Fire District #2 approves 2018 budget; discusses responding to no man’s land

The Evangeline Parish Fire District #2 approved its projected 2018 budget during the board’s meeting on Tuesday.
The budget that was presented at the meeting shows that the district expects to have revenues that amount to $1,417,600.00 for the 2018 fiscal year, which is $212,106.00 less than the revenues shown on the 2017 budget.
Of those monies, the fire district has budgeted to spend a total of $1,055,510.00 in 2018.
During the meeting, Ville Platte Fire Chief Chris Harrison also updated the board on re-visited a discussion from last month’s board meeting concerning district #2 responding to calls in no man’s land.
This area includes Sandtrap Lane, Putters Lane, Fairway Drive, Country Club Lane, Eagle Drive, Pipeline Road, Cazan Lake Road, and Indian Lake Road.
Because this area is not in the boundary of any fire district, the Evangeline Parish Police Jury is required to pay for the fire services it receives. However, before that can be done, a contract will have to be approved by the fire districts that will respond to calls in no man’s land and the police jury.
At the meeting, Harrison shared that he had “received a copy of something from the Ward 5 Fire Chief that had been drawn up by a lawyer to give to the police jury.”
Harrison also said, “Ward 5 expects its board to approve the contract for no man’s land. Our name is one the contract too, but it is not official until this board adopts it.”
The board had not yet had time to review the contract. However, after speaking with the police jury, board member Ted Demourelle shared that the police jury is “going to pay for the services according to FEMA’s reimbursements.”
While on this topic, Board Chairman Danny McDaniel voiced that because this area is not in fire district #2, they have to be “careful not to deplete the district’s equipment” by responding to no man’s land.
Demourelle then enlightened the board on the agreement he made with Ward 5 and the police jury while he was the VP Fire Chief.
Demourelle said, “Years ago, I had negotiated that with Ward 5 and the agreement was that we would each send one engine truck and one tanker.”
At this time, the board plans to review Ward 5’s contract and then decide wether they will accept this agreement.
Other items approved at the meeting were:
• Purchase of Hertz Tool System from River Country Rescue in the amount of $32,500.