Police jury cautioned on road names

During its regular monthly meeting Monday, January 13, the Evangeline Parish Police Jury discussed the potentially hazardous situation regarding roads in the parish that have the same or similar names.
Jurors were presented with a list of road names in their districts prepared by the parish office of emergency preparidness. OEP Director Liz Hill urged the jurors to verify the lists and confirm their findings with OEP.
Another speaker at the meeting was Bobby Guilbeau, Ward Five fire chief, who handed the jurors a list of 21 duplicate road names in the parish. The list also contained two triplicates. Those were Wesley roads, two in the Chataignier area and one in the Duralde area, and Rolling Road in Ward 1 off Highway 167, Rollins Road in Ward 5 off Highway 167 and Rallen Road in the Duralde area.
Guilbeau said similar sounding road names are difficult to distinguish on the radio. In an emergency, when someone is calling for help “in a panic mode,” road names can be misconstrued. The confusion “can cost someone’s life,” he said.
The fire chief said while it may be difficult to change road names that already exist, he cautioned the jurors to be careful not to name new roads the same, or almost the same, as existing roads.
The police jury began its meeting by voting Ryan Ardoin the new police jury president and Ryan Williams the new vice president. They also approved a list of jurors who are on the various committees with few changes.
The jurors voted to continue to hold regular monthly meetings the second Monday of the month at 6 p.m. and committee meetings the first Monday of the month at 5 p.m.
Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court Randy Deshotel requested, and received, the police jury’s permission to bore through the courthouse exterior so an iCloud connection can be inserted into the clerk of court’s office.
Deshotel said a 40-mile extension of a fiber optics cable along I-49 will have a diversion to the parish to connect with the Evangeline Parish School Board, at the corner of Cotton Street and High School Drive.
He said he is seeking a service provider to run a line from there under the courthouse parking lot and into the northeast corner of the courthouse, where the clerk of court’s office is located.
That would allow access to the iCloud, which is used to synchronize various devices as well as remotely store various kinds of data. Deshotel said the line to the courthouse could be used for wireless connections by other departments -- such as the police jury, district attorney’s office or the sheriff’s office -- in the future.
In other action, the police jury:
•Voted to consider, during the February Crooked Creek Committee meeting, to increase fees for Crooked Creek recreational area $5 per night, $2 per night for senior citizens. Also, golf cart rental would increase $2 per day and boat rentals would increase $3 per day. No increase on cabin rentals are planned.
•Received a briefing from its consulting engineer, Ronnie Landreneau, about progress in constructing the parish’s new main library. Frick Troy Construction of Lake Charles had abandoned the project, and Landreneau said the new contractors are now being assigned. He said a subcontractor had been at the construction site earlier Monday, and that an opening date for the library “is not far off.” He said a Houston, Texas, surety company holds the payment bonds, which are “fully insured.”
•Heard an update on construction of a new pavilion at Crooked Creek by Landreneau, who said bids for the construction will be advertised next week.
•Voted to raise the mileage reimbursement rate -- reflecting an IRS mileage change for 2014 -- from 55 and a half cents per mile to 56 cents per mile.