Chataignier Council talks about fixing village library

CHATAIGNIER – Monday night’s Chataignier council meeting centered around the necessary repairs needed at the village’s local library.
Emily Fontenot, an employee at Chataignier’s library, addressed the council members and mayor at the meeting concerning issues with the library’s facilities. “One of our biggest problems is the water leakage in the building that is going onto the carpet and ruining it,” Fontenot said. “The carpet is also really bad. It is a tan carpet and so you can see stained spots all over, and visitors actually mention that when they visit us.”
Village mayor Jackie Thomas’ first plan of action to work towards bettering the conditions of the library was to ask for the village to designate the funds from the next tourism grant that Chataignier acquires to repairs at the library.
After being informed by the mayor that the grant money would not be available until September, village council member Joseph Semien expressed his desire to acquire funding sooner for library repairs.
Semien said, “If the library is in that bad of shape then we may not be able to wait until September to fix the problems. We need to look into other things as well.”
Because the Chataignier Library is not owned by Evangeline Parish, the village will have to be the one to come up with the necessary funds needed for the repairs. If the library was donated to the parish, the parish would then be the one responsible for the library building’s up-keep.
The mayor didn’t disagree that something needs to be done sooner, and asked each council member if they would conjure up other ways to more quickly raise money for the library. The mayor decided to table the discussion until Chataignier’s next council meeting.
Other items discussed and approved were:
•Set deadline to turn in a resume for the job position of clerk in Chataignier for January 29, 2016.
•Approve the usage of $2,500 from the LGAP Grant for water system repairs.
•Approve the usage of $900 from a tourism grant for the purchase of a flagpole and basketball goal from Walmart.
•Purchase of a police radar gun for $2,119 with funds from the USDA.