The Allen Parish Police Jury discussed exciting news with Jackie Reviel from the Allen Parish Hospital. She gave updates on the hospital and informed the jury and public of the new upcoming projects the hospital will begin this year.
The AP hospital is getting a new renovation/expansion that will be broken into three phases. Rural Health unit update and expansion to better serve the community and give patients a more streamlined experience. This will also help keep patients socially distant and give the doctors more support to handle patient loads. The Behavioral Health Unit will see updates and an expansion that will give the hospital to serve more patients more efficiently. The Behavioral Health Department is vital to this area as well as the state. Reviel said, “We see patients from across the state and more beds are a necessity.” The main hospital will also be seeing an update. Overall this project is expected to cost approximately $4 million.
The jury approved the 2021 Equipment Capital Outlay Plan and the 2021 Capital Outlay Plan. Juror Creig Vizena said, “This plan is just that, a plan. Should major road damage happen or another natural disaster occur we would have to amend this plan.” Engineer Jacob Dillehay said, “We are planning to spend less in 2021 at this time due to the cost of hurricane cleanup. We want to see what FEMA is going to end up doing to help before we start our regular spending.” The jury also approved an LGAP grand for Northwest Allen Water District of $24,800.58 to purchase a service truck.
A sealed bid for the advertised property in Kinder was opened. The APPJ only received one bid from Daniel McClelland of D&R Metal Works, for $21,800. The minimum bid was $21,000, which was met, the jury approved to continue with the sale.
The finance committee requested to approve to pay $5,432.28 to Jason Hebert Enterprises, Inc. for Directors and Officers Liability, and to pay $15,000 to appraise the Arizona Chemical property. Both requests were approved.
The road committee requested to approve a joint service agreement (JSA) with the City of Oakdale for grass cutting, pothole patching and trash pick-up for the month of February 2021, and to approve a JSA with the Allen Parish School Board for manpower, materials and equipment for the bus turnaround at 115 Attale Fontenot Road in Kinder and 282 Rosemary Lane in Reeves. All requests were approved.
The Allen Parish Jail report was read for the month of January. The budget for the month was $17,300. Expenses for the month came in at $4,846.32. This brought the jail $12,453.68 under budget for the month. Colleen Sonnier reported that due to the first meeting being so early for February that all January bills were not received, and for the jury to expect February’s expenses to be a little higher than normal. There were 52 parish inmates, seven Department of Corrections inmates and 66 federal inmates.
Also at the meeting:
•A 2021 Liquor License was approved for Taylor Maricle, doing business as Sambo’s, LLC.
•A resolution was adopted to hold a special election for Road Districts One, Two and Three millages and for Recreation District Six millage.
•A resolution was adopted to authorize the incurring of debt in the amount of $93,000 for a tractor for Road District One.
•Jason Smith’s resignation from the Bayou Blue Drainage Board was approved and Tyler Tullier was appointed to complete his term.
•A public hearing was called for March’s meeting to adopt a portion of Earl Miller Road into the parish road system.
