Buses, bridges, bond keep Police Jury busy (10/2)

Posted October 1, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Filed Under News | 1 Comment

By HEATHER REGAN WHITE
AMERICAN PRESS

SULPHUR — The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury has been busy with buses, bridges and an upcoming bond issue, Hal McMillin, the panel’s president, told the Sulphur Kiwanis Club on Wednesday.

The Police Jury recently passed an ordinance at the request of the Calcasieu Parish School Board to enforce penalties against people who ignore traffic laws regarding school buses.

The board recently voted to place on all buses cameras that can record the license plates of vehicles running bus stop signs. The fines range from $300 to $1,000.

“This is a good thing,” McMillin said. ‘‘We can’t tolerate people running through stop signs on buses.”

He said that in a recent meeting with state Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Bill Anker and ConocoPhillips representatives, it was determined that the ethylene dichloride remaining in the ground near the Calcasieu River from a spill in the mid-1990s “doesn’t seem to be moving to where new Interstate 10 bridge pilings will go.”

“So the environment won’t hold us back from moving forward” with a new bridge, he said. The bridge’s height will be 73 feet, despite opposition from the Friend Ships mission, which says its vessels can’t pass under a bridge that low, McMillin said.

“We can’t let Friend Ships hold us up,” he said. “When we go before the U.S. Congress (for funding) we have to all be singing the same song.”

McMillin broke down the $55 million capital improvement bond issue that will go before parish voters on Nov. 14. This bond is the first in 21 years to address the justice system.

The courthouse and jail maintenance tax expires this year.

If passed, the tax on the bond issue will be 1.6 mills. The Police Jury plans to use riverboat gambling funds to pay down 50 percent of the debt service.

McMillin said $14.5 million will be used to construct a jail pod to allow for single-occupant cells. As it stands now, cells are designed for four occupants, and space is wasted when the parish has to house especially violent offenders by themselves. The intake area will also be expanded.

A new family and juvenile court center will cost $11.5 million.

Additions to and renovation of the judicial center will cost $2.5 million, and relocation of the District Attorney’s Office to the parish’s recently acquired building on Lakeshore Drive will cost $1 million.

Construction of a courthouse complex parking garage that can be used at night for visitors to the Lake Charles Civic Center will cost $11.5 million. Combining the Coroner’s Office with the forensics lab will cost $8.5 million, with $4.5 million allocated for furnishings.

A second proposition on the Nov. 14 ballot is a 6.25-mill tax that represents a renewal of the soon-to-expire 3.27-mill courthouse and jail maintenance tax, plus an increase of 2.4 mills. Also included is a half-mill increase for additional needs contingent on passage of the first proposition.

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Comments

One Response to “Buses, bridges, bond keep Police Jury busy (10/2)”

Mac on October 3rd, 2009 3:07 am

McMillan needs to look at all viable options concerning the I-10 bridge. There are several deep draft docks in the N Lake Charles area. A 73′ vertical clearance will not allow most ships to transit to this area. What happens when someone wants to develope this area after the new ‘low’ bridge in built? The cost from 73′ to 100′ is not that much, espcially considering the benefits (monies/taxes) gained should a company decide to re-establish this area. I think it would be called cutting off your nose to spite your face.
It is ashame to think one of our elected officials would be so closed minded.

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