Corporal Jason Stagg with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries updated the Evangeline Parish Police Jury Monday on litter control in the parish. He said they have issued 85 citations and have 50 cases pending in Evangeline Parish. They are getting help from hidden cameras that catch litter offenders. Jury president Ryan LeDay Williams said he received several calls from people who got caught littering. “Hopefully it gets everybody’s attention throughout the parish,” said Williams. “We spend a lot of money picking up trash people throw. This money can be used elsewhere. We have to try to keep Evangeline beautiful.”
Juror Lamar Johnson said Solid Waste is spending $25-$30 an hour, 40 hours a week picking up trash on his end of the parish. Stagg said issuing the citations has “slowed littering down to almost nothing.” Juror Bryan Vidrine said he got a call about someone who had thrown 30 garbage bags of trash on Stage Coach Road. He said a not-local bank hired some workers from out-of-town who threw the bags where the creek was. Vidrine said his litter crew had to go out there to pick them up, adding that some of the bags were so heavy they could not pick them up, so they had to get an excavator to retrieve them.
Stagg added there are 150 cases of littering pending in the state, with 50 cases in Evangeline Parish. Each case will have one to four people implicated which could turn into over 70 citations or even 100. Those convicted of litter violations face fines between $175 and $1,000 and up to 8 hours in a litter abatement work program. Simple littering such as trash flying out the back of a pickup truck carries up to $175 in fines and court costs. Intentional littering such as deliberately throwing trash out of a window onto a roadway brings up to a $250 fine. Gross littering, such as depositing large amounts of trash into a ditch or having an illegal dump site, carries $500 to $1,000 in fines.
The Jury also called for a special election to be held December 5, 2020 for Acadia-Evangeline Fire Protection District to renew the levy of a special tax. The millage renewal is projected to bring in $58,500 each year for 10 years, beginning 2022 and ending 2031, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, and operating the district’s fire protection facilities, including paying the cost for obtaining water for fire protection purposes.
Secretary-treasurer Donald Bergeron then reported Solid Waste received $36,570.14, and 911 received $65,327.52 as part of the CARES Act as it relates to COVID-19 response. Each entity applied under the banner of the Police Jury. The Jury also applied and received $60,001.94. Each entity just filled out a second round of applications. There will be a final round in October.
Bergeron also reported sales taxes collected for the month of July was $325,046.72.
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Nancy Duplechain
Associate Editor