The Ville Platte City Council and Mayor, Jennifer Vidrine, held their monthly meeting a day early at Ville Platte City Hall due to the November 8th elections. City Hall will be closed the day of the elections, but will open back up Wednesday. Two public hearings were held before the regular meeting began. One was for the proposed salary increases for Ville Platte Police Chief, Neal Lartigue and City Marshall, Ronald T. Doucet. The City Council voted during the regular meeting to raise each of their salaries with Chief Lartigue’s going to $51,454.77 and Marshall Doucet’s salary to $39,382.56. The second public hearing concerned an ordinance that has now been amended regarding the placements of culverts on private property. Mayor, Jennifer Vidrine, explained that the ordinance requiring residents and contractors to adhere to the proper placement of culverts has been in effect since 1987; however, some residents have been installing them by “eyeballing” the situation and because of that many of the culverts are at different levels causing water to accumulate and cause certain flooding situations. She said “Residents have taken things into their own hands without knowing the proper way of doing it.” Now, anyone who is going to be placing culverts will need to go to City Hall and retrieve a permit, which is free of charge. Then, the City Engineer will inspect the area. The resident will be responsible for purchasing the dirt and the culvert(s); however, the City will be the one to install the culverts free of charge. If you do not use this process, the City will correct the situation and place the expenses on that person’s tax bill.
Property Tax bills will be sent out on December 1st and will include a Schedule of Penalties for now paying your taxes. Non-paid tax bills will become delinquent on February 1, 2017.
Attorney, Sonny Chapman, spoke to the City Council about the Non-Reflective Gear ordinance and said he sees some “cons” with the program and even stated there may be constitutional issues with the “search” aspect of the ordinance. The mayor stated she would have the legal department look over it again.
Sales Tax Collections were up 9.96% and The Mayor thanked everyone for shopping local and businesses for continuing to serve the community.
Expenditures for the month of October were $300,867.52, which was $1,675.76 less than the month of September.
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