DeSoto Parish Police Jury - April 1st, 2024

e e m good evening everyone, let us please stand for the invocation please bow your heads oh kind father thank you for allowing us to be here on this day thank you for our great traveling grace for us heavenly father thank you for those who are here with a kind heart and calm mind, heavenly father, I ask that as we sit on this

jury

, heavenly father, that you allow us to make the best decisions for the

parish

, the best for the community, the best for the people of the community. blessings I ask you in the name of your son Jesus amen amen please follow me in the oath to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for one nation God indivisible with freedom and justice for all uh president reporting none legal advisor uh yes I have a brief report.

Last time I was asked to speak about the authority of the

police

jury

to sell the property to the sheriff's training center that is currently being rented for the sheriff's training facility, since the

police

jury I believe knows that it has the authority to sell such property, the optical statute is Louisiana Revis Statutes 33 4711 that specifically authorize police juries to sell, exchange, or lease property with other government agencies. Miss Barell is not nice, she presents that she is the one who raised the problem. She was concerned about various publication requirements and things like that and she cited a number of phrases or made reference to them, but those regulate the sale by the municipalities and not by the police jury.

I think that's what she was referring to. There are no specials. The provisions mandating how the police jury must carry out this are believed to be best practice by the AG in notifying the public of the intention to sell and also the police jury's approach to obtaining the value of Val and try to determine it. fair market value has been specifically approved as an appropriate approach by the AG, so I can answer any questions if there are any, okay, any legal questions, thank you, any audition calls and administrative agenda removals, there are none guess. and public comments uh Mr.

Belton, are you available? Yes sir, please come forward and say your name. Uh, Mr. President, members, excuse me, my name is Emry Belton. I am a lawyer from Baton Rouge. I just arrived this afternoon. Yes I'd like to. To congratulate the new jury on the panel, I see some new faces from the last time I was here. I'm here today to give you an update on a project we've been working on for a long time. Not that I'm not here to ask you anything other than just to inform you of what's going on because it's a very important issue for doto in particular in northern Louisiana in general in the state as well before it arrives.

I've been practicing law for about 35 years and early in my career I was a Landman for the Exxon company, which I know everyone is familiar with as a Landman in this part of the country and after that. I served as general counsel to the state mineral board, as deputy attorney general for 10 years, worked for Intergy for 10 years and then for the last 14 years I had my own practice, so my practice, my experience has been primarily In the area related to energy, land rights, electricity, oil and gas pipelines, I represent several landowner clients in the negotiation of oil and gas leases.

I did when I was on the minerals board, we probably raised for the state $2 billion dollars at least in um royalty audits, which is something that I'm a big advocate for landowners and local governments paying for. royalties, it's great, but you need to audit your payments from time to time because a lot of times you know the devil is in the details, um, anyway that's just FYI, the reason I'm here today is to talk about another project that is of great importance to the state and that is the construction of a power line, a high voltage power line from Texas through Louisiana to Mississippi.

Like I said, it's high voltage, what's unique about it is that it's a direct current line instead of alternating current, the reason it's direct current is because that's what the law requires in Texas to be able to get the power out. from Texas. um, as some of you may know, the grid system in Texas is called OT, it's the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, you all may have heard that name on the news, uh, OT is the only grid system in the United States. United States that is not regulated by the federal government. government, so the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has no jurisdictional authority over OT, and that's great, I guess if you're in Texas, but I think when we all saw the ice storm and this heat wave this summer, they came back to bite them. because not being part of the regular National Grid, it is very difficult for them to get power in and out of Texas, so when their own national generation went down, they were left without power and suffered blackouts, now in comparison here in Louisiana We had the bad weather that we had, I also had to be a part of that ice storm and except for their outages, their individual outages with the utilities were still able to deliver power here and that's very important to get grid interoperability right. transmission to cut power. of OT has to be DC, so it is a tremendous windfall for Doto Parish, the reason is that the power comes out of OT in AC, the company has purchased a 40 acre piece of land west of here, near Texas. border, but on the Louisiana side, where they are going to build a billion dollar doll converter station that will take AC power and convert it to DC, put it on the lines and send it across Louisiana and will deliver it to the network system uh. it's called myo um Mid Midcontinent uh electric um grid anyway entg and Cleo are members of myo a Swepco is a member of the southwest energy group which is the same type of company but in a different area so they will deliver it in Mississippi . at myo, at which point U companies like interg or Cleo or the co-ops or anyone will be able to buy that energy and use it in Mississippi or transport it back here to Louisiana or whatever they want to do with it.

