The Allen Parish Police Jury held two public hearings at the beginning of the October meeting on Monday night.
The first was for the lowering of the speed limit on Wright Road in Oakdale from 45 mph to 30 mph.
Mark Greer, citizen from the Wright Road community, was present and informed the jury that he was against the lowering of the speed limit. He also stated that while at the last meeting the Ward 5 Marshal promised they would begin patrolling the road, he has driven the road every day in the last month and not seen one patrol car.
At September’s meeting Greer stated that all it would take to get people to slow down would be to up the patrolling in the area.
The jury decided to move forward with changing the speed limit. They approved an ordinance for the change.
The second public hearing was to change the speed limit on White Road in Oakdale from 35 mph to 30 mph. No one from the public was present to speak and the jury voted to adopt an ordinance to lower the speed limit.
The finance committee made several recommendations:
•Approve to pay Premier Equipment $4,690 for a new blower compressor for the pothole patcher in road district two.
•Approve to pay Charles McFarland Roofing $8,500 to repair gutters on the south side of the courthouse.
•Approve to pay RTG Services $10,000 for work on Paul Brown Rd. in road district five.
•Approve to purchase and pay Cajun Dave $7,250 for a flatbed truck for road district one.
•Approve to pay Mid State Supply $2,204.38 for lights for the DA office.
•Approve to repair an International dump truck for road district five.
•Discuss and consider entering into an agreement with the LSU AgCenter for $5,605 to support and administer Louisiana Cooperative Units off campus.
The finance committee made several recommendations:
•Approve a joint service agreement (JSA) with the City of Oakdale for grass cutting, pothole patching and trash pick up for the month of October, 2019.
•Approve a JSA with the Village of Reeves for manpower, equipment and material to fix a large pothole on the corner of North Lyles and David Street.
•Approve a JSA with the Allen Parish School Board for manpower, equipment and material to grade/repair bus turnarounds at: 188 Jamie Lane in Ragley, 523 Memory Lane in Pitkin and 1268 Simmons Road in Mittie.
The APPJ received only one bid for an adjudicated property in Oberlin. The bid was from Jeremy Fontenot for $175 and he was awarded the property.
The APPJ approved to enter into a contract with Eagle View for aerial imagery for the parish and also agreed to enter a JSA with the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office, Allen Parish School Board and Allen Parish Tax Assessor’s office to split the cost of the project.
Also at the meeting:
•Luther Miller was reappointed to the Fire District No. two board.
•Jackie Reviel was appointed to the Workforce Development Board.
•The APPJ declared the solid waste van and the white courthouse truck as surplus to be auctioned.
•The APPJ adopted a resolution to accept the Allen Parish Airport 2020-2025 Capital Improvement Program.
•Charles Sonnier was hired full time in road district no. three for $12 an hour.
•The jury adopted a resolution for the off-system bridge replacement program.
•The jury authorized the president to sign a letter of support for the Louisiana Watershed Initiative.
The inmate report for September 2019 reflected the budget was $17,300. The expenses were $8,487.50 bringing the jail $8,812.50 under budget for the month and $80,373.19 under budget for the year.
As of Monday, October 7, there were 108 parish inmates and four department of corrections inmates. There are no federal inmates due to overpopulation of female parish inmates.