Police jury discuss road vandalism, damage by log trucks and new road construction

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury discussed efforts to prevent heavy truck loads and vandals from damaging chip-sealed parish-maintained roadways, during its regular monthly meeting Monday, September 8.
Chester Granger, parish public works director, said bills have been sent to logging truck operators that have damaged parish chip seal roads.
Juror Lamar Johnson told about another problem regarding chip-sealed roads and parking areas -- deliberate damaging or stealing of the gravel.
He said he happened to find a person in his late teens removing gravel from a cemetery parking area. He said the parking area had been damaged in the past, and that it would cost up to $3,000 to repair it.
Ryan Ardoin, police jury president, said he wanted the public to be aware that people who damage roads “will be prosecuted.” Johnson said he wanted to “throw the book at that kid” he caught in the act of damaging the cemetery parking lot.
In other developments involving parish roads, Ronnie Landreneau, consulting engineer, reported that bids for two contracts -- one for road improvements in the north part of the parish and the other for the south -- will be opened on September 30.
Those two contracts are for the first phase of a $28.6 million road improvement project and the second and final phase will start in the spring of 2015. The road improvement project will be funded through a bond issue.
Landreneau also asked the police jury to declare the hardening of the Northside Civic Center -- mostly involving impact resistant glass on windows and doors -- as “substantially complete.” That project is being funded with a grant and from matching funds from the City of Ville Platte.
The police jury discussed progress in having owners of property that is overgrown or has abandoned structures cleared.
Donald Bergeron, parish secretary/treasurer, said letters had been sent to the 12 owners of properties identified by Fire Chief Ted Demourelle as unsafe or presenting public health issues.
Bergeron said four of the property owners had replied by the deadline noted in the letters, and none of the four disputed the parish’s claim.
Attorney Marcus Fontenot, who has been advising the police jury on procedures outlined by the state to address the issue, said the jurors should set a date for a public hearing and ask the 12 property owners to attend. He said after the “due process” of allowing the property owners to comment on the issue, the police jury can have the properties cleared and add the costs of doing so in the owner’s property taxes.
Juror Eric Soileau said constituents have been complaining of the problem for years and “I have had enough.”
In other police jury business:
•Jurors approved of an increase in the stipend paid to the president and members of the Reddell-Vidrine Water District for attending monthly meetings. A letter from the water district requesting the increase stated the board members and president have not had an increase approved by the police jury since 1967. Funds for the increase will come from the water district’s budget.
•Accepted the low bid of $215,000 from a Eunice company to improve drainage at the Savoy Medical Center in Mamou, which was flooded early last year after heavy rains. Landreneau said the bid was under the budgeted amount for the project. The project is being funded through a storm mitigation grant.
•The police jury passed five resolutions recommended by Landreneau, to conform with guidelines for Louisiana Community Development Block Grants for 2014 for sewer line improvements in the parish.
•The jurors assed a resolution concurring with an application to the State Bond Commission for application to borrow not more than $1.5 million by the Evangeline Parish Communication District. The funds will be used to construct a new Office of Emergency Preparedness building at the Evangeline Parish Industrial Park.