Ruston Council District Reapportionment Process Begun

Present City Alderman Districts

Last night’s city council meeting saw adoption of an ordinance that will enable the city’s five aldermanic district borders to be shifted to reflect changing population numbers. Representative districts all across the nation are redrawn after each 10 year census counts.

Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said that two of the five districts’ population were outside the guidelines required by the U. S. Justice Department.

Said Walker, “District one was 10.06% negative – so they had a decline in population. Two was minus 4.04, three was plus 2.35, four was a minus 1.83, and five was a plus 13.60.”

“So all these have to fall under 10%,” he added.

Walker went on to say that next month a plan would be presented to the council that will address the issue.

The council also approved “refinancing” about $18 million in bonds at a lower interest rate that would save the city about $700 thousand over the life of the bonds, about 8 years.

The new interest rate is 1.85% vs the existing 3.07%.