Council approves next Back to School refresher

School Board Member Robyn Penn Delaney presented the results from the 2018 Back to School refresher program to kick off the August 14 meeting.

One hundred, twenty-five students attended. The budget for the project was $6,000 dollars. Three donations brought in an additional $1,150 dollars. After all food and supplies was purchased, including advertising for the event, a surplus of $681.64 was left.

"If I had known that, I would've bought some more pizza," Delaney said. "Next year we're going to have pizza on a Thursday in addition to hot dogs on a Friday. Just keep in mind sometimes you have students come out who don't have anything to eat. That's like a little snack for them."

Mayor Sullivan thanked Delaney for spearheading the program and the council for their support.

"This is the third year that we've supported it and the fourth year we've had the program," Sullivan said. "It was exciting to see the kids involved and the local radio station broadcasting from the event, sharing stories of when they were great students."

Next, Former Fire Chief Chuck Montero was honored at the council meeting. He would have been presented the award for his years of service (2005-17) with the Donaldsonville Fire Department at the groundbreaking for the new station, but he was out of town.

"Since Chuck Montero has retired, every time I talk to him he's on his way to Florida," Mayor Sullivan said.

Montero, who was honored by the council last year after his retirement only requested that the service award trophy be kept in the new fire station.

Last, the city heard the finance report from Sandra Cost Williams. Sales tax is down considerably. It is coming in at $97,000 dollars according to Williams. However, it takes $154,000 a month to run the city.

In the coming weeks, the mayor and council will be putting their heads together to come up with a solution.