Mayor Lee Posey addressed the recent meeting held by DOTD to discuss the replacement of the Church Street Bridge at Monday night’s City Council meeting, Dec. 11. He said he was a little surprised because he never thought the community would suggest that no temporary bridge was needed during the construction of the new bridge. With over 30,000 cars crossing the Church Street and Keyser Avenue bridges on a daily basis, this would seriously congest the town for the approximate 10 month construction time frame.

He reminded everyone how bottle necked the town was in 2004 when the Church Street Bridge was shut down for 8 weeks. Reconstructing the bridge without a temporary one to alleviate traffic would affect a whole lot more people for a long period of time versus building a temporary bridge, which would only affect a few hundred people. However, there are residents who oppose both of the proposed temporary bridge locations on Highland Park Drive and Touline Street.

Posey addressed a few other issues including people skateboarding on the sidewalks downtown and whether dogs should be allowed in City parks and at festivals. Currently dogs aren’t allowed downtown for Christmas Festival Day, but Posey is considering extending this to cover every Christmas Festival weekend and other festivals and events throughout the year. The City has seen a problem at its parks where people don’t clean up after their dogs, so Posey said they will install doggie bag dispensers.

The Natchitoches Young Professionals is working on building a dog park and Posey said they’ve identified a location on the NSU campus, which he won’t disclose until plans are finalized. He said they hope to have plans in place after the first of the year and completed by Sept. 1.

 

Agenda items included:

Approve lease of a 0.186 acre tract of land to Dallas MTA, LP D/B/A Verizon Wireless,
Award bid for (2) 69 KV Line Relay Panels to MMR Constructor Inc. of Belle Chase for $40,447
Award bid for dredging of Chaplin’s Lake to Merrell Bros., Inc. of Kokomo, IN for $316,400. The out-of-state company outbid a company from Mandeville ($399,300). When asked, the company said the lakes in Indiana are frozen over and taking out-of-state jobs keeps their crew working.
Award bid for the 2017 Street Rehabilitation Program to Regional Construction LLC for $1.3 million
Execute a Power Sales Contract between the City and Southwestern Power Administration to replace an existing contract which is set to expire May 31, 2018, and which provides for the purchase of up to 2,500 Kilowatts for the term June 1, 2018 through May 31, 2033.
Execute Change Order No. 1 to the contract between the City and Crocker Construction, LLC for the Water Distribution System Improvements, Cane River Crossing At Pine Street Bridge in the amount of $4,098 for a total of $186,514.
Execute Change Order No. Two – Final to the agreement between the City and Petron, LLC for Schedule I, construction of new fuel farm and Schedule II, removal of underground storage tanks at the Natchitoches Regional Airport in the amount of $8,192 for a total of $386,114.
Execute Change Order No. 2 to the contract between the City and Williams Equipment Services, LLC for the Water System Improvements, Phase I in the amount of $18,066 for a total of $235,063.
Execute Change Order No. 4 to the contract between the City and Progressive Construction Company for the 2016 City Streets Rehabilitation Project in the amount of $8,433 for a total of $1.3 million
Execute Change Order No. 4 to the contract between the City and Progressive Construction Company for the Lafayette Street Rehabilitation Project in the amount of $28,119 for a total of $793,148.
There will not be a City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 25. The next scheduled City Council meeting will be Monday, Jan. 8. The City of Natchitoches offices will be closed Friday, Dec. 22 and Monday, Dec. 25 for the Christmas Holidays and Friday, Dec. 29 and Monday, Jan. 1 for New Years.