By Bonnie Culverhouse

It’s not often a little money falls in your lap, and for the sake of bringing more businesses to Industrial Drive (service road) and more people to the Recreation Center, the Minden City Council is looking to give the green light to use it to repair with concrete the road from the intersection at Hwy. 531 to the second Pilot Drive at Love’s Travel Stop.

“We received a million dollars from the state at the end of last year,” Mayor Nick Cox told the council at Monday’s workshop. “It was originally supposed to be for a project at Fibrebond for road development. Fibrebond came back and said they didn’t need it and to use it for the good of the city.”

Cox said the money was in the bank, and it must be used.

“We wanted to do Industrial Drive with this money the whole time, and it’s going to take exactly a million dollars,” he continued. “I think we ought to green light it next month, put it out for bids and use this million for what we intended to – which is Industrial Drive.”

Cox said local legislators have also stepped up to the plate with the project.

“I believe Rep. Wayne McMahen is giving us $50,000 and Sen. Adam Bass is giving us $200,000, for Industrial Drive,” he added. “There’s still a little red tape … it went to the Senate and has to go back to the House to get approved and then to the governor’s desk.”

Cox said his plan would hopefully keep Love’s Travel Stop from losing any money by making Industrial Drive one way into the truck stop and divert the exit toward Sibley Road. All other traffic on Industrial would remain two-way.

“It would take just a week or two to get it built,” he said.

Separately the City hopes to get a federal grant to build a connector road from Hwy. 80 at Fincher Road to Industrial Drive. (Map at bottom of story is from the original discussion. Beginning and ending points may change.)

“The governor pinpointed three projects where he would request federal funding,” Cox said. “Two are in south Louisiana and the third is our connector road.”

District D Council Michael Roy suggested a turn lane on Hwy. 531 from the north onto Industrial Drive.

“I don’t know if we can do that, but if we could do that, it would help traffic flow,” Roy said.

Cox said hopefully if the connector road becomes reality, a turn lane may not be necessary.

The City’s 2025-2026 budget workshops will be starting soon, and Cox said more discussion will take place then.