Florence, he Esprit and Bertha H. Davis owners. And I believe we have a card here from Mr. White is Mr. White still here.

There he is okay.

And Council, you know, yeah, yeah, let him give the condition of the property for us and then if you could come up, thank you, Sir.

We have another storm damage residential structure and you can send the pictures as root there's damage to the roof. Exterior wall damage when the damage all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage of the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs of subject property and proof of service through the Marshal's office and certified mail. This is a rehearing from July 1st.

All right. Thank you. Mr. White?

Mr. Mayor, City Council, my name is James White, 2520 Oak Cliff, Lake Charles, Louisiana. speak on behalf of the family the family is in an agreement that the property need to be demoed they don't have any money to demo it themselves or repair the property so we give it full authorization to the lake charles to take it in their consent to do whatever you need to be all right thank you very much um mr harvey that's your district yes mr mr stews could you explain to mr white how that process is going to work if the city tears it down

Yes, Mr. White, if the city tears down the property, they will actually place a lien on the property for the proceeds of what was expended to demo the property so that if you ever tried to sell the property or get a loan on the property, you would be required to do something about the lien. So you'll actually get a bill for the demo, and if it's not paid, it just shows up as a lien on the property and it follows the property.

But I myself would not only get a bill, the entire members of the- All record owners, yes, sir. All record owners. Yes, sir. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Stutes. My recommendation is 1515. All right.

Any other questions or comments?

Please vote.

All right, I am not an orange already demolition or say like Charles entered an agreement for demolition structure located 1509 Pear Street, Edward Galleon, Jr. And Jules J. Galleon owner subject tax sale state of Louisiana.

This is a residential structure itself to stay on this route damage exterior wall damage when the damage all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage of the structure and we've had a lot of complaints on this House.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs the subject property and proof of service to the appointment of a curator. This is a rehearing from July 15th. Mr. President, the curator made contact with the family, the owner, and the curator, and possibly family members here to speak or answer questions.

And I think their representative, Mr. St-Dizier, is here to speak.

I have not spoken with the record. I'm sorry. I'm Charlie Sandy J. Address is 616 Broad Street. And I'm the appointed curator for this family. I have not spoken directly to either of the 2 record owners. I've spoken with Edward galley and son Edward galley on the 3rd who represents to me that the family is very interested in making every effort to we have the property I am now asking for simple. CONTINUANCE OF THIS MATTER FOR A PERIOD OF ABOUT 30 DAYS IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH WHETHER THEY'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT OR NOT. I CAN MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS AS TO THAT MATTER RIGHT NOW. Spoken with Congress. Council almost almost promoted you to Congressman. Councilman Harvey, who is in agreement, I believe I can speak for him. He's in agreement with me on that continuance. I will support that continuance if necessary.

30 day deferral will be September 2nd. 60 day deferral will be October 7th. I'm in full agreement. We spoke over the phone.

You want to do 30 or 60?

Let's do 60. October 7th. Here's the only thing. In the communication with them, could you let them know that we've gotten several complaints just about the things that's outside and they can possibly secure the property?

I have conveyed that to the son, and I've given them my contact information. I have to say that I have not heard from them yet, but it's just it hadn't been a week since I did that.

Just to be safe, since we haven't heard from him, could we say 30 days? That way we can come back in a shorter time frame. It's up to you, Mr. Harvey. Let's do 30 days.

I was liking that 60.

Do you feel, honestly, that it would be beneficial to the family and that we could get some closure on it if you had 60 days?

I think we'll know within 30 days whether or not we can do something. So your request is 30 or 60? 30 is fine with me whatever is convenient for y'all.

October 7, Mr. St. DJ, this is the only notice you'll receive is very fine.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Please vote.

All right.

Item 10. And ours aren't demolition, although I say like Charles entered an agreement for demolition of structure located 621 Bank Street. Earl Melvin Anthony Wilts, Danielle Milo Wilts, and Monique Michelle wills owners.

And this is a storm damage residential structure. You can see in the pictures there's roof damage, exterior wall damage, window damage, all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage to the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photograph subject property and proof of service to the Marshal's office. Please call out, Mr. President, for Monique Wiltz, who indicated she would be in attendance.

Okay, looks like Ms. Wiltz is getting up, so we'll give her some time to get here and... And this will so if you could state your name and address or record and let us know what you like us to do.

