Police jury discusses growing amount of late sewer bills

The Evangeline Parish Police jury discussed ways to collect the more than more than $125,000 owed to the parish in delinquent sewer bills, during its monthly meeting session Monday, June 2.
The issue has been discussed for at least two years, and Donald Bergeron, police jury secretary/treasurer, said the parish district attorney’s office is considering the parish’s legal options.
Juror Lamar Johnson said about three years ago, the parish posted notices on the doors of people who were late in paying their sewer bills and “some paid” the amounts owed. But now, people owe in some cases more than $2,000.
The police jury had a collection agency work on the problem when the total amount of overdue bills reached $70,000, but the company was not able to make much progress.
Jurors discussed possibly making landlords responsible for paying bills owed by their tenants, getting the parish health department involved, or arranging to have electricity turned off at homes of people who have past-due sewer bills.
Johnson said the parish should get an opinion from the state’s attorney general before proceeding with any particular option. Jurors decided the next step was to get the district attorney’s opinion.
The police jury also discussed the need to perform maintenance on the 10 emergency generators in the parish. Parish employees can change the oil and inspect the generators, but the parish is not capable of load testing generators to determine if they are operating properly.
Bergeron said only one company had offered a bid to test the generators. Juror Kenny Burgess said Basile has contracted with a Eunice company for testing its generator, and gave Bergeron contact information for that company. The police jury tabled any action on contracting the testing until the second company is contacted. Bergeron contacted that company the next morning.
Jurors approved a request of Chester Granger, parish public works director, to accept an unnamed road near Turkey Creek. There used to be one resident on the road, who took care of maintaining the road. But there are now two other houses on the road, which Johnson said is used to deliver mail.
Granger said the road meets all of the parish’s specifications and is in “great shape.” He said residents on the road are considering a name for the road.
Near the end of the meeting, Ken Johnson, Crooked Creek manager, had two issues for the jurors:
•He said he wanted to make sure he had the authority to evict a disorderly person from the park, and the jurors said he did. He said three recent incidents involved an off-duty law enforcement officer he wanted to tell to “hit the gate.”
•Johnson said he is drafting a set of guidelines for use of the pavilion being constructed at the park, including a deposit to be made at the time it is reserved. He said implementing deposits when reserving the cabins had reduced incidents of damage to those facilities. Jurors asked him if he had received any complaints regarding recent rate increases for and he said he had not.