“It’s time to move on.”

That was District A Councilman Lionel Hick’s reaction after the Slidell City Council voted 6-3 to override Mayor Ben Morris’ veto of an ordinance that would allow several residents in the Lincoln Heights subdivision to replace their storm-damaged mobile homes with new ones.

For two years, Hicks has been fighting to pass the legislation that would only affect about four families in the subdivision who have been living in trailers for years. When they tried to bring in new mobile homes to replace the ones destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, city officials protested because of an ordinance passed before the storm banned trailers within city limits.

The ordinance failed the first time it was submitted to the City Council.

It passed the second time, but Morris vetoed it, saying it was unfair to the rest of the city to single out a small group of people. The council was unable to override the first veto. Hicks reintroduced the bill in January, and it passed, but Morris vetoed it for the second time on Feb. 26.

Like the previous times when the legislation was brought before the council, there was a lot of discussion at last Tuesday’s council meeting.

Councilman Warren Crockett reiterated his opposition to the ordinance, saying he still did not have specifics on the number of people affected and how much it would cost.

“This is not the time to pass this bill. I don’t have all the facts,” Crockett said.

Councilman Bill Borchert said he had gotten a faith-based recovery group to try and sit down with the families to discuss building homes for them.

“Only one lady showed up at the meeting,” Borchert said.

He added that the recovery organization has agreed to build five to eight houses in the area, and he thought the trailer owners should reconsider the option of building.

“With this help, it’s a bad idea to pass this now,” Borchert said.

But one Lincoln Heights resident, Audra Wilson, said building a home was not an option for some of the elderly trailer residents.

“Some of these elderly people can’t afford a 30-year mortgage,” Wilson told the council.

Councilman Kevin Kingston reminded the council the ordinance is only to replace the storm-damaged homes in Lincoln Heights and will not allow other trailers into the city.

“I would have a problem with the bill it was not just a replacement,” Kingston said. “All we are doing is giving these people an option to get out of a bad situation.”

City Attorney Tim Mathison said the bill was worded so that the trailer residents could not will the trailers to their family when they died.

“It is a conditional-use permit. When the owner dies, the condition goes away, and the trailers have to move,” Mathison said.

One Slidell resident, Pat Hamrick, said allowing the trailers endangers the residents.

“Your encouraging people to put trailers in an area prone to flooding,” Hamrick said. “We will visit this problem again if it floods.”

Hicks wondered why there were people so opposed to the trailers.

“The city government has been operating out of trailers for the past two years,” Hicks said.

“I’ve been fighting this for two years. It’s time for these people to get back to some sort of normalcy. Let’s override the veto and get on with more important city business.”

Crockett, Borchert and Kim Harbison voted against the override.

After the vote, Hicks said, “It’s about time. I feel great because these people can now get on with their lives.”