Well, all of those transactions, of course, will be subject to the jurisdiction and review of the Public Service Commission, so as taxpayers here, you can rest easy knowing that any utility that pays for that energy has to be a reasonable and prudent process. Um, that's what the PSC requires, okay, so the project that I've been working on for 10 years, there's been some fits and starts mainly due to the regulatory environment in Texas, but since the ice storm, they've gotten religious . You know things are moving forward right now, the company currently has over 60 parcels in the field, purchasing access roads and survey permits, there are approximately 900 tracks identified across the state, about half of them have already been leased , some have been paid, um.

The impact of the economy and

parish

es on the state is amazing. In addition to the cost of construction here in Louisiana, which is over two billion dollars statewide, we are looking at 2,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs. a good number of those jobs will be in this area uh um the last time I was was not the last time I was here, but in 2017 I appeared before this jury to talk about the project uh Community and Technical College here it is We will be working with the administration of Baton Rouge, they will implement a job training program to train workers to work at this converter station, because that is not something that everyone knows how to do.

The jobs are going to be here, um, local, um, and you know, long term and high paying, um, the bottom line is that the investment in stto Parish, uh, is going to be just north of a billion dollars, um, the converter station is a billion, so. There are about 25 miles of transmission line that will pass through the parish in front of you. I left information in a packet that showed the overall map of the project across the state, as well as the map as it traverses. through the various police jury districts and I know we've gone through some redistribution since then so I think it's an old map so it may not reflect exactly how the current lines are drawn but I think everyone can, it's close enough to where you can see, you know, I'm sure you all know where it's going, so you know the net effect, plus um, the spending is over 40 years, a $200 million increase in your revenue per value taxes. which equates to an increase of over $5 million a year in your value taxes, uh, that's not that without mentioning the other economic benefits in terms of having Crews here and working Crews here and then buying gasoline and diesel and hiring local workers to make land. working and clearing the roads and all that kind of stuff, like I said, I mean, the impact on Doto parish is incredible, honestly, the impact of the other parishes is not as big, but it's still noteworthy, even parishes is, for example, East Carol, who, um, I don't know if any of you have ever been there, in Lake Providence, but I have, and you know those people fight there, you know, East Carol, I think it's second only to some county in West Virginia, the poorest county in the United States.

Increasing the valuation tax base in East Carol will result in them receiving an additional $600,000 per year in valuation taxes. East Carol Parish has four full-time Sheriff's deputies to cover the entire parish, that's how poor it is. anyway it's the other parishes um and the information that I provided you shows the breakdown of spending in each parish what are the economic impacts for each parish and the benefits um in 2017 um this jury passed a resolution and support for this project Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I didn't even have to ask, everyone volunteered and so did the city IMF and so did the police jury in Red River and I was proud of that, you know, because I think people I understand, I mean to the importance of this, you know, the power lines are some people don't like to look at it when I was here for the first time in 2017.

I don't remember the gentleman's name, but he was the head of the local farm. Bureau Group he was a chicken farmer and I was asking him, you know, because the landowners will work with the company to determine what type of poles they want to put on their property. I mean, they can put in monopoles, which are single poles, or they can put in lattice work poles or they can do whatever the owner wants, so I was curious, so I asked this, this gentleman, I said well, what Do you think people will prefer it, he said, well, he said, I and many others will prefer the ice work poles, he said, because the wild turkeys roost on them, you know, so that's to say, you know, things like that where you don't think, but I think it's important to realize that, you know, when a power line goes through, you know that Put the facilities in place, but the owner of the land still has the right to run a livestock farm.

He doesn't mess with his mineral rights or anything like that. I mean, it's a slight burden on his property, but he gets compensation. for it, um, so you know, most people are very happy with this, um, governments in particular, uh, like I said, I mean um, the initial time frame of the project is 40 years, um , in all likelihood, will go beyond that, so I. I mean you're seeing the parish is seeing a pretty sizable revenue stream for a long, long time. Orland's gas revenues rise and fall based on royalty prices, drilling, and whatever else is happening in the world, but this is going anywhere.

So I think everyone can take comfort in knowing that the two things that are necessary, basically, the companies come in, and what's also unique about the project is that there is no impact on the rate pair. I mean, what's happening is a private company is coming in and building a transmission line, um, it's not like that, it's them, they've voluntarily submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission, but it's not like the public service regular because it doesn't provide retail sales here in Louisiana, um, customers aren't required to pay for it, but what customers do get is the benefit of a free transmission line built in Louisiana that utility customers don't get they have to pay, but it's delivering power in Mississippi that more than will probably be sold here, customers will benefit from this and we all know that we're in a transition period in terms of energy, uh, I mean, between solar capture and carbon and global warming. and I mean, everything is changing, you know, and what's also changing is the willingness of private parties to come into the market and build these types of facilities and make these types of investments, so withthat, um, To summarize, you know, our application is pending before the Public Service Commission, for approval, we hope to receive it in May or June, unfortunately, a legislator from this area has introduced a bill. on behalf of literally a handful of voters, as I mentioned, there were 900 in this line, 500 of whom signed, but there are about four or five of them who do not like the bill that they presented, legislation that seeks to amend the law of eminent domain in Louisiana, um, eminent domain only applies to certain companies like this, and if that legislation passes, this project is dead, this company has U to date, they have already spent over $75 million in Louisiana, this legislation is proposed legislation, uh.

