Washington Parish Council
Minutes
June 14, 2010
Regular Meeting – 6:00 PM
Washington Parish Courthouse
Council Chambers
Item No. 1 – Call to Order – Chairman Posey called the meeting to order.
Item No. 2 – Invocation – Reverend Sylvester Williams gave the invocation.
Item No. 3 – Pledge of Allegiance – Chairman Posey recognized Flag Day and called for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Item No. 4 – Roll Call – Clerk Sharon Lyons called the roll. Present were Ken Wheat, Michael Fussell, Charles Nassauer, Andre’ Johnson, Randy Thomas, Greg Route, and Aubrey Posey.
Item No. 5 – Approval of Minutes – Councilman Johnson offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Fussell to approve the minutes of May 26, 2010 meeting. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 6 – Adoption of the Financial Report – Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Wheat to adopt the financial report. All in favor and the motion carried. (Attachment A)
Item No. 7 – Public Hearing on Ordinance No.10-522 – Chairman Posey opened the public hearing on an ordinance to Levy Taxes for the 2010 Tax Roll on all property subject to taxation in Washington Parish.
There were no comments during the public hearing.
Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to close the public hearing. All in favor and the motion carried.
Councilman Fussell offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Thomas to adopt Ordinance No.10-522. A roll call vote resulted as follows:
YEAS: (7) Posey, Wheat, Fussell, Nassauer, Johnson, Thomas and Route
NAYS: (0)
ABSENT: (0)
ABSTAINED: (0)
Item No. 8 – Introduction on Ordinance No.10-522 – An Ordinance revising Ordinance 09-482 and 10-511 entitled “Improvement Requirements for Subdivisions and Land Developments”, as revised; Ordinance 09-481 entitled “Industrial, Commercial or Business Permit Ordinance”; and Ordinance 10-513 entitled “Mines and Mining Operations Ordinance” (Introduced by Randy Thomas)
Item No. 9 - Introduction of Ordinance No. 10-523 – An Ordinance to abandon .2 miles of Jimmy Magee Road
(Parish Road No.8-126) (Introduced by Randy Thomas)
Item No. 10- Resolution No.10-474 – A Resolution to authorize the Washington Parish
Council Chairman, Parish President
and Financial Director to sign The Louisiana Compliance Questionnaire
Councilman Fussell offered a
motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to adopt Resolution No. 10-474. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 11 - Resolution No.10-475 – A Resolution adopting the Parish-Wide Hazard
Mitigation Plan
Councilman Route offered a motion,
seconded by Councilman Johnson to adopt Resolution No. 10-475. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 11A – Open Agenda to rediscuss Item
No.9-Introduction of Ordinance No.10-523–
Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Nassauer to open the
agenda to discuss, once again, Item No. 9.
All in favor and the motion carried.
Councilman Thomas offered a
motion, seconded by Councilman Route to include the
wording added to the end of
Paragraph 3 as follows:
v
Must advertise and
wait 30 days for public hearing
Chairman Posey called for a
vote. All in favor and the motion
carried.
Item No. 12 – Resolution No. 10-476 – A Resolution granting variance to Highway 16 Investments
L.L.C. for Riverwood Subdivision
Councilman Thomas stated a request
for variance was submitted by Highway 16 Investments for Riverwood Subdivision.
All the roads throughout the subdivision are 50 ft. in width and 10 ft. for
utilities servitude have been designated on each side of all roads in the
subdivision. This makes a total of seventy
ft. right of way, which does meet the integrity of the land development
ordinance.
Councilman Thomas offered a
motion, seconded by Councilman Nassauer to adopt Resolution No. 10-476. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 13 – Resolution No. 10-477- A Resolution stating the Washington Parish Government is
in Compliance with the Parish Transportation Act.
Councilman Route offered a motion,
seconded by Councilman Fussell to adopt Resolution No. 10-477. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 14 – Recreation District #1 – Johnnie Daniel came before the council with an overview and
asks for the renewal of Larry Kinlaw & Associates contract for six more months
to continue the grant projects. Also, the council was given maps showing the proposed
revisions for new boundaries for the Recreation Districts and was asks to study
and support these revisions at the appropriate time.
Item No. 15 – Public Participation – There were no comments during public participation.
Councilman Route offered a motion,
seconded by Councilman Fussell to close public participation. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 16 – President’s Report – President Thomas stated he had received a letter of
resignation from Mr. Earl Forrest resigning from the Washington Parish Gas
District #2.
Councilman Fussell offered a
motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to accept the resignation of Mr. Earl
Forrest. All in favor and the motion
carried.
President Thomas announced and gave
his congratulation to the Washington Parish Citizen of the Year Ms. Millicent
Canter chosen from the east side and to Mrs. Betty Gill chosen from the west
side.
Public Works Director Leo Lucchesi
gave a report as follows:
2010 Roadways & Bridges
·
Construction of Isabel
Swamp Road from Highway 16 to bridge is underway
·
River Road Bridge
–Pre-cast panels are manufactured, timber piling contract has been issued, site
preparation is completed and survey/layout is underway for two bridge spans-
Funded by the Louisiana Governor’s
Assistance Program
·
Roadway Construction
by DPW Crew – Phase I, the program to repair roads, culverts and drainage
ditches is complete; Total cost $440,500 (Materials Cost)- Funding by the State
of Louisiana; 18.5 miles of roadway was resurfaced
·
Roadway Construction
by DPW Crew- Phase II, the program to repair roads includes 18.8 miles at an
estimated cost of materials of $503,000; this program has started with installation
of cross-culverts.
