Allen Parish is going to have the option of a new ambulance service in the coming months. Tyler Martin, a representative of Med Express, was present at Monday’s Allen Parish Police Jury meeting to discuss their plans. They are currently looking at three properties in Oakdale to use as their home base. They are also going to have a location in Elizabeth connected to the fire department. This will bring two additional ambulances to Allen Parish.
The jury received updates on the building repairs due to damage from Hurricane Laura. There were zero bids received when they advertised the work as one whole project. The jury decided to break it into smaller projects and advertise one at a time. The APPJ building has been re-roofed and Swinnea Roofing was the lowest bid to re-roof the health unit.
The jury approved Tony Hebert, APPJ President, to enter into a lease agreement with Lamar Company for them to continue housing their billboards along the highway on the Arizona Chemical property in Oakdale.
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 December 2020. The Finance Committee had no requests for the jury.
The Prisoner Expense Report was read. The budget for the month of November was $17,300. The expenses for the month were $12,675.14. This was underbudgeted at $4,624.86 for the month and $65,024.69 under budget for the year. There were 46 parish inmates, 12 Department of Corrections inmates and 137 federal inmates as of December 7.
The jury approved to consider parcel no. 8220001958 as surplus and will advertise it for sale. This parcel is in Kinder and was given to the police jury in the 60s. The jury was requested to do this by an interested party.
The jury approved 2021 Liquor License renewals for Indian Village Quick Stop, The Corner Store of Elizabeth and E&S Quickstop.
APPJ released their 2020 year in review. They have resurfaced 36.4 miles of road in 2020. This is compared to 36.1 miles in 2019 and 17.9 miles in 2018. They completed 447 work orders parish wide. This is an average of 2.5 work orders per day. They have increased cost efficiency across the board, savings on chip sealing have gone from $1.87 per square yard in 2018 to $1.19 per square yard in 2020 for one-shot and from $3.97 PSY in 2018 to $1.91 PSY in 2020.
The jury had an increase in non-tax based revenue by approximately $900,000. They received $800,000 in FEMA grants and $40,000 in interest generated revenue. The Finance and Purchasing department processed 1803 purchase orders, 4177 checks and 13,797 transactions in 2020.
The jury organized and completed five separate capital improvement projects in 2020. The majority of which was grant funded. The largest of the projects included the courthouse lift station rehabilitation, LSU Ag Center remodel and relocation and the renovation of the second floor courthouse/jail.
The building permits department issued 185 new building permits, 339 electrical connection permits, 152 heavy hauler permits and 114 culvert permits.
Jurors said they were proud of their team and all the work they have accomplished this year, especially during the course of two hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also at the meeting:
•The jury approved to advertise for a white goods bid.
•Tommy Willis was hired part-time for parish wide solid waste/road crew at $12.98 an hour.
•Leonard Pitre was appointed to the Allen Parish Mosquito Abatement District to replace Melvin Bell.
• The 2020 budget was amended. The 2020 Capital Outlay budget was amended.
•The jury approved all six month bids and will use the company with the lowest price available when the product is needed.
