During times of crisis everyone has to come up with new ways for the world to continue to run, even if it is being run out of people’s living rooms.
The Allen Parish Police Jury joined the world of technology this week to host their monthly meeting for April via internet. To abide the social distancing request from the governor the APPJ held their meeting via Zoom Cloud Meetings. This is an app that allows several different people to join a meeting and take care of business, virtually.
Even though the process was a bit different the jury was all business. The agenda was approved and the meeting began.
With the social distancing laws in place the jury wanted to discuss employees and how the APPJ should move forward in day-to-day operations. Jurors felt they would not be able to afford to continue to pay employees to stay at home.
Juror for District Four Creig Vizena said, “District Four is crippled already. We cannot afford to continue to pay people that aren’t working.” After a discussion all jurors felt that they could safely return to work while still keeping in line with the social distancing guidelines. Vizena said, our people don’t work close enough for it to be an issue. They are mowing and patching roads.
Bids were approved for the asphalt and micro surface contracts. They were awarded to Diamond B construction for asphalt and Vance Brothers for micro surface materials.
There were no bids on the dump bed for a truck to be opened so the jury approved to re-advertise.
The committees made their recommendations all of which were approved by the jury.
The finance committee requested:
•To pay Charles Savant $2,054.94 for repairs on a dump truck for road district three.
•To pay Kellogg Electric $6,500 for work on the Abbott house.
•To pay C.F.’s Welding $2,548.25 for a trailer for road district one.
•To pay Sunshine Quality Solutions for parts to repair a side boom for a tractor for road district two.
•To pay Brown Manufacturing $2,900 for flat bed truck installation on Unit 7-4 for road district two.
•To pay Hayden Roofing $3,300 to replace roof on the pilots lounge at the airport.
•To pay H&E Equipment $1,710.56 for a turbo for the track hoe for road district one.
The Road Committee only had one request which was approved. They requested a joint service agreement with the City of Oakdale for grass cutting, pothole patching and trash pickup for the month of April 2020.
The Prisoner Expense Report was read for the month of March. The budget for the month was $17,300 and the and the expenses for the month came in at $14,648.95. That is $2,651.05 under the budget for the month and the prison is $11,522.51 under budget for the year.
As of April 1 there were 59 parish inmates, 13 department of corrections inmates and 67 federal inmates. The federal inmates are not being housed in parish housing, they are only in the federal facility.
