The August 9 Franklinton Town Council meeting began by the resuming July 12th's discussion of the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System, also known as MPERS. After more discussion, it was determined that the council needed to better research the topic; therefore, the vote was deferred until the next scheduled town council meeting.
The next matter for discussion involved Mr. Raymond Hart, the owner of Greenlaw Event Center in Franklinton. After a recent incident involving a gun at the event center, the business and its potential liability to the town has been brought to the mayor's attention.
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Mayor Gregory Route explained, "I think one of the things that caused the problem at your business, is first you didn't have any license to operate… Then, you had had previous fights at your business." Mayor Route said when looking for Mr. Hart's business license in an attempt to suspend it due to the recent incident, he could not find one. So, without a business license, as ordered by the Mayor, Mr. Hart's event center was shut down.
Justina Hart who attended the meeting endorsed Mr. Raymond Hart's business and said, "He does a lot of good things, it's a lot of good things that go into the event center." After Ms. Hart's comments, Mr. Hart explained, "It's not always negative, it's a lot of good that I do." He also described how after Hurricane Ida, he used the event center to house 4 families who were badly affected by the storm.
After discussion between the board and Mr. Hart, the mayor and alderman agreed to let him apply for a business license with the promise that he would have security both inside and out.
Once item two on the agenda had been completed, the council moved to vote to approve ordinance number 1084, authorizing the sale of property located on Hwy 16 to WIT Contracting of Franklinton, LLC for $41,277. Another topic up for discussion and vote was ordinance number 1086, which will establish penalties for violating alcohol ordinances; however, the board decided to reschedule the vote for the next meeting.
Next on the evening's agenda, was ordinance number 1085, which authorizes the mayor to sign a purchase agreement and sales documents to purchase, at appraised value, property located on T.W. Barker Dr. from the Washington Parish School Board for the purpose of building a park. Alderman Seth Descant commented on the matter, "I have reservations about the location" He explained that from his understanding, the location had a high police call volume which made him unsure of the area's safety. However, the mayor assured him that compared to other possible locations for the park, this particular area had a significantly lower crime and incident rate. The mayor explained, "It's a very safe site to put this park" and that "It's gonna improve the area tremendously." After some discussion, the council voted to approve the ordinance providing that the Washington Parish School Board accepts the town's offer.
Also approved for the evening was the purchase and modification of two 2022 Dodge RAM Big Horn pickup trucks for $126,536.7, before the rebate, for the Franklinton Fire Department with the stipulation that the sales tax would be removed. After the go-ahead from the alderman to purchase the vehicles and the necessary modifications, the council briefly opened up public discussion before the meeting came to a close.
