Mayor: Growing leaf issue must be stemmed

Leaves are taking over some streets in Eunice and Mayor Rusty Moody said the problem must be stemmed.
“We’ve got to do something,” he said of loose leaves. “It is just getting out of hand.”
One answer is an ordinance change to be introduced at the 6:30 p.m. Tuesday city council meeting.
“They have to put their leaves in containers,” Moody said.
The ordinance language changes “garbage cans” to “containers.”
But it was stressed at the Thursday agenda-setting meeting that leaves are not to be moved to the streets.
Eventually the city will issue tickets to violators, Moody said.
The council will take another swing at changing what volunteer firefighters are paid.
A change proposed last month is be presented again to the council. Last month the change ran into opposition for a group of firefighters.
The new pay rate would have saved the city $9,389 if it had been implemented in November 2014, according to information presented by Brian Miller, interim fire chief. The city paid $25,360 to volunteers under the current scale. The scale would have reduced that to $9,389.
Miller presented information about pay at area volunteer departments.
In Crowley, volunteers are not paid, but at Christmas they receive a gift based on the yearly record sheet.
In Ville Platte, volunteers are not paid, but the top 25 are paid $5 per call at Christmas.
In Basile, volunteers are paid $3 for medical calls and $6 for structural fire calls.
Volunteers are not paid at Richard, Iota, Branch and Mire.
There are no volunteers at St. Landry Parish Fire District 3.
The proposed volunteer pay is $10, medical, vehicle wrecks, non-structural, car, and grass fires.
If the call last longer than two hours, the pay increases $5 for non-firefighters and $10 for firefighters.
For structural alarms and fires, the pay is $15 for non-fighters, and $20 for firefighters.
“I want you all to take a good look at that,” Moody said.
Moody said he will recommend Jan Ward be reappointed to the Eunice Muncipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board.