TO THE PEOPLE OF POLICE JURY DISTRICT 3
Posted 01/01/2009
What happened to 2008? It went so fast. CPPJ budgets for the coming year have been submitted for approval during the Jan. meeting. No substantial changes were made from the 2008 budget. The most disappointing thing to happen for the parish was the failure of Amendment 4 presented on the Nov. ʼ08 ballot. Claiborne parish passed the amendment with no problems; the state did not. Passage would have allowed the parish to add approx 50 miles of parish road paving to the summer program. It is believed that the majority of the voters of the state thought this was a tax increase. It wasnʼt. One precinct in our district rejected it 100%. 15 or more of the parishes that would have benefited, did not pass it. Ex: Caddo, Bossier, Webster and many others. Basically they walked away from $2,000,000 laying on the table that only needed to be picked up.
It is our understanding that Rep. Gallot will resubmit this Amendment change in the State House in the next session. A rewrite of the amendment will hopefully clarify that this is not meant to be a tax increase.
The 2008 Capital Outlay Program also did not get funded by the state in ʽ08. Several gravel roads greater than one-half mile would have benefited from this. The same roads will be resubmitted this year and we expect the chances will improve.
As I reported last quarter, the FY2008 LGAP grant was submitted in September. This year the entire proceeds will be applied to rural water systems. A summation of all water improvement needs for the parish unfortunately came to approx $192,000. The grant will be for $73,000, meaning the pencil will have to be sharpened to stretch the monies as far as we can.
An excellent source reported to me a few days ago that finally the School Warning Lights approved in May of 2008 will be installed soon. The School Board has prepared final papers for State funding. Solar panel flashers will be installed at the Haynesville and Homer schools.
Construction for handicap ramps at the Homer courthouse (north and west sides) is being held-up because of manpower and weather. The Homer City Council approved a new ramp at the Dist. Att. Office and the CPPJ approved new courthouse ramps in late summer of ʼ08.
The Jury, as usual this time of year, is busy evaluating quotes for road materials. Needless to say, material cost in some cases is skyrocketing due to oil and diesel prices... We are however getting a temporarily downturn in oil prices. Suppliers are trying to cover possibly from losses last year and are being very cautious about this year. With the tighter dollar, the Jury is also being very cautious with expenditures during this time of recession.
Speaking of this Recession, all of us must be cautious about spending, jobs, utilities and basically all of the above. We will come thru this stronger than we ever have before. We are living in a time when a person can be trampled to death because of TVs being on sale. You would expect that only to happen in countries if food was placed on the grocery shelves. This is a most excellent time to reach out to help others and share what we are all blessed with. We are especially blessed just to be AMERICANS.
Please email me at the address below with your email address so this newsletter can reach more homes.
I strongly encourage you to attend the CPPJ monthly meetings and offer any suggestions, during the public time, that you might want the Jury to consider.
Contact me, Robert (Bob) McDaniel your Juror for Dist. 3,
if I can be of assistance to you.
Telephone: (318) 624-0634 or email: .
THANK YOU.
This writer is solely responsible for the contents of this message.
