By Bonnie Culverhouse

Planning and change are key if Minden’s future is going to be bright, according to District E Councilman Andy Pendergrass.

“And no one person in a government scenario can create meaningful change on their own,” he told a group of around 40 persons attending a community meeting last week. “And we really need to rely on each other.”

But that has not always been the case, he added by pointing out that in 2022, when the mayor and council took office, there was such strife among the city elected officials that state government was poised to take over the city on more than one occasion.

“The mayor and council all have strong positive professional relationships (in 2025),” Pendergrass said. “There is trust among the five council members, mayor, police chief, fire chief and department heads.”

City Succession Planning

When he was running for office, Pendergrass said he was told by a former city auditor that succession planning – a plan for the future – was the number one issue for the future.

“People have been at the city forever,” Pendergrass was told. “They have institutional knowledge, and when people with that knowledge retire, there’s a ‘what are we going to do,’ question.”

A “fresh wave” of new and younger people with fresh ideas are making their way in local city government, he said, and being trained by the long-term employees.

Long-Term Planning

“In 2022, there was not a long-term plan for anything,” the councilman said. “We completed a strategic plan with Atlas Community Studios that includes potential outside funding sources for each part of the plan. This process was thanks to a $300,000 grant received from Delta Regional Authority.”

He described the long-term plan as “fortifying the city.”

“I’m talking about infrastructure, transportation – smart things that help you exist,” he added. “Being able to even exist. A lot of these things can’t even exist in Minden because the infrastructure is not there to even have the conversation.”

Revenue

One of the things the council promised when elected was to seek revenue that would not increase the citizens’ taxes and utility bills.

“We have hired a lobbyist in Baton Rouge who has helped us receive around $5.2 million,” Pendergrass said. “She costs us about $15,000 a year, so the return on investment is pretty good.”

Since that move proved successful, the city hired a lobbyist in Washington DC.

“With Speaker of the House being our Congressman, we felt like if Minden was ever in favor in DC, it was right now,” he said. “Our DC lobbyist had a full slate of meetings for us when we went to DC. It was great.”

Thanks to those meetings in DC, he said some of the persons they met with have scheduled trips to Minden this month.

Mayor Nick Cox said the city has several projects for which they are attempting to collect governmental funding.

“One thing I don’t think you can fault us with, we are certainly making the request – the sales pitch – everywhere we can,” Cox said at the community meeting. “We’ve learned a lot, and ya’ll have been kind enough to work with us. It takes us all to make our city better.”