Police Jury votes to repair bridges; pushes back chip seal road project

Public Works Director Chester Granger presented a dilemma to the Evangeline Parish Police Jury at Monday night’s monthly meeting.
“I need some direction,” Granger told the Jury. “I still have three bridges not up to speed with state regulations and I am getting to close to having to start chip sealing roads. I can’t do both because of the man power.
“If you tell me to chip seal then the bridges will have to wait,” Granger added. “If you tell me to fix the bridges first then the chip sealing will have to wait.”
Juror Kevin Veillon, who has two of the three bridges in his district, spoke up first and stated the “chip sealing needs to be put off.”
Juror Rocky Rider supported Veillon’s point as he pointed out the safety concerns of not repairing the bridges immediately.
Rider said, “If the bridge is out, you can’t go, but also should emergency services be needed in that area it would be very bad if they had to go 4 or 5 miles out of their way to reach their destination.”
The Jury, with Jurors Ryan Williams, Daniel Arvie and Lamar Johnson (who left early) absent, voted to push the chip seal project back and to instead focus on repairing the three bridges.
Those bridges are located on Green Valley Road, Warren Camp Road and Lachance Road.
Litter abatement was also discussed at length during Monday night’s meeting.
The Jury wanted to have parish Constables issue citations while Justices of the Peace enforcing said citations to help alleviate litter tickets clogging up the parish courthouse. The Jury talked about creating a new ordinance that would deal with issuing fines for littering but also deal with nuisance properties in need of being cleaned up.
After some back-and-forth between some constables such as Justice of the Peace for Ward 4 Wade Riley and Jurors Johnson and Eric Soileau discussing jurisdiction, Assistant District Attorney Marcus Fontenot entered the discussion.
Fontenot advised that due to the laws already on the state’s books, the Constables and Justices of the Peace, already have the ability to enforce the existing litter laws. Meaning that the Constables and Justices of the Peace do not need an additional ordinance by the Jury to do so.
“We don’t need to create any new laws,” Fontenot said. “If you want to enforce the laws then you can do it.”
Juror Bryan Vidrine brought up about the Jury still wanted to do more about the nuisance properties in the parish. So Fontenot agreed to write stronger language to help enforce fines for such properties, and a public hearing will be set at next month’s meeting to discuss that.
Other items that were unanimously approved at the meeting were:
• Public open bidding on the former Evangeline Parish Library building to be held on July 25, 2016 at 2 p.m. at the Police Jury Office.
• Selecting August 1, 2016 at 4:45 p.m. for a public hearing to discuss setting the speed limit on L’anse Meg Road to 45 miles per hour.
• Setting new speed limits of 45 mph. on both Wilson Campbell Road and Leman Road.
• To enter an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Town of Basile to maintain a Police Jury owned lot on Stagg Street in exchange with the Jury will maintain portions of gravel roads in Basile.
• Approving Anna Frank and Vonetta Toussaint to attend maintenance workshop in Marksville.