The Allen Parish Police Jury and 2019 President Matt Fontenot kicked off the first meeting of 2020 and Fontenot’s last, by welcoming district six’s new juror Alan Courville. All jurors were sworn into office by Judge David Deshotel as each juror is beginning a new term. After which Fontenot said his final goodbye and thanked all the people of Allen Parish for all their support during his time as a juror.
The newly sworn in jurors held an election of officers for 2020 in which Tony Hebert (district five), was elected as APPJ President and Ruffin George (district one), was elected Vice President.
John Strother (district three), Kent Fontenot (district seven) and Ruffin George (district one) were named to the road committee. Heath Ardoin (district two), Creig Vizena (district four) and Alan Courville (district six) were named to the finance committee.
The finance committee requested:
•Approval to pay $144,209.40 for commercial building and vehicle insurance.
•Approval to pay Homeland Safety System $3,762.22 for annual service agreement.
•Approval to pay Courtesy Dodge $146,567.65 for five new work trucks.
•Approval to pay Buccaneer Truck parts $17,633 for winches, grill guards and nerf bars for new parish work trucks.
•Approval to pay Geroge Edward Fruge $8,000 for trees to be removed at the Abbott property.
•Approve to pay Grade Master Sales $9,400 for hydraulic top line and side. The amount will be split between two districts, $4,700 will be paid from road district one and $4,700 will be paid from road district three.
The road committee requested:
•Approve a joint service agreement with the City of Oakdale for grass cutting, pothole patching and trash pick up for the month of January 2020.
•Approve a JSA with the Allen Parish School Board and Kinder High School for manpower, material and equipment to clear and clean the tree line along the drainage ditch on the northwestern property line at Kinder High School football stadium.
•Approve a JSA with the Allen Parish School Board for manpower, material and equipment for gravel and grading of bus turnaround at 3102 Highway 165 South in Oakdale.
A public hearing was held to approve the 2020 budget. There was no discussion and the budget was approved. The APPJ also called for two public hearings to be held at the February 3 meeting. One will be to reduce the speed limit on Methodist Camp Road from 45 to 35 MPH, the other will be to abandon a no name road leading to Gary Mahaffey’s residence off of Mahaffey Rd in road district no. four.
The bids for white goods were opened. There was only one bid submitted by Willis Bailey from DeRidder for $33 per ton. The jury approved the bid.
Also at the meeting:
•The resignation of Mark Manuel, Russell Meaux and Clifford Fruge from the Bayou Blue Drainage District no. one was accepted and Weston Monceaux, J.J. LeJeune and Keavin Meaux were appointed.
•Robert Plante was reappointed to the Northwest Allen Water District Board for a one-year term.
•Chester McDaniel was hired part-time in solid waste at a pay rate of $12.98 per hour.
•The 2020 employee holiday schedule was approved.
•The 2020 Capital Outlay budget was approved.
•The 2020 Equipment Outlay plan was approved.
The December inmate housing report was read. There were 99 parish inmates, seven department of corrections inmates and zero federal inmates. The jail budgeted $447,600 for the year of 2019 and expenses came in at $393,838.63. The ICE revenue came in at $34,733.34. This brought the jail in $88,494.71 under budget for the year.
