Jurors discuss road signs, road names during committee meeting

Road name changes and road sign theft were among the issues taken up during the monthly committee meetings of the Evangeline Parish Police Jury Monday, February 3.
During the Road and Bridge Committee meeting, juror Lamar Johnson said the parish is charging too much -- $1,500 -- to residents for changing road names. He cited the example of a road on which two houses exist where an elderly person wants to change the name of the road.
The committee chairman, Eric Soileau, said the expense involved in changing road names includes changing maps, updating GPS information and other changes. He also said in a survey of how other parishes handle road name changes, some of the parishes do not allow road names to change because of the potential liability involved with, for example, emergency responders being unable to locate a business or residence due to a recent change in a road name.
Juror Kenny Burgess said another issue complicating changes of road names involves the years it can take for the change in road names to be reflected in maps and GPS databases used by emergency responders.
Police jury members were provided with a list of road names in their districts by Liz Hill, 911 office of emergency preparedness director. Hill said she also needed the jurors input to determine if the more than 1,400 roads in the parish are public or private roads.
The jurors voted to have a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. before the police jury’s regular meeting on March 10 to finalize the list and consider any road name changes, abandonment of public roads and other issues involved with the parish’s ordinance regarding road names.
Jurors also discussed the problem of road sign theft in the parish. Johnson said between Christmas and the end of the year, some 60 road signs had been stolen. He said in one instance, a sign placed on a road one afternoon was gone the next morning.
Hill said the signs are not being stolen for their value but to hang inside people’s residences. She said names of females, as well as roads named “Mardi Gras,” and “Cajun” are frequently stolen.
The jurors discussed alternate types of signs that could be used, or the possibility of placing cameras to identify people who are stealing the signs, but took no action during the meeting.
The police jury tabled approval of an updated list of cemetery maintenance workers. Jurors discussed the need to keep track of cemeteries that change from public to private to ensure the parish doesn’t pay for maintenance where it shouldn’t.
The police jury also heard a report from Donald Bergeron, police jury secretary/treasurer, about the need for computer storage capacity at the police jury office at 1008 W. LaSalle St., so parish records generated by police jury employees can be electronically stored.
Jurors questioned whether the company that provided the computer software upgrade, at a cost of $48,581, should have provided a back-up capability.
Soileau said many parishes in the state have have an IT department and “we have nobody” specialized in computer technology.
Juror Bryan Vidrine said the new computer software will “pay for itself,” in one or two years because auditing of police jury records will take “half the time,” as it has taken in the past, at a cost of about $100,000 a year.
Bergeron said he will research potential solutions, including purchasing external drives.
In other business, the police jury:
•Approved of rate increases at Crooked Creek. Camper rentals with 30-amp connections increased from $20 to $25 per day -- from $18 to $20 for senior rates -- and with 50 amp connections, from $24 to $30 per day -- from $22 to $25 for senior rates. Boat rentals increase from $3 to $5 per day and golf cart rentals increase from $5 to $10 per day.
•Approved replacing the late Robert West on the Bayou Petite Passe Drainage District with Gussie Brown, a Tate Cove area farmer.
•Voted to accept the low bid of $11,000 to replace an engine in a motor grader used in Region A.
•Approved a State Farm insurance quote to cover the parish’s vehicle fleet of $10,092. Bergeron said he sought bids from two other companies but recommended State Farm’s bid.
•Approved a $6,536 Allstate bid to insure the parish courthouse and courthouse annex, the health unit in Mamou and the Chauncey Pitre livestock facility. Bergeron said the bid was $847 less than the company charged last year.