Parish president explains road paving plans

St. Landry Parish Government is on its way to paving about 300 miles of roads in the Smooth Ride Home Program, which leaves out about 400 miles of roads in the parish.
Two residents of Sunnydale Road west of Washington complained at the St. Landry Parish Council’s Public Works Committee meeting Wednesday that their road had been on the list to be paved, but was not paved.
Bill Fontenot, parish president, said Sunnydale Road is on the list to be paved, but the list is under constant evaluation.
“... It was known and publicized at the time that more than likely they would not all be done in those first three years,” Fontenot said.
The program has completed 100 miles of paving in a first phase and a second phase, also of about 100 miles, is about to be completed, he said. The third phase is to be bid in late spring.
The Smooth Ride Home Program is funded by a 2 percent sales tax collected in rural St. Landry Parish. The sales is used to pay for a $66 million bond issue.
Fontenot said the third phase will exhaust the $66 million bond issue, but the sales tax generates about $7 million a year. The annual bond payment is about $5.5 million. The surplus will be used to pave five to 10 miles of road each year for an additional 12 years, he said.
“We are already three years into the program, but we are going to pave roads every year although there will be a lesser number every year...,” he said.
“I’m going to try to pave every road,” he said.
But Fontenot has said renewal of the 15-year sales tax will allow the parish to have one of the best parish road system in the state.
The Public Works and Administrative/Finance committees met Wednesday at the Old City Market in Opelousas on Wednesday.
During the Public Works meeting, Councilwoman Mildred Thierry asked that Fontenot come up with a better way to communicate to Council members about publics works activities.
Councilwoman Nancy Carriere requested an advisory committee be formed to look into amending the Home Rule Charter.
Both requests were approved for consideration at the full Council meeting on April 20.
In the Administrative-Finance meeting, Fontenot said he has met with some Council members to discuss parish government’s budget.
“We are struggling to find enough funds to pay all mandated expenses,” he said.
Mandated expenses are primarily for salaries in parish offices such as district attorney, clerk of court and judges.
Parish government has paid about a $1 million in mandated expenses, but that cost is rising to $1.5 million, Fontenot.
The increase is because many of the offices have excused parish government from the full expense of salaries, but that is no longer possible, Fontenot said.
“The fact of the matter is our revenues have not changed for many years, but the cost of government is rising,” he said.
Fontenot called it “budget creep” and said public works is about the only department parish government can cut.
The budget creep affects payment of vendors toward the end of the year, he said. In some cases, vendors have to wait until the next year to receive payment, he said.
In connection with that situation, Councilman Wayne Ardoin asked for a list of vendor payments totaling $700,000, which Fontenot refused to provide.
Ardoin said he would file a public records request for the vendor list.
In regard to vacancy on the Council created by a resignation, a special meeting may be called before the April 20 meeting to deal with the issue.