Edwards Association proposes renaming street in honor of MLK

The Gonzales City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, Feb. 8 at Gonzales City Hall.

Representatives from the Edwards Association made a guest appearance at the meeting and association president David Tucy proposed to rename Robinson Street to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in honor of his legacy.

“We spoke to you about continuing those efforts of inclusion and recognition of African Americans here in the city of Gonzales that started with the renaming of the square and the installation of interpretive panels by the previous mayor and council,” Tucy said.

Tucy added the purpose of the presentation is a request for the council to take action.

“There's so many reasons that this historic action can be significant for thefuture of Gonzales, and we're very familiar with all the works of Dr. King, and how his works, his attitude and his philosophy helped shape this great nation. The name alone is synonymous with love, peace, equality,” Tucy said.

Councilwoman Sherri Koepp said it is wonderful idea to have a street in her district named after Dr. King.

“I would be proud to be able to have that street in my district, so named, and I think that we need to put it on next month's agenda for a vote,” Koepp said.

In other business, the board had another guest speaker at the meeting regarding fiber internet being provided to the city.

David Russell, of Frontier Communications, spoke to the council about how his company is planning to supply a fiber-optic high-speed broadband network to the community of Gonzales.

“We're building this network by extending fiber-optic cables to customers, homes and businesses directly from our local switching center. The fiber itself is made from ultra pure glass, and it is thin as a human hair. Then we use high intensity lasers to direct communications over the different wavelengths of light into an individual's home or business,” Russell said.

Russell added that fiber is not going to replace the copper network as Frontier Communications is not allowed to take people off the copper network and give the people option to stay on the copper network or not.

“This new network is going to provide broadband speeds on the low end and 500 megabits per second, and on the high end up to five gigabits per second, with the potential to provide even faster services in the future,” Russell said.

The board approved the following agenda items:

--approved reschedule the Thursday, May 9 meeting to Tuesday, May 14.

--approved authorizing the city manager to enter a five-year engineering study with the Lower Colorado River Authority.

--approved the City Manager to Submit, and Accept if Awarded, an Application and Associated Documents (Updated Uniforms, Dress Code and Equipment Policy) to the Public Safety Office, through the Office of the Governor, for up to $28,000 in Rifle Resistant Body Armor grant funds, for the purchase of 42 Rifle Resistant Body Armor Plates for the Gonzales Police Department.

--approved Authorizing amendments to the City of Gonzales Code of Ordinances Chapter 14, Articles 14.201, 14.403 and 14.404 regarding multifamily housing in the Downtown Mixed Use District.

--approved Authorizing amendments to the City of Gonzales Code of Ordinances Chapter 14, Articles 14.406 regarding nonconforming uses and structures.

--approved to extend the purchase agreement to Feb. 22 for 510 St. Paul Street.

--approved Closing and Abandoning to the abutting property owner portions of King Street Portions of certain; the unopen portion of King Street lying in municipal boundaries and authorizing the city manager to execute the purchasing of.