Design panel proposes 3 sugar kettles on boulevard

Patti Simoneaux, representing the Main Street Design Committee, presented the Franklin City Council with a proposal Tuesday to spruce up the historic boulevard downtown.
The committee is an advisory panel created as a requirement of the Franklin Main Street Board under its state guidelines and composed of volunteers.
Simoneaux said the committee proposes placing three sugar kettles on the boulevard, roughly across from Miller Engineers, Chic and Shabby and the Assumption Church. The kettles would be planted with flowers.
She asked that the city amend its ordinance regulating use of the boulevard to allow placement of the kettles, which the committee held a fundraising drive to support.
The mayor and council expressed support for the proposal, but noted that permission may also have to be obtained from the state Department of Transportation and Development and possibly the Franklin Historic District Commission.
Simoneaux said the kettles have not yet been ordered. An ordinance amending the existing boulevard ordinance can be introduced at the council’s May meeting and approved at the June meeting. Simoneaux and committee members will be meeting with the mayor to work out logistics of caring for the plants and kettles.
Also Tuesday, Wall Street resident Darryl Bennett again addressed the council with his complaints of noise and odor from the AmeriPure oyster processing plant on Willow Street. Bennett had appealed to the city in March to regulate the facility to cut down on the noise and smell.
Legal counsel Russel Cremaldi said there is no provision in city code to address Bennet’s complaints, but that he was aware that a complaint had been filed with the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency may be studying the problem and may advise the city how to proceed in the near future.
In other business, the council approved a six-month contract with waste-handler Progressive Waste Solutions. Mayor Raymond Harris said the extension is necessary while parish government and municipalities work on negotiating a parishwide contract proposal that won’t be ready until the fall.
The council also:
—Introduced an ordinance enacting a $10 additional fee on Franklin City Court services in all traffic, misdemeanor and code proceedings, as well as civil proceedings. The funds would be used “for the construction, acquisition, leasing, equipping and maintaining the criminal justice facility (and) to establish a Judicial Building Fund.”
—A resolution of respect for the late Judge James R. McClelland was unanimously approved.
—A resolution authorizing a grant application for water enrichment funds was approved.
—John O’Niell was appointed to the Franklin Civil Service Board to replace resigning member Eli Fine.
—The next city cleanup will be May 9 at 8 a.m. at the Stage parking lot.
—Registration for the Bayou Beaux Arts and Dance program will be held through May 1 at city hall.