Jurors learn airport tenant late with rent - 7 years late

A tenant at LeGros Memorial Airport near Estherwood has not paid his rent since 2009, according to the chairman of the police jury’s Airport Committee.
“A certain tenant has not been paying his monthly lease — since 2009,” Charles “Chuck” Broussard, told fellow jurors during Tuesday night’s committee meetings.
“I don’t know how it happened, it just did and it is what it is,” he said. “I think right now about $109,000 is owed to the parish.”
A.J. Avation, the Fixed Base Operator, is leasing a 100-by-100-foot hangar and a pair of Quonset huts, according to Broussard, who asked the jury’s legal counsel if the parish has any recourse.
Attorney Brad Andrus was told that the company had signed a contract with the parish for the lease but Andrus said he would have to review the terms of the lease contract before he could render an opinion or recommend a course of action.
During the Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting, Sheriff-elect K.P. Gibson asked jurors the status of plans to remove the modular buildings from the grounds of the parish jail.
“We have some serious concerns about safety,” said Gibson, who will officially take office as sheriff on July 1. “We also see these buildings as a very big liability.”
Gibson said some of the buildings were holding water and offered to show photos of the conditions of the structures to the jurors.
It was pointed out that the jury had already had the buildings declared “surplus,” opening the door to quick removal if three RFPs (Requests for Proposals) were received.
In June, 2015, the jury had a bid of $30,000 from Demolition Doctor, a Lafayette-based firm, to dismantle and remove the buildings. However, some jurors at the time balked, thinking the buildings could be rehabilitated.
They never were.
The committee will recommend to the full jury that the required RFPs be requested as soon as possible and that the buildings be removed from the grounds.
The full jury will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12.