The regularly scheduled July meeting of the Jackson Parish Police Jury (JPPJ) that was pushed back a day, began with the awarding of plaques to “Clean-Up” Contest winners and ended with a much anticipated announcement. In between was a presentation by Mr. Doug Mitchell, the approval of various committee reports and the adoption of a proclamation in honor of Ms. Judy Blalock.
Before the items on the agenda were addressed, public comments were heard. Linda Devine expressed her irritation with jury members / board appointees and advised them that if they serve on a board they should be serving the parish and not members of the board. She was followed by Gayle Hobson who stated that she would like to know where each juror stood in regard to the proposed special election.
Clean-Up Committee Chairman John McCarty the took the floor to pass out awards to the municipalities and Police Jury districts who turned in the best performance in the June 12 parish wide clean up day. Shown above with district 7 juror Lynn Treadway standing alongside was Mayor Gerald Palmer accepting the award for the Town of Hodge who took first place. Second place went to the Village of Quitman. with District 1 juror, Todd Culpepper, accepting the plaque on behalf of Quitman Mayor Joe Vail, who was unable to attend. In the contest for best Police Jury district there was a tie between District 3 and District 6 represented by Juror’s Amy Magee and Regina Rowe respectively.
Mr. Doug Mitchell of the North Delta Planning and Development District then took the podium where he announced that his agency along with the Delta Regional Authority and Economic Development Committee had submitted for grants involving the repaving of Gansville Road, an East Hodge lift station and a ground storage tank for Jonesboro.
After his presentation was completed Juror President Amy Magee informed jury members that it had been confirmed that the stretch of Gansville road to be repaved belonged to the Town of Jonesboro. She then called for a decision by jury members to continue with the application to repave the road and enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the town to pay for 10% of the project, which would come to $73,000.00 or vote to rescind the application and turn the information over to the Town of Jonesboro so they could make an application next year. It was agreed with one dissenting voice to do the latter.
In subsequent action board member Todd Culpepper announced that he had spoken with Jackson Parish Sheriff Andy Brown who wanted it to be acknowledged that he nor his department had not made a request for the road to be paved. Brown further stated that the Sheriff’s Office was going to do what it was going to do regarding building a jail facility along the road regardless of whether the road gets repaved or not.
President Magee was then authorized to execute a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the District 2 Fire Board for the Road Department to haul ditch dirt to their location when crews were working in that area. Superintendent Jody Stuckey followed with he Road Department Report where he stated $3,359.99 was spent on emergency call outs and that the following roads had asphalt repairs done: Poda, HIckory Lane, Charles Estes, Mt. Zion, Hurricane, Foxy Quarles and Head roads. For the month of June $258,180.67 was spent in total.
The final two actions of the night was the announcement by Magee that during the August 9th regularly scheduled meeting that jury members would be asked to decide on:
(1) The levying of 2021 Tax Millage rates
(2) The adoption of a resolution ordering and calling for an election for a one time event to rededicate one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) in funds from the Library to the Solid Waste Fund.
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