·
LACDBG Roads – Includes
4.21 miles- Funding by the State & Federal program
·
On Wednesday, June 16,
the Parish will install a cement-like material known as Fly Ash. The material
will be installed on the Nellie Byers Road in Bogalusa in cooperation with
Louisiana Fly Ash Company.
President Thomas offered his
condolences to Franklinton’s Mayor Wayne Fleming and his family due to loss of
his father Brother Milton Fleming who passed away earlier today.
Item No.17 – Council Discussion – Councilman Thomas stated, “I do want to extend my
appreciation to the police department both state and parish for the continued
patrolling of Highway 10. I see them out
their all the time sitting along side looking for people passing illegal and
speeders. I appreciate that. I want to reiterate ‘Shop at Home’. A lot of
nerves are frayed right now, because of the oil spill and the economy. We are getting a few new businesses into the
parish, but I do not want folks to forget about the ones who brought them to
the dance, the old businesses that have been in place. The brand new businesses,
we want to continue to shop with them and encourage them. I encourage everybody
to do that. We are going to continue to work on the recreation districts. Ms.
Donna has signed off on the possibility of doing what you ask and so I think it
will be full steam ahead.”
Councilman Wheat stated he wanted
to thank Leo for some of the work he has been doing, particularly, putting
together the Mitigation Plan program. All of these programs add up to move the
parish forward. He touched upon other parishes being present to see the
demonstration this month for the fly ash product in cooperation Louisiana Fly
Ash Cooperation
Councilman Nassauer asks, “Can I
take a minute of your time, Councilman Wheat? I just want to make a comment
about the letter we got from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. It’s a
good letter saying there is not much impact out there in the area. I appreciate your persistence. There is good organization
out there, a lot of folks involved and we all kind of take it for granted. Back--------
not so long ago, we almost lost the canal out there. Due to your work and a lot
of the work of folks out there and our leadership it is still nice out there,
but this is a good report. I am kind of surprised, to be honest with you, that
there is not a significant impact out there. Hopefully, they have learned from
their mistakes and won’t repeat it out there has far as drop water in that area
again.”
Councilman Wheat confirmed, “I
agree with you Councilman Nassauer. That goes without saying again, I owe my
gratitude to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, willing to step forward
and basically help out even when they were not the cause. They didn’t have to, but they did. Like I have said before, the Corps of
Engineers, they have a restoration program probably one of the biggest ones in
the nation, but they were not willing even to step forward and see if they had
done any damage, so the Wildlife and Fisheries they did. Again, with that, I have to express my
gratitude and send a letter to them.” Councilman Wheat continued by asking the
President and Clerk if they would send a letter of appreciation. Also, he said the letter states there was no
negative impact. The verdict is still out on white perch in this area, because
they could not sample this species. Councilman Wheat stated, “I guess the verdict
on that is still out. I guess the locals will be the ones to tell us if there
is an impact. I can’t think of a better expertise than that. Do you? The locals can tell us rather there is a
problem. I guess we will find out. I just hate waiting until a problem comes to
our attention and put us a couple years behind a seasonal bend down there that
draws some conclusions.”
Councilman Nassauer replied, “I
appreciate your work on it and you’re on the ball out there.”
Councilman Fussell stated, “That
was going to be my only comment about the projections the Wildlife and
Fisheries made. We appreciate it. I have a lot of anger in my district and I’m
being one of them that visit that area quite often. We appreciate your
efforts.”
Councilman Route stated, “I am
happy tonight. Thank you, Mr. Leo. I am happy see this Louisiana Community
Block Grant. He did not tell you where
this block grant was going to take place at. It is taking place in District 6.
We got an estimated cost of $560, 860.00. That will be a total of seven roads
that we will be able to get done. I take
my hat off to Mr. Taylor. I sat down
with him and I want to thank him for his input in helping us select a target
area and this is the area we selected. We are just so happy to see that this
grant is going to possibility go through for us. This is just another sign that this council
is trying to take Washington Parish forward and hopefully, this will not be the
last grant. We will get District 6 taken care of and then we will come back and
check on the rest of you, guys.”
Councilman Wheat explained that
the Parish does have local monies with the road tax program that the council is
doing their best to see it is frugally used through a priority system and even
though there is local money that is helping out with this, we are not stopping
there. Every penny we can get is being added to that. This is just icing on the
cake.
Item 18 – Adjourn - Having no further business to come before the council, the meeting was adjourned on motion by Councilman Johnson, seconded by Councilman Fussell. All in favor and the motion carried.
(All Ordinances, Resolutions and
Attachments in its entirety is available at the office of Clerk of the Council
at 909 Pearl Street, Franklinton, Louisiana)
_____SIGNATURE____________ _____SIGNATURE______
Sharon Lyons, Clerk to the Council Aubrey Posey, Chairman
Washington Parish
Washington Parish Council