Parish looks into partnering with EPAR to build animal shelter

During a recent Evangeline Parish Police Jury meeting, Jill Stevens with Every Paw Animal Rescue (EPAR) addressed jurors in regard to establishing an animal shelter in the parish.
Stevens’ main reason to address the jury revolved around requesting that they purchase the land where the shelter would be built.
According to Stevens, she, along with several others, have been working on grant applications in hopes of receiving grant money that would assist in funding this project. She said they have been working quietly on this project for about a year now, but they are at a standstill until land is purchased.
Land that Stevens has looked at is on Hwy. 167 near Heritage Manor.
Stevens, who is an architect, is looking to have a facility constructed that is not giant, but would be built well and she hopes to have a fence around the entire property. Her plan is to donate the facility to the parish after it is built that way she can design the layout, which she already has ideas for.
Adoption of animals would be by appointment only.
This facility would be a private facility, which according to Stevens means not just anyone can drop their animal off at the shelter.
According to Stevens, if this were a parish animal shelter, the parish would not be able to turn down anyone who brought their animal.
Stevens does not want this shelter to be public because she said “as soon as our kennels fill up and the next person comes in, we would have to euthanize.” As a private facility, she said, “We do not believe we will have to euthanize too many animals, especially at the rate that we move dogs. Mostly just those that may be really sick.”
The land Stevens has looked at for this facility would cost the jury $16,000 for 1.7 acres.
After hearing from Stevens, Police Juror Eric Soileau, said, “We appreciate what y’all are doing. I am 100 percent behind something being done. I would think once we put a proposal together and legal looks at it and all is good then I don’t think there will be too many people who have a problem with this. We all get a lot of calls about dogs.”
The jurors ultimately decided to look into purchasing the land and entering a cooperative endeavor agreement with EPAR where the non-profit organization would rent the facility from the parish for $1 a year.
Also discussed during the meeting were delinquent sewer bills. According to Donald Bergeron letters have been sent out to people who are delinquent on paying their sewer bills, which gives these individuals 60 days to pay the full bill or at least make a payment arrangement.
As of March 31 there was a total of $135,173.00 owed in delinquent sewer bills. However, at the May meeting that number had dropped to $132,000 after several individuals made payments.
At this time their are a total of 89 delinquent accounts.
During this discussion, Bergeron also shared that the parish’s sewer system was built with grant money, and therefore each year the jury is asked what steps it is taking to collect delinquent bills.
This effort of sending letters, he said he hopes will show the jury is trying to work with people to take care of delinquent sewer bills.
The jury also discussed increasing sewer deposits from $50 to $75 to hopefully give individuals an incentive to inform the jury when they move locations.
The jury agreed to increasing the deposit, which was set to begin June 1.