(Editor’s note: This is second in a series of three stories on Minden City Council’s District E community meeting last week. For the first story, click here – https://websterparishjournal.com/2025/03/13/district-e-community-meeting-touches-on-several-significant-topics/)

By Bonnie Culverhouse

Discussions on infrastructure during a Minden City Council District E community meeting Tuesday showed around 40 attendees just how far the City of Minden has come in the past three years.

The avenue to improvements has taken the council to Washington DC and Baton Rouge to acquire as many grants as possible, using the aid of a lobbyist, consultants and elected officials.

“While we were in Washington, we were there asking for money for these projects,” Pendergrass said.

“That’s our money,” he stressed. “We sent that money to Washington – you did. We’re just trying to get it back. We aren’t asking for someone else’s money … we’re asking for yours.”

Early in their time with the city, members of the council and Cox went to Baton Rouge to ask for grant money. And there was a surprise awaiting when they arrived.

Thanks to late Mayor Bill Robertson, “It turned out Minden already had a project in Capital Outlay – since 2009,” Pendergrass said. “Part of the planning was already approved.”

Pendergrass credited Mayor Nick Cox’s administrative assistant, Ashlee Drake and State Sen. Adam Bass in helping the project reach the finish line, all these years later.

Persistence paid off, and there is a 2 million gallon water tank in the city’s future. It will be constructed on Clerk Street near Minden High’s softball field.

Cox said capacity with the downtown water tower is a half million gallons, while the smaller tower on Germantown Road holds a quarter million gallons – 750,000 gallons combined.

“This (new ground level tank) is tripling our water capacity,” said Pendergrass. “If a big company is looking at coming here, they need water and they need power. If we don’t have the capacity, they can’t come here.”

Cox agreed. “This will be a very visible sign that the city is moving forward,” he said.