It came out of nowhere, we had been fighting, they had intervened in the Public Service Commission proceedings and we had a two-day trial and everything indicates that we are going to get the commission to approve it, but these people have resorted to um, I think that some methods, like saying, using the word selfish, don't even give it justification. You're talking about a handful of people who are trying to stop Dis Parage from raising $200 million over the next 40 years, so I don't know if they'll come to the table here to talk about it. I mean, you're here in the room today, so you may be hearing from them too, but like I said, the project is moving forward, my clients. doing everything I can to make this happen and to prevent others from stopping it from happening um so I'll be happy to answer any questions and I'll come back to bat there if I have a question so far. like the laws of imminent domain and you all plan to use them if necessary, unfortunately the yin and yang of the laws of imminent domain exist no one likes to use them when they are invoked if they have to be invoked one thing that is important to keep in mind that it is the local district court judge who determines the fair market value of whatever is being taken in this particular case, as I said, it will not be the property itself, it will be a burden to draw the line. in the property, but the reason why imminent domain is important, and I think the lawyers in the room will understand this and some of you business people might, without at least the right to have imminent domain, there is no ability . for companies to cure defects in the title, for example, if you are missing heirs or if you have people who may have property somewhere and grandma and grandpa were owners and they died and never opened an estate, so the property never was assigned to the current heir. so you know you don't know who the owner is, you can't get these people to sign off on the investment.

The community recognizes this and is demanding that companies with projects like this that cross multiple jurisdictions have this right, this right only applies to power lines. uh, pipelines, railroads and telecommunications, just companies that you know have these linear projects, the reason is that you know that allowing two or three people that you know to stop a $2 billion doll project, is not only not right, but which we think is frankly. illegal leg Al um the legislation, if it passes, we believe it is a flagrant violation of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution uh we're all adults here, I mean you know you can't um if you know it's just the The same thing I mean, this is an interstate line that moves energy, you know, through the southeastern part of the United States, it would be like if everyone wanted to, you know, block an interstate from passing through, you can't do that um.

The problem that this employer has, honestly, is that you know that they have spent the 75 million that they prepared to spend the rest, and if this legislation manages to be approved, I think they would have every right and probability to do so. prevail with this litigation to get this law thrown out, I mean, who wants to do business in the state whose legislature is going to go so far as to pass a law that tells you we don't want you here, so know that that's what happens? at stake there, um, you know, everything I said, I know.

You had a lot of activity in Hanesville here, everyone had a lot of pipes installed. I have some clients on sub. I mean, I've negotiated some of these deals with RightWay. These pipeline companies have exactly the same right, they exercise it in exactly the same way for the same reasons, and they need it for the same reasons. There have been many lawsuits over pipeline expropriation. I don't know, but I do know that pattern. It's not that I don't want to have to do that, but if they take away the ability under the law, then no one will have the money to build a project, okay, so the answer is yes, okay, yes, you said that.

I came here in 2017 to get the support of the jury and you didn't even have to ask for support, they just asked, they asked how they support, are you looking for the jury today? Yes, what support were you asking for? I'm not asking for anything today. Well, what happened was when I came here in 2017 when I explained to them all the benefits of this project and I don't remember who the president was or who made a motion at that time, but they said what can be done. We do to help, we want this type of activity in our parish.

Well, everyone can pass a resolution and support it, and that's what they did. Red River did the same, City and Mfield did the same, same sort of thing. I mean, there was a lot of excitement back then, um, as I think there should be today, but I mean, you know, you were talking about tracts of land that have owners who lack ownership and things like that, uh, is that the main obstacle that you have in terms of acquiring your property is that what you are saying is that you are trying to get through a property that you cannot get good titles on because you cannot contact Los Heirs.

I'm saying that's one of the issues that the expropriation law addresses. I'm saying even if we hadn't, even if we all had signed voluntarily. Well, we had all the titles, there is no problem if the Louisiana statutes don't give the Powerline companies in the Authority, the financiers won't give them the money, it has nothing to do with whether they are actually getting the leases or not. You don't have to do what these lenders need to know that the law provides a vehicle or mechanism to fix any title issues that may arise that answers your question: What kind of restrictions would landowners have once this Highline passed? for your property?

