It is too bad admission couldn’t be charged or concessions sold. With as large a turnout as there was at the Public Hearing and regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Jackson Parish Police Jury (JPPJ) on Tuesday, they could have raised a nice sum for a good cause.
You normally don’t see so many people show up for such a meeting but this time there was a portion of the agenda that was of major concern to many Jackson Parish residents. What brought so many people together was the opportunity to speak in a Public Hearing on the disposition of 16 roads that were to either be taken out of the parish road system entirely or have the ending points changed.
Eighteen individuals stepped up to the podium to address jury members Todd Culpepper, Lewis Chatham, Amy Magee, John McCarty, Tarneshala “Niki” Cowans, Regina Rowe and President Lynn Treadway. Their requests varied from asking the Jury to keep their road in the system, take the road out or adjust the ending point that was proposed.
Once the Public Hearing was over the Jury addressed each road during the monthly meeting portion of the dual session with the following being their decision on each.
a. Aberdon Road: Keep in parish road system
b. Annie Tatum Road: Remove from parish road system
c. Bolds Road: Remove from parish road system
d. Bryant Road: Adjust the parish maintenance end point to stop at 183 Bryant Road
e. Buddy Gibson Road: Remove from parish road system
f. Canard Road: No adjustment of end point to be made
g. C. Osborn Road: Decision tabled until more information can be obtained
h. Flat Creek Road: No adjustment to maintenance end points due to possible state funding for a new bridge coming available
i. Flowers Road: Remove from parish road system
j. Henderson Road: Decision tabled until more information can be obtained
k. Jackson McCarty Road: Keep in parish road system
l. McKeever Road: Remove from parish road system
m. Poverty Lane: No change to maintenance end point
n. Quail Ridge Road: Decision tabled until more information can be obtained
o. Viola Road: Remove from parish road system
District 3 Juror, Amy Magee summed up the panels feeling after the hearing and voting was done on the roads.
“I wish that we could blacktop every road in Jackson Parish,” said Magee. “Unfortunately, we have to follow the guidelines set forth by the state Legislative Auditor who says that in order for a road to be maintained by public funds there must be more than one property owner that lives on the road and the road must serve a public use. If we don’t follow these rules, then we are in danger of losing the needed funds from the state we receive and we simply can’t afford do that.”
Additional action taken was the approval to act on bids received on Community Center projects, keep employee health benefits the same, authorize the Parish Engineer to advertise for 2022 Road Program bids and approve the reports made by the various department heads.
In regard to requests made by committee’s who had met prior to the meeting the following was done.
- No movement on Phase 1 of the Courthouse Office Relocations until determining if state or federal funds would be available
- Approval given to replace gutters on the JPPJ Administration Building
- Approval to formally withdraw from DR 1603-254, the Hospital Drainage Project
After final comments from Jury members the meeting was adjourned.
To report an issue or typo with this article – CLICK HERE
