Mansura Council ok’s health insurance benefits for employees

Schedules special meeting on May 23 to discuss 2016-17 budget

After a year of waiting on a promise, Mansura employees will receive health insurance benefits paid by the town.

  Mayor Kenneth Pickett said the town needs to provide the benefits to its full-time employees. Alderwoman Allison Ferguson agreed, saying, “it has been promised for a year and they deserve it.”
  The plan adopted will pay 100 percent of the cost for the employee. The employee would have to pay the full cost of any dependents to be covered by the insurance.
  Ferguson said the town can review the insurance program and cost for next year and make any adjustments that are necessary. The Town Council will pay $5,600 to enroll in the plan and will pay another $61,000 in premiums during the upcoming budget year, which begins July 1.
   The council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. May 23 to discuss the 2016-17 budget and make any final amendments to the current budget before the end of the fiscal year.
 
Road district  Tax
    In another matter, Police Jury Vice President Kirby Roy III addressed the council concerning the proposed road district tax.
   Roy said Mansura could opt out of the tax, but if it chose to remain in the road district it would receive the property tax that is collected within the municipality.
   Roy, whose father was mayor of Mansura in the 1960s, said he has spoken to the other police jurors who have constituents in the proposed Road District 3, and they have agreed to give Mansura the 23.4 percent of tax revenues that would be generated from the millage collected on property within the town.
   He said that if the town opts out, voters in Mansura would not vote in the election, property in the town would not be taxed and the municipality would not receive any of the tax revenue from the road maintenance proposition.
   Roy said Hessmer, the other municipality in Road District 3, would generate 6.4 percent of the total tax. The unincorporated properties would generate 70.3 percent of the total tax revenue.
   The unincorporated areas of the parish contain 93.3 percent of the road miles in the road district, Hessmer has 2 percent and Mansura has 4.7 percent of the road miles.
   The council said it could not vote on the issue at that meeting, but set a public hearing for June 13 to gather public input.
 
Other Business
    In other business, the council:
    -- Heard a report from Pickett that “all things are go” for the Mansura railroad depot museum project. The mayor said there was some discussion of adding items to the project, but he said the project needs to move forward as is without any amendments. “We need to get the project going and then decide in a year or two if we want to expand it,” Pickett said. “It’s been nine years and we need to get this project started.”
   -- Discussed options to address needs at the town-owned building leased by the Family Medical Clinic. The council has received a $40,000 bid to renovate the building and has an estimate of about $90,000 to construct four rooms to expand the site. The council shelved a proposal that it construct a new building to house the clinic and retire the debt with a guaranteed lease agreement with the clinic owner for the period it would take to pay off the loan.