Avoyelles Police Jury faces several issues in September

   September is shaping up as a month for updates and studies for the Avoyelles Parish Police Jury.

  Jurors were told during their committee meetings on Sept. 8 that additional “work sessions” will be held this month to consider a parishwide solid waste contract -- or contracts -- and to hash out issues concerning the problems with an economic development grant for Brudd Construction.

   In addition to that, jurors will also be submitting nominations for the newly restructured Avoyelles Parish Port Commission.

   Jurors also received some potentially good news. FEMA will provide assistance to local governments at a 90 percent level instead of 75 percent. The Police Jury will prepare grant applications for projects related to repairing flood-damaged roads and projects to reduce or eliminate future flooding.

 

   The issue that poses the biggest immediate financial threat is the Community Development Block Grant the Police Jury received for economic development at the port. A meeting of all parties involved was scheduled for Sept. 21.

    The terms of that grant required Brudd to create 27 jobs. It is currently about 18 short of that number. 

    Jurors are hoping the state will grant an extension to allow Brudd to reach the job-creation goal. If an extension is not approved, the Police Jury could be required to reimburse $10,000 per uncreated job -- or about $180,000.

    Even if an extension is approved, the Police Jury cannot apply for another Community Development Block Grant until this project is completed.

    Juror Marsha Wiley urged fellow-jurors to take full advantage of state Rep. Robert Johnson’s offer to assist the parish in obtaining capital outlay funds for public improvement projects.

   “At this time, there will be no LCDBG funds available to us, so we have to look for funding where we can get it,” Wiley said.

 

   The Solid Waste Committee was expected to meet this week, but a date and time had not been determined as of the writing of this article.

   Police Jury President Charles Jones said the jury has sketched out a preliminary agreement to extend the service contract with Progressive Waste Solutions. However, the committee meeting will focus not only on that option but on other options available to the parish -- including advertising for contract proposals from other providers.

   “Progressive is interested in retaining the contract with the parish,” Jones said. “There are a few issues to work out. Our big one is accessibility of service to all residents through the use of small ‘satellite’ trucks to pick up garbage on unimproved roads in the parish.”

    Jones said the large garbage trucks cannot travel down some of the parish roads because they are too big and the roads are too bad. Small trucks to serve the residents on those roads would resolve that issue, he added.

   A less-important issue, but still one the jury wants to enforce, is a contract provision that Progressive will have an office in Avoyelles Parish. Operations are currently handled out of an office in Alexandria. Jones said Progressive wants to update the figures on the number of units served. The company is paid by the number of customers in the parish and not by the tonnage collected.

    The current contract is based on 17,800 units per week -- which includes twice-a-week pickups in Marksville and Bunkie.

Jurors are looking at long-term changes in the parishwide collection and disposal program that would include constructing a transfer station where garbage would be dumped into large trailers and then hauled to a landfill.

   That proposal would create three separate contracts -- one for house-to-house collection, one to haul the trailers from the transfer station to the landfill, and a per-ton contract with a landfill.

Jurors have been told by consultants that splitting the program into three parts could create more competition for each contract and be less expensive for the parish. It also has the added benefit of giving local entities an opportunity to win a contract.

    Jurors were told there are only a few companies able to provide the “curb-to-landfill” service in the current contract with Progressive.

 

   Jurors were expected to have three nominations to the Port Commission by the committee meeting. Jones said he believes all of the jurors have provided at least one nominee for Johnson and state Sens. Eric LaFleur and Neil Riser to consider.

   “They could have a new port commission appointed within 30 days,” Jones said.

   “For myself, I am only presenting one nominee for them to consider,” he noted. “If they want to round up two more, they can do it themselves. 

   "It puts me in a bad situation as the police juror to ask three people if they are willing to serve on the Port Commission and then only one of them is chosen,” Jones continued. “It would be like telling the other two that they aren’t good enough to serve. I won’t do that.”