By Bonnie Culverhouse

Eighteen wheelers that use Country Club Circle in Minden, soon may be taking a different route to travel between U.S. Hwy. 79 (Homer Road) and Germantown and Lewisville roads.

“This is not a truck route; it never has been,” said Mayor Nick Cox during a city council workshop Tuesday. “It’s not a complicated thing; we’ve discussed it before.”

There are small “No Thru Traffic” signs already posted on Country Club Circle, but the mayor’s ideas include much larger ones with a fine also posted.

District E Councilman Andy Pendergrass said he believes larger signs should be placed in three locations – near Walmart and at the intersections of Country Club, Germantown and Lewisville.

Country Club resident Kathy Dumas told the council that trucks “fly down the road,” and some of her neighbors have young children who catch a school bus on Whispering Pines Boulevard.

“Those kids have to walk across the street to catch that bus, and it’s dark in the morning,” Dumas said. “If a truck tops that hill, it’s not going to be good.”

She also made the council aware of a small bridge near Germantown Road and Country Club Circle intersection.

“I don’t think it’s rated for those trucks,” she said. “And I don’t want a car to fall through.”

The main thing, Dumas pointed out, is that Country Club is currently “like a new road, and I don’t want it torn up.”

“We’ve spent an awful lot of money on Country Club over the years,” Cox agreed.

An ordinance is required, not to post the signs, but so police and deputies will be able to enforce a penalty for traffic stops.

Cox distributed a sample ordinance used by Webster Parish Police Jury. He said it has been very successful on lessening truck traffic on Goodwill Road, beginning at the Service Road off I-20 north to Fuller Road.

“This is an example, but we can amend it to make it fit us,” said Cox who was on the police jury when the ordinance was passed. “Trucks were just tearing up that road. We put up the signs – we are talking about large signs – and residents out there will tell you it has reduced the number of trucks greatly.”

The police jury’s ordinance says the sign will read “No Thru Traffic,” have reflectors and penalties for the violations, which include imprisonment for not more than 30 days, or by fine of not more than $500 or both at the discretion of the court.

Purpose of the ordinance reads that it applies to a commercial vehicle having more than two axles or a gross vehicle weight of 18,000 pounds and thru truck traffic traversing parish streets without commercial reason to stop.

Exemptions include emergency vehicles, moving vans, livestock trucks and trailers, farm equipment, school buses and trucks belonging to the parish.

In the case of the City, exemptions would include trash trucks.

The ordinance will be studied and rewritten to apply to the City of Minden. It will be on the May 2024 council agenda for a vote.