Monique wills 2120 10th Street. Currently I am trying to get it repaired. I am requesting more time. Being that my father passed away and in the park as we were trying to get him help to get his home repaired from storm damage. but he passed away in January, and they told me the deadline was in October, but I didn't really seek out trying to get help to get the house fixed till after he passed away. And like with whatever it was called, they said that my deadline was October and I didn't meet it. But I mean, at the time I was worrying about, I mean, I was taking care of my father, working two jobs, plus working for myself. And that was like seven days a week, which I really just stopped working seven days a week, two months ago. So I am actively trying to get the house repaired.

Ms. Wills, if we defer this for 30 days, could you come back in 30 days and just have a plan of action of how you plan to repair it that would just give you a little time to think about it?

Yes.

Okay. So what we're basically doing is deferring it for 30 days. That way when we come back, if we give you time to pull a permit and make the repairs, at least you'll have a plan.

Okay. So also it's kind of hard because my sister lives in Austin. So it's me trying to do everything and also include her in it. But yes, 30 days and I can come back and tell you.

That'll give you time.

To let you know what the actual plan is going to be.

Ms. Wilts, that date is September 2nd, and this is the only notice you'll receive, same time, 5.30 in the evening.

Okay. Thank you.

No problem. Thank you. And you can get Mr. Hester Court as well.

All right. I need a vote. Yes, please vote.

7-4.

All right.

Item 11 has been deferred until September 2nd.

Now, ordinance for final action. Okay. In order to set the lowest possible and authorize a like Charles energy agreement for project number CP 3, 4, 3, 3, 2022 drainage infrastructure improvements package number one and amend the budget as necessary and the note I have here is it needs to be rebid so does I get to go on it needs to state the reason for the rebid and we would vote on that.

Here they receive no beers that fit.

The criteria was looking for all was overpriced OK came into her seat by just so we need to read that this yes, a motion second and rebate in the event so we have a motion Mister bill voting make motion make a second for Mister Harvey. Any questions comments on this please vote. all right item 13 and we do have a couple cards on these an ordinance of the city council city of lake charles amending resolution number 313-23 authorized city of lake charles to modify the location and scope of rcip ldi city of lake charles LC Second Harvest 0084 and further authorizing the purchase of a vacant lot, parcel number 00751405 from Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church to construct and own a primary community resilience hub in accordance with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's national objectives for use of the funds from the CDBGDR programs.

All right.

Mister can you update us on the reason that we're moving money from say our police if I remember correct saying harvest is not wanting to proceed with the project is originally in vision, but if you just gives an update on that.

Well, that and plus the second harvest was involved in a series of bankruptcies that disqualified them from the receipt of federal funds. And so those funds were also funds that we had to reallocate. And we asked the state to do two things, to allow us to use those funds without any additional awardees. So this is just like the sports complex, the city's funds that we're going to own and operate and it's to develop a primary community resiliency hub, just like the sports complex, except this one is, the Just Imagine plan had pointed out that that area, that particular piece of property and location would be a good place for a primary resiliency hub because the population in that area is pretty vulnerable. There's a lot of renters, and as you know, during the hurricanes, a lot of the landlords weren't able to repair their rental properties because of their own homes. So this is all part, and the area in there, was a major staging area for a recovery. So that was already – it was already recommended through Just Imagine, so we decided to apply to put those funds into that area.

You know what it is? It's either Amelia or Jason are very close to Southwestern Health.

Yeah, it's right next door. All that used to be – they both share what was – what this used to be was the site of the old Cherry Street Elementary School.

All right.

We do any comments from the council or do we want to hear from the public first. All right, let's let's hear from the public we've got 3 cards. First card Mister Mac Delafaz And if you could, of course, state your name and restate your name and address for the record on this item.

Dr. LaFosse, 1917 19th Street. Once again, thank you guys for letting me have the opportunity to speak. I come to you as a concerned citizen and a resident of Central Lake Charles. So mostly what I have are some questions. And so when you talk about a resiliency hub, how many are we talking about that's going to be located in North Lake Charles? Because what I've counted is you have the Hope Center, You have this one of this one comes on the board. You also have the sports complex is going to be a resiliency center. And I don't know of the Gossport Center that you all are talking about building. Would that be also a resiliency standard center? Can someone answer that?

No, the Gossport is just a recreation center.

Well, I'm just making sure. So so we're going to have three resiliency hubs. Is that correct? Basically, OK, so Are there any plans for any other resiliency systems?

Let me clarify. Primary and secondary.

But they're resiliency hubs, right? Yes. Any plans for any of them to be outside of North Lake Charles area?

We got one coming to Fifth Avenue at Christian Baptist Church on a property on Fifth Avenue.

