City Council receives awards, confronts issues

By Howell Dennis

CITY EDITOR

CROWLEY – Awards, zoning, and out of control dogs were discussed Tuesday evening at the Crowley city council meeting.

Before the meeting began, the city of Crowley received the “Tree City USA” award. It was the 21st time Crowley had earned the recognition.

Dora Johnson, of the group “Churches Coming Together”, then presented Mayor Greg Jones with a plaque thanking him for Crowley’s fifth year of support for their organization. The group held a gathering, as it does each year, the Saturday before Mother’s Day in Crowley.

In other items to come before the council, several neglected structures in properties around Crowley came up for condemnation in Alderman Todd Whiting’s Public Safety report. Among them were the properties located at 1815 James St. and 916 W. 3rd St.

Also during alderman Whiting’s report, the council passed a motion to amend the vicious animal ordinance to include the words “until courts render a decision”. The addition of the words makes the procedure to declare a dog vicious or dangerous much easier. A local man recently lost his dog to two pit bulls who were roaming freely on the streets.

In another dog-related matter, a local woman came before the council with a problem she had with one of her neighbors concerning his two dogs. She brought in pictures of her fence showing how the dogs had gained access to her property. After some thought, Mayor Jones informed the woman that although he understood her issues, her matter would probably be one best resolved in civil court.

Also during the public safety report, the council voted to approve the purchase of a 2008 Ford Crown Victoria police unit with accessories for the Crowley Police Department. The council also voted to accept the bid from Decatur Electronics for new in-car video equipment for the officers. The council voted last month to install video surveillance equipment in the cars of Chief K.P. Gibson’s squad

The council also considered a lawsuit for damages from the dumping of large amounts of debris on the property near Bayou Blanc and considered extending the police department’s LACE program.

These items will be discussed further in our next edition.