Several residents of the neighborhood where Doyle Creel has a full-sized fire engine set up on private property in an A-1 Residential Zone as an advertisement for his Bogalusa Grill have protested whether the fire engine should be allowed.

Henry Rayford and Richard Brister, in particular, have repeatedly voiced their opposition to the city council.

On Tuesday, the council voted 5-2 to ask Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office whether the fire engine should be allowed, according to existing city law.

The two council members who voted against asking for the interpretation were Teddy Drummond and Scott Ard.

“It (the fire engine) should have been moved,” Rayford said.

“We want to put this to bed,” council vice president Sherry Fortenberry said.

“I think this should clear it up,“ said councilman Brian McCree.

The remaining two resolutions passed unanimously. One was a resolution to accept the municipal Water Pollution Prevention Environmental Audit Report. According to the audit report, the average monthly water flow is 1.484 million gallons per day, and it did not exceed 90 percent of the permit limits at any time this year.

The report goes on to say that the mechanical treatment plant has a trickling filter, an aerated lagoon, and a stabilization pond. The total point value is 40 out of a maximum of 50.

The other was a resolution to authorize the Bogalusa mayor to execute those documents and agreements required to implement the grant under the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program through the Restore Louisiana infrastructure: FEMA Public Assistance Nonfederal Share Match Program for the city of Bogalusa in the aftermath of 2016 severe storms and flooding events.

Director of Administration Stacy Smith said a state grant from the Louisiana Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit was actually going pay up to a 25-percent reimbursement to the city, mostly for work in Cassidy Park.

“This reimbursement is for projects totaling $638,675,” Smith said. “For some reason, one of the reimbursements from the state is calculated at less than 25 percent. I am going to get with the Office of Community Development to find out why.

“And as I stated in the meeting last night, the reimbursement amount of $142,000 is subject to change once we issue additional requests. I am meeting with our representative from GOSHEP (Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management) next week to finalize everything.”

The council also introduced two ordinances. The first was an exception to Ordinance 2511 pertaining to underground burials; depth in Bogalusa Cemetery and Ponemah Cemetery and burial work.

The second would approve a rezoning request from A-2 Residential to B-1 Business to put a snowball stand on the property of Curtis Allen.

Those ordinances will have action taken during the next council meeting on Tuesday, May 15.