APPJ getting out of road ‘chip-seal’ business, revises mosquito pact

CROWLEY - The Acadia Parish Police Jury is getting out of the road resurfacing business.
Among the items declared “surplus” during Tuesday night’s meeting was the parish’s chip seal equipment.
“Some people think this is an overlay — it’s not,” Jury President David Savoy said during last week’s Road and Bridge Committee meeting. “It doesn’t last. If we get any amount of traffic on the (chip sealed) road, in about two years we’re faced with having to tear it all up and disposing of it.”
The parish purchased the chip seal equipment — a spreader truck for the gravel and the sprayer that applies the thin layer of liquid asphalt — in 2009 at a cost of a little more than $250,000.
It was used for two or three years and “has been sitting in the Iota Barn” since that time, according to Michael “Pee Wee” Schexnider, parish road supervisor.
Now that it has been designated as surplus, the jury will auction the equipment to the highest bidder, probably by sealed bids.
Other equipment also designated as surplus ranged from hot-water tanks and a washing machine (acquired as adjudicated property) to pressure washers and excavators.
Police jurors Tuesday night also approved a one-year extension of the parish contract — with revisions — with Mosquito Control Contractors, Inc.
MCCI has been under contract with the parish since June 11, 2008. The company provides mosquito control services for all of Acadia with the exceptions of the cities of Crowley and Rayne, each of which have their own mosquito abatement programs.
The current contract with MCCI was due to expire at midnight June 11. The extension keeps the firm on until midnight June 11, 2017.
One of the revisions includes the removal of the 16 “sentinel chickens” stationed across the parish.
Glenn Stokes, owner and president of MCCI, incorporated the sentinel chickens into his “arsenal of mosquito control weapons” some years ago.
As he explained it to the jury, blood from each chicken is drawn once a week and sent to a lab for testing.
“If the test comes back positive for West Nile or Eastern Encephalitis or Western Encephalitis or Zica, we know that an infected mosquito had been right there in that yard and we can concentrate our efforts in that area,” Stokes said.
However, jurors pointed out that the sentinel chickens cost the parish $250 each per month, plus $8 for each blood test.
“People are asking why we spend so much on these chickens,” Juror Richard Faul asked during last week’s committee meetings.
Stokes said he will replace the chickens with a new mosquito trap. He said the 16 chickens will be replaced by 32 of these new traps, which he will provide at no cost to the parish.
Another revision to the contract re-establishes the jury’s right to appoint an in-house “contract monitor” should it be deemed necessary.
Laura Faul, secretary-treasurer, said that clause was included in the original contract but had never been implemented.
“It’s just there in case a juror thinks we need to monitor the contractor’s actions,” she said.
In other action the jury approved amending the parish building permit procedure to include two new permit inspections.
Ron Lawson, inspector, explained that the inspections are mandated by state law. One calls for a plumbing “rough-in” inspection at the foundation. The second requires ducts and envelope tightness testing for the entire house to ensure tightness.
Lawson said the two inspections will add $100 to the permit cost for home builders. Seven inspections — at $50 each — are already required under parish ordinance.
“I feel like this is a new tax,” Juror Kerry Kilgore said as he “reluctantly” seconded the motion to approve the inspections.
“It’s just another burden on businesses and people trying to build,” he said. “But we have no choice, we’re mandated by the state.”
An ordinance amending the one creating the Library Board of Control to allow up to seven members was tabled after Charles King of Crowley raised objections to the wording.
On the recommendation of the Road and Bridge Committee, the jury accepted the low bid of $23,332.41 submitted by L&R Construction, Inc., of Kaplan, for repairs to the Carrera Road bridge in the northern area of the parish.
On the recommendation of the Finance Committee, the jury accepted bids for the purchase of materials, lubricants, and services, for the period commencing July 1 and ending June 30, 2017.
In other action Tuesday night, the police jury:
•-approved the issuance, sale and delivery of not exceeding $25,000 of Certificates of Indebtedness by Fire Protection District 8;
•-approved the issuance, sale and delivery of not exceeding $400,000 of Certificates of Indebtedness by Fire Protection District 10;
•-appointed Laura Faul to the Acadiana Resource Conservation and Development Council;
•-appointed Jeryl Thompson and Roger Leger and reappointed Dennis Leonards and Carl Hetzel Jr. to the Fourth Ward Drainage District No. 1;
•-reappointed Carl Johnson, Greg Thibodeaux and Donald Higginbotham to the Bayou Plaquemine and Wikoff Drainage District; and
•-reappointed Richard Hebert, Jeffery Murrell, Gerald Regan, Joseph Leger Jr. and Calvin Sensat to the Egan Drainage District.