Evangeline Parish Police Jury reviewing funding sources August 2, 2021 The Evangeline Parish Police Jury, Monday, was notified by Secretary Treasurer Donald Bergeron that the parish is some $63,000 over budget in housing parish prisoners in out of parish prisons and there is still five months left in the budget year. The jury is mandated to house prison prisoners. More bad news came from Jury legal advisor Christopher Ludeau. He informed the jury , due to new Covid restrictions, the Department of Corrections has stopped  the transporting of D.O.C. prisoners plus possibly suspending jury trials which will aggravate the jury’s financial problems. The jury advised Secretary Treasurer Donald Bergeron to look at the possibility of having excess funds from the Parish Library and Health Unit taxes be re-dedicated to a special court fund to help pay for parish inmates during this financial crisis facing the parish. Juror Sidney Fontenot “We have to let the public know what our problems are and what options we have. If we don’t do something, it’s going to bankrupt this parish.”. In other business, the police jury voted to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with L.U.S. to secure funding sources for Evangeline Parish to get high speed fiber to the homes of parish residents. Ryan Meche of L.U.S. Fiber spoke to the jury during the meeting. His company offers the fastest internet service in America at 10 GB. The police jury will be applying for a number of state and federal grants to bring high speed internet and broadband service to residents throughout the parish. In other action the police jury: --approved keeping the Lake Cove precinct at Berl Clark’s store after earlier last month voted to move it to the Lake Cove Baptist Church; --will open bids for an electrical system upgrade at Crooked Creek Recreational Park. The park has remained busy this camping season with over 500 campers checking in during July; --received a report from Section 8 housing director Anna Frank that her program has secured 15 emergency housing vouchers to assist homeless families. The program is serving 159 tenants throughout the parish with a maximum of 140 applicants on the waiting list; --approved a capital improvement plan for the parish library and its branches; --took in $417,600 in sales taxes from the 2 percent sales tax in July, a 28 percent increase over the same period a year ago.