The Town of Lake Providence held its November meeting last Thursday at city hall and on the agenda were consideration of several ordinances that had been introduced at previous meetings, discussion about the town’s finances, alcohol licenses renewals, and outstanding fees owed to Volkert Engineering.
The town agreed to continue to lease the Olivedale Pecan Orchard for the purposes of herding cattle. The 51 acre piece of property will now be leased for $30 per acre versus the previous amount of $20 per acre.
Alderwoman Catherine Middlebrook raised concerns about the matter of harvesting of pecans on the property. She told Mayor Bobby Amacker that she felt like the resiby dents of Lake Providence should be able to go on the property to pick the pecans since it is public property and Whatley’s lease affords him the right to use the property for cattle, but does not grant him exclusive rights to the pecans on the property.
Amacker told her that since Whatley has the lease on the property he has the right to determine who can come on the property for any purpose, including to pick the pecans that grow on trees on the land.
Middlebrook also raised concerns about the town having to compensate Whatley should something happen to his cattle, due to the fact that they are located on city property. Whatley has his own insurance to cover such occurrences.
The board also approved an ordinance to lease a storage building to Wayne Parker. The building will be used for the next 18 months to store materials and air conditioning equipment to be used by a contractor for a project with the school district. The ordinance was amended due to the fact that the original ordinance has a no subletting clause in it, and Parker wants the facility to sub-lease it to a brother-in-law.
Middlebrook asked the mayor why the building was being leased to Parker as opposed to the party that was actually going to be using the building for storage. Amacker told her that he knew Parker well and so was comfortable with the agreement with Parker taking responsibility for the storage building.
When it came to discussing the town’s finances, Amacker gave the board a summary of what was brought up during the finance committee meeting earlier in the week. “The police department brought in $1800 for the month and spent $35,000. They were budgeted to bring in $90,000 for the fiscal year that goes from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. They are on pace to bring in about $20,000 for the entire year. This is not sustainable,” said Amacker.
As a result of the town spending more than it is bringing in, they had to transfer $35,000 from the town’s utility fund (water department) to the general fund to pay its bills. So far, the town has transferred $70,000 from the utility to the general fund for the fiscal year. They have budgeted $250,000 to be transferred for the year as needed.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor has listed Lake Providence as one of the municipalities that regularly uses the utility fund to offset losses in its general fund, and it frowns on the practices. The auditor’s office argues that the funds from the utility fund should be preserved for the inevitability of needing to either upgrade or repair equipment with the town’s water system.
Mayor Amacker has said that when the town falls short in revenue, the utility fund is the only revenue source that the town can tap into, since many of the other funds are allocated to specific projects and can only be used for those matters.
The board approved alcohol renewal licenses to Tego’s and Uncle Pete’s Discount, and agreed to authorize Amacker to pay an outstanding balance owed to Volkert Engineering for a water project that started under former Mayor Jerry Bell. Amacker said he needed authorization to sign any document that the former mayor agreed to but didn’t sign.
