Evangeline Parish Police Jury

October 3, 2016

     The Evangeline Parish Police Jury, Monday, reviewed a new ordinance crafted by its legal advisor Marcus Fontenot that gives the parish enforcement provisions to deal with residents not paying their sewer fees or not following parish ordinances. The so called  “enforcement provision”  first orders the violator to be informed in writing. If it is not corrected, the parish may order the disconnection of utilities and terminate utility permits until the violation has been corrected.

    At the request of Slemco and Cleco , the parish removed the final line of the proposed ordinance which reads “ any utility service provider shall immediately disconnect service upon notice from the parish or be fined up to $100 per day for failure to disconnect.” Attorney Fontenot felt the entire ordinance including the stricken line was valid and would have passed constitutional muster.

    After concerns raised by Cleco representative Sabrina Salling, the police jury has called a public hearing for November 7 at 4:45 to receive public comment.

     In other business, the police jury:

--voted to apply for a Louisiana Governmental Assistance Program grant to upgrade the electrical system at Crooked Creek as a first priority with improvements to the Industrial Park Water Well 2 to install a sand filter as a second priority;

 --appointed Jason Fontenot to replace Gene Morein on the Te Mamou Water Board;

--appointed Rhonda Miller to replace the late Wilbur Rozas on the Evangeline Parish Tourism Commission;

--voted to advertise for the appointment of a right of way agent to replace Wilbert Ardoin who is retiring at the end of October after serving for 20 years as the agent and as  Secretary Treasurer for many years;

--scheduled Trick or Treating hours for Monday October 31 from 5-8pm for the unincorporated areas of Evangeline Parish;

--scheduled November 16 at 8:30am to meet to start working on preparing new budgets for the new fiscal year;

--applied for a grant to fund improvements on East Hickory Street Extension including striping and lighting . The street has been the scene of 16 traffic accidents in the past few years.