Washington Parish Council

Washington Parish Courthouse

Council Chambers

Regular Meeting – 5:30 PM

March 31, 2010

Item No. 1 – Call to Order – Chairman Posey called the meeting to order.

Item No. 2 – Invocation – Councilman Wheat gave the invocation.

Item No. 3 – Pledge of Allegiance – Chairman Posey called for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Item No. 4 – Roll Call – Clerk Sharon Lyons called the roll. Present were Kenneth 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 Route to approve the minutes of the March 8, 2010 regular meeting and the March 12, 2010 special meeting. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item No. 6 – Adoption of the Finance Report – Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to adopt the financial report. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item No. 7 – Resolution No. 10-457 – A Resolution granting a variance to Jean D. Clark A/K/A Jean Brown Clark, wife of/and Willie J. Clark, Jr. for development of a Manufactured Home Park.

Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Thomas to adopt Resolution No. 10-457. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item No. 8 – Public Hearing on Ordinance No. 10-516 – – An Ordinance establishing the procedure for roads that meet a public need/purpose to be returned to the Washington Parish Road System maintenance List (Introduced by Ken Wheat)

There were no comments during the public hearing.

Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Fussell to close the public hearing. All in favor and the motion carried.

Councilman Wheat offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to adopt Ordinance 10-516. A roll call vote resulted as follows:

YEAS: (7) Fussell. Nassauer, Johnson, Thomas, Route, Posey and Wheat

NAYS: (0)

ABSENT: (0)

ABSTAINED: (0)

Councilman Wheat stated he wanted to go on record and make two point concerning Ordinance 10-516. Points are as follows:

• Council has shown and proved to make things as convenience as possible for constituents
• Facts have changed over the years and now it allows for this ordinance. In the past the council was told they couldn’t do this and the citizens were told the same. The Council has the Attorney General’s opinion to support the fact that the Parish can legally adopt this ordinance, now. The Parish can enforce this and this is going to help Parish Government resolve some problems for this type of road problem.

Item No. 9 -Public Hearing on Ordinance No. 10-517 – An ordinance authorizing the purchase of one (1) Etnyre Chip Spreader, Model Chip 2VN through the Acadia Parish Police Jury in accordance with the Local Service Law, La. R.S. 33:1322, et. seq. (Introduced by Michael Fussell)

There were no comments during the public hearing.

Councilman Fussell offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Wheat to close the public hearing. All in favor and the motion carried.

Councilman Nassauer explained concerning Ordinance 10-516 where the parish is allowed to piggybacking off of Acadia Parish bid. It will save time and money and the exact guidelines on the bid are being followed. It is a new procedure and it is appropriate with the bid law. The Parish can use this equipment on the construction of the roads and in most cases save money by not bidding them out.

Councilman Fussell stated, “Item No. 10 is pursuant of the same situation. It is a good thing.”

Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to adopt Ordinance 10-517. A roll call vote resulted as follows:

YEAS: (7) Fussell. Nassauer, Johnson, Thomas, Route, Posey and Wheat

NAYS: (0)

ABSENT: (0)

ABSTAINED: (0)

Item No. 10 - Public Hearing on Ordinance No. 10-518 – An ordinance authorizing the purchase of one (1) Etnyre Centennial Series Asphalt Distributor, 2000 gallon tank, mounted on IHC 3300 GVW truck through the Acadia Parish Police Jury in accordance with the Local Service Law, La. R.S. 33:1322, et. seq. (Introduced by Michael Fussell)

There were no comments during the public hearing.

Councilman Wheat offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Fussell to close the public hearing. All in favor and the motion carried.

Councilman Fussell offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to adopt Ordinance 10-518. A roll call vote resulted as follows:

YEAS: (7) Fussell. Nassauer, Johnson, Thomas, Route, Posey and Wheat

NAYS: (0)

ABSENT: (0)

ABSTAINED: (0)

Chairman Posey stated there are has been a request to add two resolutions at this time to the agenda.

Councilman Nassauer offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Thomas to open the agenda to add Resolution 10-458 and Resolution 10-459. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item 10-A – Resolution 10-458 – A resolution authorizing an intergovernmental agreement between the Washington Parish Government and the Washington Parish Sheriff’s office

President Thomas explained the intergovernmental agreement will be between the Parish Government and Sheriff to acquire help in picking pick up litter along the Parish roads. The prisoners will be screened. These prisoners mostly are the ones who go home at night. They do this as a community service to reduce their sentence. There is nothing that will be harmful to the public and these people will be supervised at all times and the supervisor is already on the payroll.

Councilman Fussell offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to adopt Resolution 10-548. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item No. 10-B – Resolution 10-459 – A resolution accepting four (4) Off-System Bridges completed by Louisiana State DOTD projects.

Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Fussell to adopt Resolution 10-459. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item No. 11- Regina Baillio – Ms. Baillio came before the Council as a resident of 11639 Hansen Road. She gave a past history on Hansen Road and told the Council of the roads deplorable conditions. In here report she said Hansen Road was a through road until the landowners on the other end of Hansen Road, coming off of South Choctaw Road, closed it off with a cable and named it Silver Maple Lane. Ms. Baillio told of an incident where the ambulance, during an emergency call, had to turn around on the end, where Hansen Road (now Silver Maple Lane) comes off of South Choctaw Road, due to the cable and had to go back around to come in on Hansen Road from LaBlanc Road. Ms. Baillio gave a written report covering the history and an update on Hansen Road drainage. (Submitted into record as Attachment A)

By general consensus of the council, Chairman Posey told the residents of Hansen Road the Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee and the Road Committee will schedule a joint committee meeting to discuss possible solutions for Hansen Road and will bring back to the Council a recommendation.

