A town hall meeting was held at the Cane River Brewery Wednesday, February 9 in order to present good news, proposals and solicit public input from residents. The Town Hall was attended by about 20 local residents, city council persons and a school board member, Mayor Williams led the meeting and began with some good economic news for the city such as the $45,000,000.00 expansion of Alliance Compressors, new Chick-fil-A, new auto mall, Community Care facility and River South Commons.
The presentation then went on to infrastructure proposals such as the proposed roundabout on Texas St. and a major expansion of the water plant. The main focus of the meeting however was the prospect of millions of dollars in COVID relief funds coming to the city and how to best use the one-time infusion of money. In the area of crime fighting, the mayor spoke of the problems of low police and fire pay leading to a continuous exodus of trained officers and firefighters to other cities and states. He also spoke of using the funds to obtain technology such as shotspotter and more cameras as well as increasing prosecution of lawbreakers.
There were also proposals to help people who lost jobs due to COVID by providing assistance with utilities and job training.
The City of Natchitoches stands to come into quite a bit of money in the form of COVID relief. The Town Hall Meeting was an attempt to bring in public input from the citizenry and to insure the best possible use of this one-time infusion of money for the public good.
NATCHITOCHES: ALLIANCE COMPRESSORS ANNOUNCES $45 MILLION CAPACITY EXPANSION
