Last week, July 26th, Mayor Gregory Route and the Franklinton Board of Aldermen were scheduled to converge for their biweekly town council meeting. However, due to several aldermen being absent, the council decided to reconvene on August 1st to vote on and deliberate on the most pressing and time sensitive matters.
At the rescheduled meeting, the council had enough members present and decided to proceed with the agenda. First on the table was the discussion and vote regarding the roof restoration on the Police Department building. The board received three bids in total, two from WJC Construction and one from Patten's Metal for $47,150. WJC Construction had sent a bid for $20,000 on July 14th, but sent a new bid on July 15th for $24,000 dollars. WJC Construction asked that the board only consider their second bid for $24,000.
Following the announcement of the bids received, Mayor Route stated, "I'm kinda confused on the WJC bid because it's so low."
Because the bid was so low compared to the one made by Patten's Metal and that the bid itself did not state whether or not the price matches the specifications given by the town, the mayor and the council seemed to believe the price might be too good to be true. Regarding the bid made by WJC, Alderman Seth Descant explained, "I'd be inclined to accept it contingent upon it meeting everything we specced out." It was then agreed that the construction company would be contacted as soon as possible to clear up any confusion, and if WJC Construction will complete the work according to the town's specifications for the price given, then the board of Aldermen will accept the bid for $24,000.
After the vote accepting the bid for WJC Construction, the council moved on to accept the following hirings: Michael Washington, Christopher Warren, Jarred Martin and Zachary Phelps for the Public Works Department; and Tray Johnson for the Police Department. The council also voted to accept the resignation of both James Harper from the Police Department and David Whitehead from the Public Works Department.
Next, public discussion was opened and once complete the mayor opened up council discussion. During council discussion, Alderman Descant brought up the matter of recent violence and shootings in Bogalusa and its surrounding area. Alderman Descant explained, "I'm just concerned about the kind of activity that's been going on, there's been a lot of violence. I definitely want people to be mindful of that.”
The board then sought the counsel of Franklinton Police Department Captain Michael Tate, who said, "We are, as y'all know, knocked down about 4 officers but we do have officers that come in and work overtime and fill those shifts… On weekends, we've asked the reserves to come out and assist due to the recent violence we've been having." Captain Tate also explained that, "Investigations is working on both of those shootings and I think they pretty much have both of them nailed down, they just have to tie up some loose ends first."
After the discussion regarding safety, the council continued their discussions and then the board adjourned with the next meeting scheduled for August 9th.
