Police Jury thanks residents; OK’s Hazard Mitigation Plan

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury expressed gratitude to the parish’s voters at Monday’s monthly meeting.
The gratitude stemmed from residents overwhelming passing all 12 tax measures (renewals-continuations) that appeared on the March 25, 2017 ballot. Those measures helped pay for maintenance for the parish’s roads and cemeteries.
“We are very thankful for the people of Evangeline Parish who agreed with what we have done in the past with those tax measures,” Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer Donald Bergeron stated. “They passed overwhelmingly.”
Police Jury President Ryan Ardoin also took time out of the meeting Monday to thank the residents.
The Jury also went ahead and approved the Evangeline Parish Hazard Mitigation Plan.
A few municipalities in the parish had already approved the plan, such as Chataignier and Turkey Creek, but the majority of others had not done so.
The reasoning was because it was thought that the new statistics concerning the widespread flood damage that occurred in August throughout the state would be included in the plan. Due to enormity of the data, those stats though won’t be part of the plan until the new plan is proposed in three to five years.
“It has to be approved by all the jurisdictions and after that we can make any changes,” said Sherry Buller with Evangeline Parish 9-1-1-OEP. “But there aren’t many changes. But if the plan is not adopted those jurisdictions won’t receive any funding.”
Juror Bryan Vidrine said, “We didn’t adopt the plan yet because we thought we had to update all the information first before approving it.”
The Police Jury quickly though went ahead and voted on the plan and approved it
During his report, Public Works Director Chester Granger informed the Jury of a possible program down the road when it comes to road repairs.
Granger said that four of the parish’s dump trucks are now eight years old, with two currently in the shop right now and a third waiting to go in for repairs.
“If we are going to do chip sealing this year then this will play a role in what roads we do and how many of them we do,” Granger said.
With that news, Vidrine asked if Granger could start looking for a good used truck to purchase and Granger said that he has already started doing some research and would provide the Jury with a few options.
Granger also informed the Jury that they would need to hire a part-time employee to work on a project in Sidney Fontenot’s district, and that the funding would be coming out of that district’s road funds.
Other items unanimously voted on were:
• Approved attendance to the LEPA Annual Conference May 1-4 in Lake Charles for Liz Hill, Sherry Buller and Kristi Burleigh.
• Approved Trail Rides for Piney Woods Riders on Joe Fontenot Road on June 24th, pending an approval by the Tax Commissioner’s Office.
• Declined Trail Rides for Tony Lavelle for Donald Ray’s Place.
• Approved resoultion proclaiming April to be Fair Housing Month.