8-year-old pleads for road improvement

To be or not to be -- returned to a gravel road -- is the question being posed to residents of Old River Road.
Several people attended a public hearing prior to the Avoyelles Police Jury’s April meeting to consider a proposal to “scarify” the remaining asphalt portions of the road. “Scarify” is a term meaning to break up the surface of a road.
Police Jury President Charles Jones told concerned citizens that in this case it means “it will return back to a gravel road.” There was a mix of opinions on the issue among the residents attending.
Several residents made brief comments -- most along the lines of “do something -- anything.” By far the favorite speaker of the day was 8-year-old Shelby Johnston, who pretty much summed up the whole 45-minute meeting in two minutes. “I have bad allergies and I can’t stand the dust,” Shelby said.
“Also, I have a bike and I can’t ride it on the road. Any improvement would be good.” Jones said the jury wants to be sure that whatever is done is in line with the will of the majority of residents willing to state a preference on the issue. In an effort to get as much feedback as possible, Jones said a registry will be opened at the Police Jury office in the courthouse to allow residents to sign as to whether they want the pothole-pocked asphalt road or a dust-producing gravel road. Signatures will be taken for the next month and the jury will revisit the issue at its May meeting.
“If we didn’t feel we could make it better, we wouldn’t have suggested it,” Jones said. “If we do nothing, I can tell you that it will only get worse.” Jones said the perfect solution would be to blacktop the entire road, but the Police Jury does not have the resources to do that. In addition, drainage problems in the area would probably destroy a blacktop surface within a few years. Juror James Guillory said returning the road to a gravel road would also help the drainage problem because it would allow the road crew to build up the road to improve drainage. He said drainage improvements will also be made to improve ditches.
Ollie Lemoine was the lead speaker in favor of breaking up the road. “I’ve been there for 20 years,” Lemoine said. “I was there when there was no road. At one time, each landowner paid for pit-run and we had a gravel road. We even had a little blacktop on the road for some time, but it didn’t last long.” Lemoine said the 1.5-mile stretch of road in question “has a lot of potholes and some gravel.” He said the gravel portion produces a lot of dust, especially in dry weather. A woman spoke from the back of the room, saying that she has had numerous flat tires and other damage to her car due to the deplorable condition of the asphalt area of the road. Her insurance won’t pay for the damage because it is considered “road hazard” and not covered by the insurance policy. Resident Brenda Wood emphatically opposed the “scarifying” option, saying, “I would rather have broken asphalt and potholes than a gravel road.” Jones said the jury had intended to take a two-pronged attack on the Old River Road problem: to resolve the potholes by scarification and then control the dust from the gravel road with regular applications of prime oil.
“We can’t maintain the road as it is,” Jones said. “It is mixed -- part paved and part gravel. We can’t send a grader down the road because of the asphalt. We can’t fill potholes because of the gravel.” He said the only way to maintain the whole stretch of road is for it to be all one or all the other -- and “the other” is too expensive. Juror Kirby Roy was the only juror speaking against scarification, saying it disturbs him that “we are going backward. Instead of improving our roads, we are tearing roads up.” He said dust is a big problem for residents along a gravel road.