The Allen Parish Police Jury met on Wednesday, September 2, to discuss debris clean up in Allen Parish and awarding bids to a FEMA approved contractor.
According to Parish Engineer Jacob Dillehay, if the paperwork isn’t submitted right and if the contractor used is not FEMA approved, there is a possibility of not being reimbursed for the debris cleanup process.
“The parish cannot afford to foot the bill for this. If we paid 100 percent of the clean up cost, we would have no money to run the parish. We are being careful because we would rather spend the money on infrastructure like your roads,” Dillehay said.
The APPJ is hopeful there will be a very small portion of the cost that will actually come from the parish pockets. The most recent information given indicated FEMA would pay 90 percent, and the parish would have to pay the remaining 10 percent.
According to Representative Dewith Carrier, who spoke with Senator Kennedy the day before, there will be no match, they are attempting to get FEMA to pay 100 percent of the cleanup cost.
Mike Johnson’s office joined the meeting over the phone and suggested APPJ document everything and to get our state government to push for FEMA to help.
Some of the municipalities like Oakdale and Kinder have decided to pursue their own contracts. They are hoping to use local people and get the job done a little quicker. This means they will be in charge of ensuring their towns get repaid for the costs of the contracts they secured.
Road Superintendent Joel Johnson said the crews got out on Thursday as soon as the storm had passed and began clearing the roads. “This crew we have is a heck of a crew. They have worked their guts out. We are thankful to all the residents who got out and used their personal equipment and cleared roads alongside us. Some places may have power lines down and we can’t do anything with those. Some fallen trees have damaged the roads. As soon as we get all roads passable we will come back and begin fixing those spots.”
Juror Creig Vizena of District Five said, “citizens have done an awesome job. We thank you for your patience and for helping out in such a huge way.”
Angie Plante spoke about the dumps and trash pick up. She wanted to remind the public, contractors are responsible for their own trash removal. “Our dump sites cannot handle the regular dumping the disaster required, such as trash and refrigerators, as well as contractor supplied garbage. Shingles are just too heavy. We are also asking the public to resume using their curbside as much as possible.”
Vegetation debris can be placed at your property line and the contractors that are awarded the bid at Tuesday’s meeting will be by to pick it up. These contractors cannot cross the property lines but can reach as far as their equipment can to pick up any debris. The jury requests that residents place it as close as possible to the right of way line without putting it in the road or ditches.
Vizena also said they had informed all contractors who were bidding that if they needed to subcontract any jobs the jury requests that they use local contractors to do the jobs.
The are also going to meet with the sheriff to discuss using trustees to help in this process.
The jury also said to refrain from burning until the burn ban is lifted. The fire marshal will ticket you if caught. The burn ban was due to some areas not having water access.
The APPJ is also placing importance on having all voting precincts in working order or relocated for the November 3, election.