That's not going to be a resiliency hub, though.

Yes, it will. It's going to be a secondary, not a primary.

So is that budgeted to be built as of right now?

Yes.

Okay.

Didn't know about that. So how much is that budgeted for? Do we know? Oh, you'd have to ask finance. It's a it's a project.

I mean, somebody should know. I mean, what we know is when is that scheduled to come online?

All right, the resilient the, the learning center on the Christian Baptist Church property is budgeted at $1.4 million. Okay.

So when you say secondary, what's the difference between a secondary and primary? We're talking about a resiliency hub. That's the way it's built, correct?

No.

What is a resiliency hub?

To my understanding, the primary and secondary is who controls it. Primary means the city of Lake Charles. We dictate what goes in it or how we handle it. And secondary is the church has more of a daily use for it until we actually need it.

Is that the way the country understands it?

That's how I'm understanding it. I could be off, but. I mean, is that how it goes?

The administration could explain it. Mr. Mayor?

OK. The previous administration awarded funds for different projects. The Hope Center was with Greater Saint Mary Missionary Baptist Church. The Learning Center was with Christian Baptist Church. The Starks Nest was Zeta Phi Beta. there was a number of those. So we came into office, we honored those commitments, but those funds were to build resilient structures to be housed for for activities during blue skies by these awardees that the city could use in in disaster. But once the once the state and HUD closed their books, those buildings were no longer the city would have no more control, they revert to those awardees. So The sports complex and this particular building would be owned and available to the city in perpetuity for disaster recovery. Now we could enter into agreements with other people to house different programs in them, but these are the primaries. And we would like to put primaries all around the city uh primarily in areas closer to uh major staging areas interstate i-10 210 and uh have those then funnel uh supplies into more other places like the recreation centers to go where the neighborhoods are so that's the that's the overall recovery plan with these disaster recovery funds so um with primary and secondary doesn't that means that it has to be man in case there's a Yes, as long as the primary ones will be manned because we coordinate with the Office of Emergency Preparedness. The secondary, while the city still has some control over them, those would have to be manned also if we need them in different disasters.

So the secondary, the city chooses if they have to be manned or not? there's a if we need those yeah to be man yes we do okay okay until we all once we don't own them anymore we cannot we cannot manage so so the hope center is a secondary that the city can require them to man that after a hurricane until until ownership until ownership transfers yes but so so until it becomes there, but they would have to manage just like the primary, right?

Yeah, if needed, but the reason why they're secondary is not just because they can't, they're gonna actually take ownership one day, but that, I didn't choose the people for that, I did not wanna put that primary responsibility on them to, because as you can imagine, churches, learning centers, their concern is going to be more their primary people. And so they can either, we can either require them to man it or we can go and man it itself. But we're going to need those facilities if we need them. I didn't want to put that responsibility on them because that would mean they would have to stay over during disasters, work through the disasters, and I'm not sure if all of them can meet those responsibilities.

The city going to man them while after the disaster or the Does the tenants have to amend it? There's really no difference until after the five-year period where the property reverts to the owner.

My obligation as the mayor is to make sure that our people are taken care of so I I'm not going to rely on somebody who's not under the full control of the city to man these we control the facilities we don't control the personnel it's required that they put provide personnel for us but if if they can't do that we're going to have to find our people to manage The agreements have provisions.

But they're required to do it. Mr. Fondell, the agreements have provisions that if they aren't properly manning in times of an emergency, then the city on very, very short notice can take over and staff it and man it.

So basically they have to do it, and if they don't do it. We can do it. It's a requirement of the contract. Of the contract. Yes. Wow.

we can we can demand it but the but the enforcement mechanism because it's not we don't we can't make their people they're not city employees or uh under uh any type so we we did we wanted to make sure we we wanted to make sure that we didn't overstep and abdicate our responsibility to our citizens but they still gone he just he just said they're required to do it if they don't do it then we no he said that if if they can't do it the city on short notice

and go in and run it.

They're just not putting. We wouldn't go in and rent it. We would just provide manpower. That is correct. That's the same thing. Yes.

It is in their agreement that they would provide staffing in the time of an emergency and would operate it as a resiliency hub. If they did not do that, then on very short notice, we could take over the facility and provide that staffing.

Any other comments from the council? Do you have a follow up?

Yeah, I was just going to let you. You have one minute left, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Fondale. So the one on Opelous Street, that's going to be a primary. Is that what I mean? Or secondary? Primary. Primary. So doing the non hurricane aftermath, you all have a budget that you're going to have already set for these facilities to operate. Are they going to be like rec centers or what are they going to be when they're not used as resiliency hubs?

