Chataignier to hold meeting to hire police chief

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor

Before the Village of Chataignier’s monthly meeting Mayor Jackie Thomas asked for a moment of silence in honor of the village’s Chief of Police Paul Allen Jr. who passed away earlier this month.
Once the meeting began, change in Chataignier seemed to be the theme at the meeting.
Since the unexpected passing of Allen Jr. the village was left without a chief until Monday night’s meeting. At the meeting Mayor Thomas made a motion to appoint Arthur Phillips to fill the unexpired term of Chief Allen as the interim chief of police for the village until a special election is held.
Mayor Thomas’s motion was accepted and approved unanimously by council members.
A few days after the meeting it was discovered that Phillips did not fit the qualifications to be appointed the villages chief.
The Village Clerk, Wilbur Rozas said, “Because Mr. Phillips did not meet the necessary qualifications, we will be setting a date for a special meeting to be held to take care of the matter.”
The special election primary will be held on March 5, 2016. Qualifying dates to run for chief of police in the special election have been set for December 2-4, 2015.
During the public comments time of the meeting, Mark Fontenot asked the mayor and council members to turn donated lane into a public road.
Fontenot is purchasing land, which he intends to build a house on, in an area where the road providing access to the property is privately owned. The only way that the Police Jury can fix the road is if it is public property.
The owner of the land that would be turned into a public road, Aubrey Brown, is willing to donate a 30 foot by 1,000 foot strip of land to the village for the purpose of making a public road. It would be the village’s responsibility to have the land surveyed before the road could be built.
According to Fontenot, “For us to get a 911 address we would have to have a public road.”
While the council is in favor of acquiring the land for the purpose of making a public road, they will have to speak more with the village attorney about the necessary steps they will be required in order to properly execute this request.
Other major items on the agenda were:
•Re-hiring of Landreneau and Associates as the village engineer.
•Appointment of Richard Celestine as Street and Maintenance Advisor.
•Appointment of Gail McDavid as Sewer Operator.