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No action on parish noise ordinance

Jury approves moving Veterans Affairs offices

Steve Bandy is the managing editor of The Crowley Post-Signal. He can be reached at steve.bandy@crowleytoday.com or 337-783-3450.

A potentially explosive issue was quietly diffused during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Acadia Parish Police Jury.
A standing-room-only crowd was on hand to learn exactly what the jurors were going to do with the parish noise ordinance, which, as was pointed out during committee meetings a week earlier, failed to properly define a “recognized subdivision” due to a clerical error made when the original ordinance was amended in 2006.
With both criminal and civil proceedings looming, any action taken by the jury could potentially impact the outcome one way or the other.
But changing an adopted ordinance is not as easy as simply crossing out the error, so the jury instructed Brad Andrus, parish counsel, to research the correct steps to be taken, ‘including seeking an opinion from the attorney general,” explained Jury President Julie Borill after the meeting ended.
In a very brief statement, Andrus told the crowd that he was going to look into the situation but added that, since there is pending litigation, he could not comment any further.
With that, the meeting room all but emptied without further comment.
In other action, the jury unanimously approved the relocation of the Veterans Affairs Parish Service Office to the parish Health Unit on Capital Avenue.
The office is currently located at the intersection of West Sixth Street and North Parkerson Avenue. Jurors have admitted that the current building is in a state of disrepair and have been looking to relocate the veterans’ offices.
During committee meetings, Borill said she and two other jurors had toured the Health Unit and found “more than sufficient room” to relocate there.
She pointed out that the Health Unit is handicap-accessible and has “more than enough waiting area” for veterans.
“Now it’s just a matter of telling them at the Health Unit that we’ll need some office space,” she told the full jury Tuesday night. “I figure we could be moving them in in a matter of days.”
The jury also authorized Borill to execute a revised Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the city of Crowley for repairs to the section of Forest Drive located outside the corporate limits of the city.
About 1,600 feet of the roadway was damaged during a dirt-hauling operation in September. All but about 400 feet of the damaged area is in the city limits.
Jurors also will hold a public hearing to receive comments on an ordinance setting a 5-ton weight limit on the parish-maintained section of Forest Drive.

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