That's going to be the thing. We're going to figure it out. I mean, that's, you know.

So we don't know what services they're going to offer? We don't know what services are going to be offered in this thing?

I have an idea what I like. I like to house different programs. The funds require that these structures be built in low and moderate income communities and provide services that support those communities. There's a number of different organizations that do services, whether it's financial literacy, housing applications, you got big brothers, big sisters, YMCA, all those that don't have brick and mortar. So we'll look at doing cooperative endeavor agreements for them to house be housed in and do those kinds of services. But those primary facilities belong to the city. So we control everything about it. So in disasters, we don't have to worry about anything else, we have a plan for it. But right now, it, you know, give you an example that, you know, that was some there was some talk about commissaries for food trucks that's the need that's out there whether that can happen we don't know we're gonna look at that but right now I'll charge on these funds is to build heart and facilities that can withstand 140 mile an hour sustained winds and have independent power sources, potable water charging stations, and build a stage recovery efforts. That's the first primary.

So will the secondary have all the secondaries?

Secondary is going to be to provide services that support the low and moderate income communities.

But they are resiliency centers. So they built to withstand the wind. They have the power. All the buildings have those things.

Yes, that's required.

OK. So is this different, Mark, is this project a different one than the Gosport? You said that they were different and they require different There were different requirements. So is this money different? What is this?

This is what we're talking about. This is state money. You know, the I'm sorry, but the it's not good money. I mean, it is the CDBG money, but it's coming from two different places. We have the HUD direct money that we have to deal with HUD and the way they wanna do things, and then we have the CDBG money from the state where they say, we're doing it this way.

So that's different from?

Right, so the Hope Center, for example, that's HUD money, so it's different from this one. Okay.

Okay, so the other thing is when I noticed that Immaculate Heart was involved in SWLA Health Services, one thing came to mind. I don't know who's negotiating or who did the appraisal, how it's going to work, but I want to make sure there's no conflict of interest. So I don't know if Mayor Simeon is still legal counsel or his firm is still legal counsel for SWLA, and I don't know if Mr. Simeon is still part of the board at Immaculate Heart. So if he is on both of those, I don't know if there's been an ethics opinion that has been done to see if he can legally negotiate those, if he still represent both those entities. So that's a question.

Point of clarification. I don't think anything on this particular project, SWLA wasn't mentioned on this.

What are the property we're talking about is regarding that property?

No, it's next to XWLA. Next to it is the McElhart's property.

It's McElhart, but isn't SWLA going to be the one that's... Manning it.

Yes.

You can't say that now. We don't have the knowledge.

That's something the council would have to decide. That's not...

Okay, so even with the Michael Harris, I guess it's so we don't know who going to make we just going to build the build and we don't know who's going to be in it. We don't know what services we all and we can to vote for it.

So great, but we know that if we have a hurricane, we're going to need it. So I think you understand what you're saying.

But we buy in the city. This thing is going to be operating. Oh, let's get to it.

Go ahead. So the city's buying the property from Immaculate Heart. So I guess my question is, is the mayor still on the board at Immaculate Heart? I think he was treasurer or something at one time. I don't know if he stood. I know he attends there.

Never was, no.

not okay I just want to make sure that was clear that's what we were you can you can request the ethics opinion if you feel strongly about it I'm just asking I'm more than happy to I give you because we do have issues of transparency sometimes and trust so I just want to make sure we get that I've been accused of a lot of things today Mr. Della Foss and and I have I have records I have a problem unless you have something substantial to back this is probably not the place but I'm sure no it is the place because I

beginning with how you pulled me off the board. I served in public office for 23 years. My integrity has never been questioned.

This board here has talked about that, and Mr. Horvath and Mr. Marks have already said that, but I don't want to really get into that because I don't want to attack your character at this point.

Mr. President, the time of the speaker has expired.

Sir, you guys talk for most of my time. And from my understanding, the problem is going to be Paul. I'm just counting time, sir. Max, would you want some more time? Well, I do have the donated time. So I do have, if you, Ms. Barber will donate her time to me. That's my call.

Was there a card filled out donating her time? Yes, it was. She did. She does have a card. Yes.

Okay.

Then he has three minutes remaining.

Thank you.

Okay, three minutes.

