The Allen Parish Police Jury discussed and approved bids for the hurricane debris clean up. They approved Tetra Tech as the debris monitoring response grading contractor and Ceres Environmental as the debris pickup contractor. Ross Young with Ceres said they would begin Wednesday, September 16. They are hoping to subcontract some work and Juror Creig Vizena expressed the jury’s wishes that they use local contractors if possible.
Jack White a lawyer from Baton Rouge was present to ensure that all contractors are licensed in Louisiana with the State Board of Contractors. Parish Engineer Jacob Dillehay assured White that they were and each one is also FEMA approved.
The jury also discussed getting GPS trackers and radios for all the road crews. Jury President Tony Hebert said, “at times like during and after Hurricane Laura, when we lost cell phone signal it was almost impossible to contact each other. We need to address this situation before next time.”
Dillehay said they had gotten quotes from Verizon for the GPS system and it would only be around $30-$40 a month. Radios would be a much larger cost. They would have to buy a new tower service and the cost would be much more.
The jury approved to go ahead with the GPS system and to get more quotes and a cost analysis for new radios for each truck.
The jury discussed the recreation district no. one board. Juror Ruffin George is requesting that the change made during the July meeting of removing Rhonda Beard and adding Greg Strother be reversed. The board was informed that Beard would be moving and unable to continue to serve on the rec. board so the jury replaced her with Strother. Juror George said that Beard was not moving and that she should be given her spot back. Juror John Strother said that when he asked about it that he was told there were two open spots and that is why he approved Strother. He said that he would not take Strother off, that it just wasn’t right. He said that everyone on the jury approved of the motion in July and that should be that. The jury decided to go to the office and listen to the minutes of the July meeting and make an agreeable motion for the October meeting.
The committees made their recommendations:
The finance committee requested:
•To pay Covington Sales & Service $1,645.27 for spindle assembly for road district two.
•To pay H&E Equipment $2,740.59 for a turbo for a roller for the parish road fund.
•To pay $2,120 for COVID compliant signs and materials for the courthouse.
•To pay $101,462.88 to Louisiana Cat for a track hoe for road district one.
•Approve to pay $3,500 to TadLock Rentals for a 40 foot container unit for road district three.
The road committee requested:
•A joint service agreement with the City of Oakdale for grass cutting, pothole patching and trash pick up for the month of September 2020.
Also at the meeting:
•The jury adopted a resolution to approve the holding of an election in Fire Protection District No. Two to authorize the levy of a special tax.
•A resolution was adopted providing for canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the special election held in road district two on Saturday, August 15.
•A public hearing was called to reduce the speed limit on Sunset, Sunrise, Moonrise and Executive Drive in Kinder from 45 MPH to 15 MPH.
•A resolution was adopted for the Council on Aging and the DOTD for the grants for bus and bus facility program.
•Brian Whetstine was hired full time in road district three.
•Steve Manuel was appointed to the East Allen Water Board to complete the term of Brian Manuel.
•Earl Papillion was appointed to the Bayou Blue Drainage Board to complete the term of C.J. Lejeune.
•Chuck Welch was appointed to the Allen Parish Ambulance Board to replace Jackie Holland.
The August prisoner expense report was read and the budget for the month was $17,300. The expenses were $15,024.42 which brought them $2,275.58 under budget for the month. They are $53,567.11 under budget for the year. There were 60 parish inmates and 10 department of corrections inmates as of Tuesday, September 8.
