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Washington Parish Council
Regular Meeting – 6:00 p.m.
October 10, 2005
Minutes
Item No. 1 – Call to order – Chairman Darwin Sharp called the meeting to order.
Item No. 2 – Invocation – Councilman Miley gave the invocation.
Item No. 3 – Roll call – Clerk Sylvia Forbes called the roll. Present were Kenneth Wheat, Clinton Miley, Charles Nassauer, Rodney Brown, Relton Sumrall, Marvin Thomas and Darwin Sharp.
None were absent.
Item No. 4 – Approval of the minutes – Councilman Miley offered a motion seconded by Councilman Brown to approve the minutes of the September 26, 2005 meeting. All in favor the motion carried.
Item No. 5 – Adoption of the financial report – Councilman Wheat offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Miley to adopt the financial report as presented. All in favor, the motion carried.
Item No. 6 – Introduction of an ordinance – An ordinance indicating the intention of the Washington Parish Council to allocate funds for the procurement of professional services for the 2006-2007 FY LCDBG Program and to give the Parish President the authority to sign all contracts, forms, applications and other necessary documents to apply for and administer the grant was introduced and laid over for publication and a public hearing to be held on October 24, 2005.
Item No. 7 – Resolution – Councilman Brown offered a motion to adopt a resolution establishing load limits on parish bridges within the Off-System Bridge Replacement Program. Councilman Sumrall seconded the motion and it carried.
Item No. 8 – Resolution – Councilman Miley offered a motion to adopt a resolution certifying the Initial Certification of Compliance with the state on the Off-System Bridge Replacement Program. Councilman Sumrall seconded the motion and it carried.
Item No. 9 – Stuart Parker – Stuart Parker, CEO of the YMCA was in attendance asking the council for support for a proposal to construct a disaster shelter for the 4th Ward. $25,000 has already been approved through the state. Mr. Parker said he has legislative support for the project and asked the council to request $2 million as part of their relief package from the federal Government.
Chairman Sharp asked how many people would it be able to house.
Mr. Parker said they would be able to set up as a communication center and hopefully house 300 people.
Councilman Wheat offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Brown to adopt a resolution of support for the project. All in favor, the motion carried.
Item No. 10 - Public Participation – Winford Pittman addressed the council criticizing them for not having formed an Economic Development Commission as he had suggested in the past. He said the parish was missing out on businesses that are relocating to other areas after the storm.
Mr. Pittman also asked the council to set up a Washington Parish Disaster Savings account to aid the residents financially until federal or state help can arrive or until they can get back to work.
Mr. Pittman asked who was in charge of the clean up in the parish. Someone had taken a special tree that was near the old Bouey Moore house and he wants it back.
Mr. Claude Hicks with IED told Mr. Pittman he would talk to him after the meeting and try to locate the tree.
Chairman Sharp said he would call for an Infrastructure Committee meeting to discuss the Economic Development Commission at a later date.
President Taylor reported that disaster centers were still open at Hillcrest Church in Franklinton and one in Bogalusa. He thanked the Red Cross and the volunteers at WCI and the fire departments and municipalities for distributing debit cards to parish residents totaling approximately $10 million. Because of the debit cards, no one had to wait in line for a long period of time.
FEMA has not given us a count on how many parish residents need housing. FEMA has taken it upon themselves, without consulting anyone in the parish, to open up a site in the Mt. Hermon area. They have moved about 60 travel trailers in. We hope they are not setting up for out of town evacuees when they are not meeting the needs of our on residents.
President Taylor reported on the infrastructure committee meeting held prior to the meeting regarding an occupational license. The committee is entertaining legislation to include the requirement for all businesses to get an occupational license. The proposed ordinance will be presented at another meeting. He also asked the council to consider forming a planning commission to help plan for the future growth of our parish. The first of several companies has acquired 40 acres of land in the Stoney Point area for 80 mobiles home to house contractors who will be working south of us. They will live there for 2 or 3 years. They will need grocery stores, laundry mats, bus service, and etc. for that area. This was the nearest place they could get because the laws in St. Tammany would not allow them to do what they wanted to. Once they are through with this project, they will develop it into a subdivision. He asked the council to consider and entertain the appointment of a planning commission at a later date.
The report on the debris removal was as follows: 100 local monitors hired, 7 of 15 debris sites are in use, 264 certified haulers and 113 loaders in use. There has been 215,835 cubic yards of debris hauled, 5,844 loads averaging 37 cubic yards per load and 17,986 cubic yards per day.
Leo Lucchesi, Public Works Directors, displayed a map of the parish indicating the areas of the parish the contractor is working in and the roads that have been picked up.
Claude Hicks told the council that IED has 43 crews in the parish including 2 in the Town of Franklinton. During the week of the fair, the crews in town will be pulled out to prevent traffic congestion. Crews are working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. As the season changes, the hours will decrease due to darkness with the exception of the grinding sites that can be done with the use of lights. Hopefully the project will be completed, with the exception of grinding, within a 90-day period. They will continue to work during rain unless there is a safety factor due to lightning. Mr. Hicks asked that if any of the council is out looking at the jobs and see an unsafe act, to stop and tell the employees to stop or call Mr. Hicks at (251) 978-2435. IED makes repairs to mailboxes, gas, and water or power lines damaged during the debris removal. Safety meetings are held for employees weekly.
Councilman Nassauer asked how far off the road is the debris being picked up.
Mr. Hicks said generally they use the utility lines. They can get debris off of private property if it poses a safety threat and they have a signed right of entry from the property owner.
Councilman Sumrall asked if IED had a lot of parish residents working for them.
Mr. Hicks replied yes, more than any other job he has worked on.
Eddie Dorsett, the Shaw Group, thanked the council for the opportunity to work with the parish and said the hospitality has been great. He explained there are two groups of Shaw employees in the parish, field people and back office people. There are two monitors at each site monitoring loaded trucks, verifying the load by capacity and we have roving crews that go to the location to make sure the right type of debris is being picked up. The back office people are doing data entries that give us the numbers we give to Leo and Toye daily. Shaw also works with FEMA on the reimbursement paperwork.
Troy Barber who is in charge of the temporary disposal sites reported there are 16 sites in the parish and will probably add one more in the Stateline/Angie area. All sites are debris sites except one, which is a C & D site and will have to be closed out by DEQ Standards. The National Guard is going to start bringing in water trucks to keep down the dust at the grinding sites. Stumps that are up to 24” in diameter will be ground and anything over that will be brought to the stump disposal site and buried.
Item No. 12 – Council discussion – Chairman Sharp called for an Infrastructure committee meeting at 4:30 p.m. and a finance committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. before the next meeting on October 24, 2005.
Chairman Sharp said that Commander Prentiss Talley had presented each councilman and President Taylor with a certificate of appreciation from the VFW Post No. 7196 and wanted to thank Mr. Talley and the VFW post for that recognition.
Item No. 13 – Adjourn – Having no further business to come before the council, the meeting adjourned on motion by Councilman Brown, seconded by Councilman Sumrall.
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Sylvia Forbes, Clerk of the Council Darwin Sharp, Chairman
Washington Parish Council