Is there any any plans outside of I think I haven't seen the 1.5 million come up. Is that going to be coming up on the agenda regarding that hub that's going to be on Fifth Avenue? Does anybody know? I haven't seen anything yet. It's an approved project. It's already approved. OK, I'm just making sure it will be necessary for us. OK. Awesome. Thank you. we talk about options for any other funding for projects in the central part of lake charles is there any discussion regarding that mr president these comments are not germane to item number 13. you're right you're right let me further uh i'll just see if i can get that in thank you council I think that's probably all I have. I just want to be very frank that we have a lot of projects that are between the resiliency centers and all the other projects that are in North Lake Charles. I just want to see something come to Central Lake Charles. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. And Ms. Miller donated. Does Ms. Miller have any time left? No. She's fine. Okay. And we have one last card. Ms. Gerald Darbonne. And so please state your name and address for the record.

Yes, this year, a dog on 2523 Hagan Street. With this difference between secondary and primary. So if we're going to have two primaries in North Lake Charles, why do we need a secondary? You know, if we're going to have primary, I'm going to have one primary. I know we're going to be if this past we would have to we would have the sports arena and we would have the mackle heart of Mary site so again why do we need a secondary site. Second thing with a primary. resilience home. You guys mentioned the fact that there is a financial literacy component to these could be could be or are they nothing is in it yet is the building when I get that but for as the CDBG disaster relief funding, and this is for, if you're building a resilience hub, there is components of these grants. And what I would like to see, if there is a component of financial literacy in these grants, we can have a credit union built with this disaster building to participate in the financial literacy component of these grants. Yes, no, possibly.

We're not building a specific business model. We're building a resiliency hub that can be used for disaster recovery. And then during blue skies, whatever services are housed in there have to service low and moderate income communities. OK. All right.

Finish your question. We cannot use these funds aside from soft costs associated with building. Only that and actual buildings. We can't even use funds for furniture. Even if you have, say for instance, you have a commercial kitchen being put in, you can't even purchase the equipment. What they call FF&E. There's no FF&E allowed. Just construction and architect engineer. Great. Okay. Well, good.

All right. So back to the secondary and primary. So why do we need a secondary if we have two primaries?

I think that's a discussion to on another item. That's not on the current agenda. That's not on the current. Okay, because they brought you brought up the the Hope Center being secondary and that that will their potential be action taken on that at a later date.

I think the overall picture is that all of these, all of this was submitted as part of disaster recovery monies. The projects that were viable, we're pushing those out. The projects that weren't viable, that's why we're moving funds to do something else that's viable. So it's nothing, that was already promised, but at the same time we decided that because some of these structures The awardees for it, they were going to own those facilities. We didn't want them to become primary because we can't rely upon those to be around or to be functional or under our control during disasters. So the primaries are the ones that the city owns, controls, operates, and those are going to be around for perpetuity.

I was just leaning on the fact for his money-wise, having two primaries and one secondary.

I think that's a good point, but the secondary one is first different. for the subsequent meeting. Yeah, thanks.

And not to bring up, so we can get a better understanding, we didn't decide where these monies were spun. It had to be spun in certain, it was considered to low to moderate. LMI, yes. Low to LMI. And Craig, am I correct, it wasn't the Fifth Avenue at the time was still considered low to moderate? Still is. Still is. So it was able to go there in the areas, because we fight for the center part of Lake Charles. but we just can't make it low to moderate income. So we can't get some of those things because this is not considered low to moderate income.

My whole district is low to moderate.

Well, I'm I'm talking about the central. I'm talking about the central because Mac is that's about when we're going to get some of it in center. We can't get it because we got it close as we could was on Fifth Avenue because it was low to moderate income. But believe me, we wanted it on Legion Street. But we took that away from them because of the bankruptcy. So that would have been Senator Charles. But we just can't make it low to moderate income if it's not. Please believe me, we could have it. I asked for it on 12th Street when they backed out from... The Kroger? Huh? The Kroger building? No, not the Kroger.

The corner of 12th and ABC.

It didn't fall. It didn't fit, and it was already a building. I asked for things, but you can't get some if you're not considered low to moderate income, but it's not considered low to moderate income. It is. Not on the state. It's not. I don't know. We asked for things.

We're just going to put a facility on 12th and 14th?

WHAT FACILITY MR. PRESIDENT NO I'M JUST I WAS JUST I DIDN'T GET TO RESPOND TO MAC TO LET HIM KNOW THAT WE DO ACT FOR THINGS BUT THIS MONEY THAT WE ALLOCATING FOR THESE PROJECTS ARE JUST FOR LOW TO MODERATE INCOME RIGHT

Yeah, and with respect to ABC, it was on the original list, but ABC decided not to accept it.

