Tonight’s MEH-tro Council Meeting – There’s not really a nice way to put this, but tonight’s council meeting is going to be pretty boring.

There’s not really a nice way to put this, but tonight’s council meeting is almost certainly going to be pretty boring. There are only a few items of real interest on the agenda. Considering what’s been going on at the Federal level over the last few days, you’d probably have a better time reading up on the Shelby and Windsor decisions and pretend to be a Constitutional scholar on the internet for the next few days like everyone else.

In fairness, here’s a copy of the current Council agenda. As of the morning of the Council meeting, there is nothing on the Council Administrative Matters agenda. When/If that agenda is updated, it can be found here.

So what is getting covered today?

Community Center Budgets: The deferred item concerning transferring control of the Community Center budgets from individual Council members to the Mayor’s Office. Considering there has not really been anything reported in the media about it, I’m guessing the parties have worked it out. I could be completely wrong, but this seems like one of those issues that would cause a real fracas if it were pursued to the end. I wrote a little bit about it last week.

Library/Arts Council Partnership: There’s an item about the Library hiring the Arts Council to serve as its booking agent for special events. Probably not a bad idea and could get some interesting things going on in the Library. Other than some quibbles about capital construction plans, the Library Board of Control and Library staff seem to be doing a good job operating their system. It will be good to see Spencer Watts, the new Library Director, before the Council again. He needs to get acclimated before the next, inevitable Downtown Library fight.

The Horror on Joor Road: Lastly (and to be honest “leastly”) is a zoning request to allow the 13th Gate folks to open what would probably be a ridiculously awesome haunted forest/field in the same vein as their haunted house downtown. If the Council doesn’t agree to it, it isn’t the end of the world. But it would be a blow against a team that has done a lot to raise the profile of Baton Rouge in the admittedly small haunted house aficionado community. The quality of their product should be rewarded, so I would hope this passes if all of the proper boxes have been checked.

Take Your Trash & Shove It: Councilman Welch continues his efforts to limit the expansion of landfill and trash-based businesses in his neck of the woods. The only action requested is a resolution expressing the Council’s opposition to DEQ over the endeavor. Fun times.

The Council Meeting starts at 4 p.m.today. You can catch it live on the 3rd Floor of City Hall in downtown Baton Rouge (222 St. Louis Street), you can watch it from the comfort of your own home on Metro 21 through Cox Communication, or you might be able to catch it streaming here. As a bonus, if you miss the proceedings, the City-Parish has started a new archiving program on their online meeting page. I said I’d cover it last week. I didn’t but will get to it next week. Pinky swear.