Evangeline Parish Police Jury appoints claims committee, votes on damage claims

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury named members of a new claims committee during its monthly committee meeting session Monday, October 7. The police jury then voted to award damages in one case, deny damages in a second and partially award damages in a third case.
The police jury voted last month to form the committee, primarily to determine if individual claims for damages should be discussed in a closed executive session of the police jury meeting. All police jurors vote on whether to award damages.
Members of the new claims committee are Brian Vidrine, police jury president, and jurors Ryan Ardoin, Rocky Rider, Eric Soileau and Kevin Veillon.
The first claim was presented by a woman who said she was driving her car from Pine Prairie when she passed a parish truck being driven in the opposite direction.
She said the truck bounced, causing rocks it was hauling to fly out of the truck bed and strike her car. She said she had bought the car 45 days before the incident and had just made the first payment on the car.
The driver of the car told the jurors she turned her car around and when the truck stopped, asked if the load on the truck should have been covered. She said she was told the cover couldn’t operate properly. She also said she wrote down information identifying the truck.
The three estimates for repairing her car ranged from $869 to $1,100. Vidrine said it appeared the parish was at fault, and Rocky Rider said, based on his experience with auto repair, the estimates reflected “a fair price. We owe it.” The jurors voted to award the damages.
The next claim of damages was made by a driver who was involved in an accident at Trojan Lane in Ville Platte. The driver claimed there were no warning signs on the approaches to the bridge. The jurors voted to deny the claim.
The third claim was brought by the owner of a trailer that was damaged when a parish road compactor struck it. The police jury, during previous police jury meeting, discussed the low bid of $3,445 to cover repair of the trailer’s frame and axle, replacement of a fender and the cost of traveling to Alexandria to get the repair cost estimates.
Donald Bergeron, the police jury’s new secretary/treasurer, said during the police jury meeting when the claim was first considered -- when he was the parish public works director -- he recommended the parish just reimburse the cost of replacing or repairing the fender.
He said when the accident occurred, he was called to the scene and did not observe any indication of any damage other than to the fender.
Juror Ryan Ardoin said the estimate was not evidence of the cause of the problem with the axle, and that prolonged use could have caused the problem. Juror Kenny Burgess said photographs showed the load on the trailer was not disturbed after being struck by the compactor and said he was concerned about “conflicting stories,” about the damages.
Vidrine said a new trailer costs less than half the $3,445 claimed by the owner of the trailer for repairs. Noting the police jury had already voted to repair the fender, he told the jurors, “Guys we need to approve or disapprove,” the larger claim. The jurors voted to deny the claim for more costs beyond repairing the fender.
During the executive committee meeting, the police jurors disagreed about the need for the parish to adopt its first written policy and procedures manual.
Police Jury President Bryan Vidrine provided police jurors with copies of the proposed 16-page manual to review.
Juror Eric Soileau said he would want to study the manual before the police jury votes on whether to adopt it. Juror Lamar Johnson said the manual would require supervisors to complete more paperwork than is now required. He said he wants supervisors to examine the manual before the police jury votes to accept it.
Vidrine said auditors advised the police jury to adopt written procedures, but that the police jury didn’t have to do so. He said the manual would help parish employees understand parish procedures. No action was taken on the manual during Monday’s meeting
The jurors also discussed the need to spray for mosquitoes. While there have been complaints that it’s difficult to mow the grass because of mosquitoes, the cooler temperatures could cause the problem to lessen, jurors said.
Jurors also discussed aerial spraying of mosquitoes, as other parishes are doing, but Vidrine said the cost is prohibitive.
The jurors voted to use a sprayer truck to spray for mosquitoes where crowds congregate in rural areas of the parish, such as at football games, at Crooked Creek and at the Chicota Youth Camp later this month. Jurors will assess the problem with mosquitoes during their regular meeting October 14, to decide if further action is warranted.
Ronnie Landreneau, the police jury’s consulting engineer, reported that the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is enforcing an existing law mandating back-flow devices on commercial facilities to ensure drinking water distribution systems are safe from contamination. Landreneau said facilities at the industrial park may have the devices, but the parish needs to have records confirming they do, and pass an ordinance specifying the devices are checked for proper operation, as is done with fire extinguishers.
Landreneau also reported that FEMA is asking the parih to reimburse $9,737 of the more than $800,000 in grants for restoration efforts after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Of the amount FEMA is asking for is $5,000 in overtime pay. Landreneau said if the parish can document the overtime pay was properly recorded, that amount might not be required to be paid back. “It’s usually not easy to overturn” a FEMA request for reimbursement, he said, but the jurors voted to see if the records can be found.
The jurors also heard a presentation by a representative of Cintas, a uniform provider in Lafayette. The representative said the uniforms would make parish employees more recognizable while on the job. About 35 parish employees would wear the uniforms. The police jury took no action on  contracting with the company during the meeting.