ABC decided not to do it. And so that was a low to moderate income project.

The building was there, and we'd have to, like everybody was saying, we'd have to tear a building down to rebuild a building.

Mr. President. You see? To go back, if Mr. Bilbo was still.

No, I'm just clarifying that we do ask for stuff in Senator Lay Charles.

To go back to the number 13. I have, I would like to make a motion to separate the property from the project. And I'll tell you why. The way it's written, we have to go along with the property and we have to go along with the building as one. We had, I was showed an appraisal by the mayor that said that this property, not on the city, McElhard did an appraisal back in 2023 where this property was worth $600,000. They was willing to accept 400,000 before this appraisal was done. The appraisal come out and it's 356,000 there about, right? And then you read in the, The appraisal, the properties that they compare it to, which they get their general knowledge from, the highest property compared and sold was 272,000. So that's the difference of what? 272, 150, almost 150? 272. All right. We are coming here to vote on giving them 356,000 because the appraisal said so. I stated in the meeting before, I did not, my recommendation to the council was not to use the same appraiser that did the sports complex, because in my opinion, he devalued Fitzerrider, and in this case, he increased Appaloosa Street. I don't personally think that this property is worth $356,000. It's 2.4 acres. Part of it is residential, part of it is commercial. Second of all, this is considered a new project. We're finna vote there again on a project before we even have community meetings. Second of all, what are we calling this facility? We throw around resiliency hub, we throw around all that. what are we calling is it a rec center community center slash resiliency center or is it just we satisfied with the name of the resiliency center my concern oh second the next thing is as a note to this i would like all of the applications that are sent out for all of these projects to be forwarded to the council as they are sent out exact wording whatever it may be sent to each and every council member because I don't want a situation where we vote on something and it goes out another way. Not saying that would do it, but once we have that, me personally, I can feel comfortable that we did what we voted on. But my recommendation is not, we don't pay $356,000 for 2.4 acres of land. to do this project. This is why I would like to separate the property from the project. I think the project is a good project, excellent project for the area. I'm just not convinced that that property, 2.4 acres, is worth $356,000. So I'd like to make a motion. If I can't get a second, then we'll vote with it the way it is.

So what's the motion?

The motion is that we separate the property from the project.

So how do we have a project without property?

We can find land for a project.

Don't I don't think we can obligate the city in an in an nonspecific way So I think you you really just have to vote to up or down to if you if you cancel this and it does not Succeed then we'll have to try and find another piece of property in another project.

I don't think we can do it open-ended So why can't in in all the other projects we voted for a project before we had

the location we voted to move the money to the recreation center we had to vote to move and then we had to vote to approve the recreation center but you're voting to obligate the city to something without having a location to where it be obligated at but we can approve the project can't we

I don't know.

I mean, I think the question is, can you amend this ordinance? You have an ordinance in front of you, and the question is, can you amend this ordinance to move forward with a resiliency center at an appraised price of $356,500? And I don't know how you amend it. I really don't.

Okay, for the sake of this conversation, I'm not, I would recommend that the council not spend $356,000 on this 2.4 acres of land. Simple as that.

What's the price? That's what, $330 something per foot?

Yeah, the last time this was... deferred was to ask for an appraisal. Which depilations? This particular recommendation was based upon the Just Imagine plan. This isn't about Immaculate Heart or anyone else. This was said that if you had to have a community resiliency hub, that's where you put it. The October 15 deadline

Well, we can't. I don't think the council can be held hostage by deadlines that we were told were different before. Now we're talking about deadlines again. Hey, for me, it's as simple as a vote. I'm one council member.

Can I get some clarification? At this point, especially given all the discussions tonight, after this— There's no more recommendations. If these funds aren't going to these places, we just put them in existing projects. I mean, that's amendment to this. We don't have to do this. I mean, I'm trying to take these monies and put them in places that make sense where, you know, just imagine said do this here. Gospel said do this. But we don't have to. We can give the money back to the federal government, or we can put it in an existing project. If it, it's like pulling teeth trying to propose places to put projects, because we get questioned, we get questioned, and then people just attack us. So look, if this is, I think this area, was a primary recovery area for Hurricane Laura. Just imagine said this is a place to put it because of its proximity to the I-10, Appaloosa Street corridor, the vulnerability of that community. If you guys decide that this is not the place to put it, I'm not sending the money back to Washington, D.C. I'll put it in another project. This is just a recommendation. gospel was a recommendation everything is a recommendation but this is all stuff that was done under the previous administration that's still sitting on my plate a year later I have no more patience to deal with it so it's up to you guys if you this is a recommendation vote it up or down if you don't want it we'll just put the money in a already approved project we've got so much other stuff that we have to do in this city besides deal with this every single meeting and I agree and

every single meeting, we shouldn't have to beg for transparency. We shouldn't have to beg to get the information up front. We shouldn't be in positions where we are forced to vote on deadline on one side. We did it with the sports complex. Deadline, deadline, deadline. We rushed that vote. Found out later the deadline wasn't when it is. We can't keep being held hostage in this city because we can't get the information.