Item No. 12 – Public Participation – Rebecca Seal, Roland Rowlett, Dee Schilling and other residents on Hansen Road reiterated the same sentiments concerning the condition of the road and stated they would support and corporate with the Council to resolve the problem.

Councilman Nassauer ask the Clerk to notify Mr. Jim Coleman at the 911 office and update him on the situation concerning the ambulance service and see if he can assist in resolving the problem by notifying the ambulance service of the overall situation of the blocked off through road from South Choctaw Road onto Hansen Road. Hopefully this will give the ambulance service a red flag about the situation where they only have accessibility from LeBlanc Road onto Hansen Road.

Councilman Route asks the Hansen Road residents would they be willing to accept the cost of bringing the road back up to Parish standards.

The Hansen Road residents were in agreement.

There were no further comments during public participation.

Councilman Nassauer offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to close public participation. All in favor and the motion carried.

Item No. 13- President’s Report – President Thomas ask the council to accept the appointments, re-appointments and resignations as follows:

Washington Parish Fire District #1:

• Resignation of Mr. Carey Phares/Appointment of Mr. Ed Glockner
• Resignation of Mr. Larry Jenkins/Appointment of Mr. Darwin Sharp

Washington Parish Library Board:

• Re-appointment of Mrs. Louella Jackson
• Re-appointment of Mrs. Sally Thomas

Councilman Nassauer offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Thomas to approve the resignations, appointments and re-appointment of the above individuals. All in favor and the motion carried.

President Thomas announced to the council the officers of Keep Washington Parish Beautiful Board as follow:

• Mrs. Patsy Ritchie------------Executive Director
• Troy Barber--------------------Chairperson
• Lacie Urick---------------------Co-chairperson
• Perry Mickenheim-------------Treasurer
• Cynthia Crain-------------------Secretary

President Thomas stated he had received the resignation of Mark Corkern from the Washington Parish Planning Commission and asks for the appointment of Vance Rogers.

Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to accept the resignation of Mr. Mark Corkern and the appointment of Mr. Vance Rogers as a replacement. All in favor and the motion carried.

President Thomas stated he had received the resignation of John Passman from the Washington Parish Planning Commission and asks for the appointment of Rev. Jerome Warren.

Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to accept the resignation of John Passman and the appointment of Rev. Jerome Warren as a replacement. All in favor and the motion carried.

President Thomas stated he had received the resignation of Richard Knight from the Washington Parish Planning Commission and asks for the appointment of John Scott Brumfield.

Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to accept the resignation of Richard Knight and the appointment of John Scott Brumfield as a replacement. All in favor and the motion carried.

President Thomas stated he had received the resignation of Dr. Gerald Foret from the Washington Parish Planning Commission and asks for the appointment of Bradley Cooper.

Councilman Route offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to accept the resignation of Dr. Gerald Foret and the appointment of Bradley Cooper as a replacement. All in favor and the motion carried.

President Thomas stated he had received the resignation of Perry Mickenheim from the Washington Parish Planning Commission.

Councilman Nassauer offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to accept the resignation of Perry Mickenheim. All in favor and the motion carried.

President Thomas gave a report as follows:

• Big advancement to receive this equipment and will help save money and time in building road with the parish work crews.
• In progress of installing culverts on the roads that are under flood funding program
• Phase II – contract process will go out for bids soon
• Swamp Road - process of getting a estimate
• Scarifying all roads on list- possibility finished by next month
• Researching limestone/crushed stone use for roads
• Waiting on ordinance of new equipment to be adopted/paper work in order and ready to start road projects
• Bridge report (Attachment –B)
• April 2, 2010 Parish Government offices will be closed in observance of Good Friday.

Item 14 – Council Discussion – Councilman Wheat stated the committees have met and put a lot of work into various projects this last year and a lot of progress is being made. He highly praised the work crews for their hard work and accomplishments on the bridges, roads and drainage. Also, he asks for C.W. Magee Road to be considered under the Ordinance 10-516 that was adopted.

Councilmen Fussell reiterated what Councilman Wheat stated about praising the good work of the crews. Also, he asks Mr. Parden to give an update on the Census.

Mr. Pardon gave a report as follows:

• 48% Census return rate
• March To The Mail Box Event - April 9^th –Walmart in Bogalusa and Jack Brown in Franklinton
• April 12, 2010- Washington Parish Website- number listed for Census office/if not received questionnaire
• December 31, 2010 report numbers to the President of U.S.
• Opening for Census jobs
• Census Committee is open to distribute material at Big Events

Councilman Fussell announced April 22, 2010 is Earth Day.

Councilman Route commended the previous Washington Parish Planning Commissioners for their hard work and welcomed their new appointees.

Councilman Thomas said he wanted to reiterate what Mr. Route has stated about the past and present Commissioners. He said the past Commissioners always showed up and worked hard and there were times when not everyone agreed, but they always left as friends and respected each others views. These commissioners did help in the process of completing a landuse document and this is a start for the Parish. He asks about the State Park road and was told it was on time as predicted for April 20, 2010 for the parks opening.

Councilman Nassauer reiterated to the Clerk to contact Mr. Coleman about the ambulance situation with the Hansen Road project due to safety reasons. Also, people can receive updates concerning the Bush Road project at www.i12tobush.com.

Councilman Johnson thanked administration for making the Councilmen’s work a lot easier.

Chairman Posey stated the administration staff has asks for the council to consider printing the minutes in a smaller font to save on the printing fees.

Item No. 15 – Adjourn – No further business to come before the council, the meeting was adjourned on motion by Councilman Route, 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)

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Sharon Lyons, Clerk to the Council Aubrey Posey, Chairman

Washington Parish Washington Parish Council