Gabe Firment, State Representative for District 22, was present at the Town of Urania’s meeting last week to update the Council on recent legislative sessions as well as provide further information about rural broadband and the water sector grant. Firment stated the legislature has held a full agenda with their regular session as well as special sessions.

He informed the Mayor and Council that he spoke to Town Engineer Glenn Turner regarding the town’s wastewater plant and the Water Sector Grant funding. He said unfortunately the town did not receive the first round of funding from the grant due to not scoring high enough.

However, he said since a variety of larger projects were awarded in the first round, Urania should have a better chance in the second round to secure funding. He added that he will be lobbying for Urania any chance he gets to help them secure the much-needed funding. Acting Mayor Pat McDougald thanked him.

Firment then offered highlights from the legislative sessions including the passing of the teacher pay raise, Fairness in Women’s Sports and five bills he was actively involved in concerning insurance reform, a study for concealed carry in schools and a cost of living increase for firefighters. He also mentioned the state’s abortion trigger law, which could make Louisiana the strongest pro-life state in the nation.

He said he hoped to have an update on the rural broadband project through the GUMBO program, but he said they are still waiting on the results and a big announcement should be made soon. He also mentioned the issues with the redistricting, which were vetoed by the governor, overridden and then went to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said he appreciated that LaSalle Parish Assessor Tom Kendrick and Blake Phillips came to Baton Rouge and testified, which was very helpful.

Council member Bill Brown then voiced concerns for students over issues of sexual identity discussion and other curriculum mandates in schools as well as the safety of students concerning school shootings and more.

Gabe expressed his concerns too and said he believes the state superintendent is doing a great job in regard to those issues for the students of Louisiana as well as concerning literacy issues too. McDougald thanked Firment for all he is doing for the state, parish and the town of Urania as well as for the update.

The path to providing broadband high speed Internet service to rural areas of the parish jumpstarted in 2020 when the Council approved a resolution in support of broadband as a collaborative attempt by Representative Gabe Firment, LaSalle Economic Development District and other state elected officials to show solidarity among the parish’s municipalities and other entities to the federal and state government and the Internet providers.

“Only about 25% of LaSalle Parish has access to high speed Internet service and that’s unacceptable,” Firment said in a 2020 meeting regarding rural broadband. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people and that is probably one of the biggest concerns right now especially with the virtual learning needs. It’s going to take federal dollars to bring this about. We want as many people on board as we can to show this is a need in our communities.”

The Council approved the adoption of Ordinance 2022-01 to amend the annual budget for fiscal year July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 and the annual budget of revenues and expenditures for fiscal year July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 for the town. A public hearing was held prior to the regular meeting with no public comments.

McDougald then brought up the cemetery donations and maintenance needs that were discussed at last month’s meeting.

“We appreciate everyone who donated to the cemetery fund and we especially appreciate the clean up work done by Larry Powell,” he said. “It is a tremendous help. There is still ongoing maintenance for the cemetery, so all the donations will be put to good use.”

He said regarding water, that Meyers Well Service checked out the wells last week and the reports have not been received yet. He added that as far as he knows everything looked good overall. Regarding sewer, he said everything is still going along as best it can until the town can receive more funding.

In the police department report, there were 54 citations and $10,613.40 collected in fines and fees for June. In the fire report, there were no fires for June and the department purchased burn ban signs.

In the mayor’s comments, McDougald informed the Council and the public that qualifying for office will be July 20-22.