Police jury upset with insurance company

By: STEVE HALLAM
Associate Editor

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury, during its monthly committee meeting session Monday, June 1, expressed their displeasure with the company providing insurance for the parish’s fleet of vehicles.
Donald Bergeron, police jury secretary treasurer, explained that the company submitted the low bid of $7,900 in February to provide the insurance. Then last week, Bergeron said, the company sent his office a notice of cancellation.
Bergeron said he found the company’s bid submission and the parish’s check for $7,900 that had been deposited. He said the insurance company stated that due to its error, it quoted bid was about $5,000 short.
Juror Bryan Vidrine suggested the police jury send a certified letter stating the insurance coverage was cancelled because of the insurance company’s error and that the police jury would seek legal remedies.
Juror Lamar Johnson said the insurance company may have submitted a fraudulent bid and is now seeking to collect more than it agreed to accept for coverage it agreed to provide.
Johnson asked if they can legally cancel insurance coverage and Vidrine said it could for a reason, but that submitting a low bid in error was not a valid reason.
Bergeron said a representative of the insurance company was invited to the police jury’s meeting but failed to show up. The jurors voted to have Bergeron draft a letter and have it reviewed by the police jury’s legal council before sending it out.
The jurors also discussed their options regarding the parish’s old main library. The issue involves the cost of bringing the structure, built during the 1930s, up to standards for being used as an archive for various parish offices. Johnson asked, “Is it worth keeping or is it worth getting rid of?”
Consulting engineer Ronnie Landreneau said he would survey needs of parish offices, including the district attorney, sheriff’s and clerk of court offices. He said he would also provide information about the practicality of using the old library structure for an archive storage facility.
Bergeron said he will try to find an appraiser of commercial properties with possible historic significance. There were no bids for the old library building when the parish advertised for bids.
That discussion led to a similar situation in Basile involving a house the parish had possession of but only received one bid, for $500. The jurors voted to accept the bid.
In other business, the jurors voted to accept a bid of $3,000 to improve drainage at a baseball and softball complex on North Chataignier Road that is used for Ville Platte High tournaments.