Whatever you choose to vote. One point of correction. The deadline for the for the sports complex was after your vote, that we had to move that deadline because the state understood the time constraints that we were under. That's not so. And I keep getting this, like I'm not telling the truth.

Well, I deal in documentation. Okay. I got the F. Understand what you're reading, sir, please.

Understand what you're reading because you're not.

Mayor, I can read just like you can. I can interpret just like you can. You can interpret like me, trust me.

Whatever you say, Mayor.

Whatever you say. Let's move on, please.

Whatever you say. You don't want to be insulted. I just want to follow up what the mayor said. And, you know, this came before the council. They were asking us to buy the property, not to exceed appraised value. I asked for appraisal. We got an appraisal. And then at the last meeting you did say, I'm gonna acknowledge you, at the last meeting you did say that if it was the same appraiser did Fitz and Roddy wants to find someone else. I shared with you guys that we were already had hired the legal department, not the administration, already hired this company to do the appraisal. We were in it, we were gonna present it to the council. The deal is we can't spend over appraised value. You're right. We can always come in less than appraised value. This is the appraisal. This is the recommendation. And if the council doesn't want to do it, don't do it. And we'll move on.

Well, I got a question for you, Mr. Cordon. Hold on one second. We started discussing this months ago. I personally asked for an appraisal months ago. We got into the last meeting when I made the motion to not let the last appraisal do this, we found out at that meeting that appraisal was being done. That's two weeks ago, and we were told in that meeting, oh, we ain't gonna make it in time, but we gotta do another appraisal. Again, we were backed into a corner. We wasn't shared that it was an appraisal being done. We found out in the last regular meeting after months of asking. That's all I'm saying. Hey, man, look, the vote, we gonna be held accountable for what we vote on. $356,000 for 2.4 acres of land, If that's what the council wanna do, that's what the council wanna do.

So why are we required to vote right now because of a deadline?

You're not required to do, I mean, right now you guys can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want.

But you're asking us to vote tonight up or down because of a deadline or do we have time to find out more information?

What additional information would you like? What additional information would you like? We had a meeting last week. Everybody came to the meeting. We talked about a variety of different issues. And if you would have had a question about it, we would have tried to answer that at the meeting you just had this past week. So tell us what you're looking for and we'll try to do it.

We had something down of what we were going to do with this building. I mean, it's like he said, we have low to moderate income people and my district is full of low to moderate income district. You know, and I'd like to know why we're putting it in this area where there's already a bunch of other projects. You know, I'd just like to know what are we doing with this money? What services are we offering to the community? Is it a, I don't know. It's a resiliency center.

It's a resiliency hub is what it is.

It's a resiliency hub. And when a storm happened, they got a place to go. So that's what, that's it.

But Mr. Fondell, you're right. We could have did another recommendation. It could have been a recommendation in your district. And Mr. Harvey might say, well, why are you giving a recommendation in that district?

No, I'm just saying what services are the building? It's like I look at the Hope Center. That's what got my attention. Understood. They're offering services to that particular community all year long. They got it, they got it written out what services they're offering that community that low to moderate income community all year long. Okay, and it's written out. You know, exactly what they're proposing to do. Even, they're not? It's not?

No, no. In what? In the ocean? Yes, yeah, we've got we got in what we're doing in there. Y'all do have. Yeah, that's the problem.

He said they don't. He's saying they don't have that.

You don't have what that what the Hope Center is being useful used to do. We had to the organization had to sign get tenant papers and all that of people who are going to be in there and providing services. Now that's that's a totally different thing with this resilience, OK?

I'm going to ask to call to vote unless Mr. Harvey has some comments that's in his district.

He's second.

OK. Well, I mean, the appraisal.

He's second. That's fine. Matt first. Tom is second.

OK. Vote on calling the question.

7-4.

OK. You now have to vote on item 12.

I mean, 13. Excuse me. We got to vote on it now. He called the question. You voted on the vote in the question. No. Oh, OK.

The question was approved. Now you have to vote on item 13.

641 against Mr. Martin.

All right. Item 14, authorize the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana to designate the American Press as the official journal of the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana for the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Any questions or comments on this item? Please vote. Item 15, an Orange Highway State of Lake Charles implement the 2026 pay matrix for the Lake Charles Police Department. And I believe this is, the primary purpose of this was to create some discrepancies, or to correct some discrepancies that the first pay matrix created. Is that an accurate statement? Okay, any questions, comments? Please vote. I'm 16 to 17 have been deferred to August 19 item 18 on partners are so like Charles 2026 action plan this orange water I said like Charles to make application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD for his 2026 community development block grant CDBG and home investment and partnership program funding allocation. Of course comments on this item please vote. All right, 19 where I took care of. Item 20, also authorizing the city, the mayor of City of Lake Charles, Louisiana, entered a cooperative endeavor agreement with the merchants of Walnut Grove Inc. to permit the construction of a public parking on City Right-of-Way. And we were, any questions or comments on this item? Please vote. All right, item 21. I'll address that. Let's move. Item 22, Mr. Stutes.

This is ordinance number 26-463. Be it ordained by the City Council, the City of Lake Charles, in regular session convened that Section 1, the Mayor of the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana, is hereby authorized to submit an application to the Calcasieu Parish Road and Drainage Trust Fund on behalf of the City of Lake Charles to apply to the 2027 Road and Drainage Trust Fund, and if granted, to execute any and all agreements in connection therewith. Section 2... the mayor is further authorized to include any provisions in any agreement which he deems necessary to protect the interests of the city and pay the agreed amount from the appropriate city funds this is a emergency ordinance so this will require five votes in favor all right do we have any questions on this item i mean my only question is

Is it a direct current incident or is it just the available funding from future?

I believe it's for Legendre area, correct? We submit application to this grant and every year we get the same dollar amount. We have accumulated, it's a Legendre South Park drainage that we're fixing.

Oh, OK. That's what I mean. If it was a committed project, we're using the crosses.

It's it goes to the south of McNeese to fix that South Park side. And it does take all that.

OK, thank you.

It goes across the street to tell the genders to the north and South Park is to the south.

So we already have money in this, right?

We do, yes sir. And I believe this allocation will completely fund the project and they should be moving on that.

Is it the $500,000? It's $388,600. Okay, because we could get up to $500,000.

All right.

Well, I mean, you can't exceed the cost, but I think we can get up to 500 from the trust fund.

No, no, it's this change. They've changed the rules. We get this 388 600 every year.

OK, OK. So we don't have to apply for every like this.

And this allocation fully funds that drainage project. But it is in design.

OK.

It's from the parish road.

Yes. Justin has the design work.

Can I ask you this? Oh, well, maybe, Mr. Cordon. With the people that came from Beau Blanc weeks ago about the erosion, can we solve that in this same thing?

We're going to ask them to look at it and try to. If the funding's in. And if it's not part of that, it would have to be an alternate. But if there's money in it, we've just got to make sure. Because I think this project is 1.3 million.

It's a $2 million project right now. But we do make application to this every year. We make sure that we get that application in.

Maybe something we could add as an alternate. And if it comes in under budget, we could do it.

Yeah, I'm not familiar with the, I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with Beaublon.

I just looked at the design and it goes all the way back almost to Smith Road. So I was thinking that we could do something with it at that point.

They had to do that side of the first before we can work on Beaublon's side.

It's on the LeBlanc side.

Yeah, we have to do with Jean Dre, whatever. That's across. Yeah, they had to do that.

It's on the north side of McNeese, yeah.

No, that's on both sides.

Jean's on the north side.

This project is on both sides of McNeese. I understand that, but it's two different streets. Correct.

Yeah, I understand. I know exactly where you're talking about in the streets.

On the east side. Mm-hmm.

I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, man.

All right, any other questions or comments? Please vote. All right, item 23, an ordinance authorizes the settlement of claim against City of Lake Charles in the suit styled Nicholas Buck and Katie Buck individually on behalf of their minor children, Kayden Buck and Carson Buck, whereas City of Lake Charles and Jeffrey Floyd, docket number 2025-4984, Division B on the docket of the 14th Judicial District Court, Parachute, Calcasieu State of Louisiana. And we can choose to go into executive session and discuss this as litigation. Does anyone need to go into executive session on this item?

One question for Mr. Stooge. When we do things like that, is it capped? I mean, can they come back later if it's complications?

Yeah, no, it's settled. It's done. They can't come back and get another penny.