We don't build houses or pools under them, that's all. The National Electrical Safety Code determines the width of the access road based on the line voltage. In this particular case, it's 180 feet wide, there's no, I mean, there's no negotiation with that. that's the federal law, that's what there has to be no restrictions, no restrictions for livestock or recreational activities, no, no restrictions for livestock, not for recreational activities, I mean, you can't put a drilling rig out there, but you can drill directionally, pipes can cross underneath, you know? if they want to be safe, you know they have to take certain safety precautions, all that kind of stuff, I mean, it's like everything you have, I mean, like everywhere in Louisiana, all over the country, I mean, they have power lines running everywhere.

This place, you know, I mean, they have cattle. My wife's family owns a sugar cane property in West Baton Rouge. I mean, they grow sugar cane underneath. You know, people hunt underneath. You can do whatever you want. I mean, it's just a burden, the line is a burden on property, but you know that's it, anyway, I have more questions, I have one, you talk about intimate domain, what level of government would it be to invoke enemy dominance? Would it be state? level yes State well, I'm serious, there are actually two, the project has already received federal approval, the federal government, FK, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has already ruled that the project is in the public interest, that it satisfies a purpose public, um, in theory, I think and and I don't think they want to go down this route, but I mean, I think they could invoke imminent domain under federal law more than likely because it's a federal line, however, it comes back.

I think again about um, you know. They want, they want to be here and they want Louisiana to want them here, you know, and if the state is going to go to all these links to say we don't want them here, then they're going to take their 200 billion dollar doll or 2 billion . I do it in the capital and they'll go somewhere else, you know, um and and, I hate to say that, um, because look, we're a small state, you know, I mean a job that I had that I didn't mention was when I started my practice. private I was general counsel of the Police Jury Association when Roland Artez was executive director.

I don't know, some of you remember the ring, but you know I appreciate what you do, I mean, it's a time-consuming task and sometimes. thankless job, sure, I mean, obviously you're not doing it for the pay, you know, so I appreciate you knowing the rigors you have to go through, but we're a state of 4 and a half million people. The Houston metropolitan area has more than 9 million people. In my opinion, we don't have the problem. You know, we're all struggling with money for roads, money for hospitals, and money for schools. We're so sparsely populated, you know?

There just aren't enough people to spread all those costs, you know, but when you have projects like this, you know who comes in and is going to pull and you know, provide a parish with $5 million a year, I mean, that's pretty significant, you know, um, I love Louisiana, I was born and raised here, you know, I'll stay here, um, but this is just again, I'm not here asking for anything, I'm just, you know, giving everyone an update. what's going on and what's at stake in Baton Rouge right now. Okay, thanks for your time. Let's have more questions.

Thanks thanks. Mr. Paul, are you available? Dixon, yes sir, it matters later. Well, we can't hear it. um, try to speak a little louder. I am 71 years old and have lived here my entire life. I have spent a lot of money. Investments in my property, uh, for my grandchildren in the future. I was probably the hardest hit of all, probably in to stay, Lou, because they're going to run it through my front yard and they're going to put it right where my driveway is, so when I come onto my property, I'm going to see it come every time. my property values ​​are going to go down.

I took that property years ago and buried all the high lines, all the high voltage lines and removed all the poles on my property. I don't have any up and I did it. because I did it for a security reason, so it doesn't make sense to me to allow them to drive a monster like this right through my front yard, so I ask everyone to please consider this, I mean, if you want. to pass, I have no problem with them passing through someone else's property who has not invested the time and energy that I have with my property, I have no problem with that, but they do not need to be able to take our property from us. us and we don't want to sell it and that is a company that is not even from Canada.

They've hired a bunch of people from California to come here. I was talking to them today and the surveyors they are using to shoot. here and I try to keep an eye on all the properties, they are not from around here, they are from Oklahoma, they will be flown in tonight. Using anything local, so I haven't heard anything truthful coming out of his mouth. I have been trying. With them a year really fed up with I have given them all kinds of routes to tour my property, they have not considered any of them to this day.

I feel like they are threatening me because if I don't do it. Cooperate with them and believe me, that's exactly how I feel right now. Some of you know me. I went to school with many of you. I know what kind of person I am. I'll say it like this is wrong. You should not. to be able to do that they should be able to come in and deal with each of us individually and think that if someone wants it they may need a little more money to get them to sign on the dotted line. I don't mind.

It's not my property, they can do what they want with it, they shouldn't be able to force me to have this Ram right, Mr. Dixon, late, I'm Paul Dixon, uh, I'm my wife's family, my wife Beverly Rigby Dixon has property in the parish of Doota. south of Kai, uh, the southern Spirit transmission line, I say, asking to pass I've told our family that they are passing through my own land and the R parish adjacent to a major section of the transmission line and I don't HE. If any of you know the Red River National Wildlife Refuge, he is in the Red River Boer C parishes and I am the founder of that.

We achieved this through an act of Congress in 2000 and it provides public lands for people to use, hunt and fish. I have been involved in conservation all my life. I have added land to several Wildlife Management areas and, by working with state governments and with the private sector, how bringing them together gives people a place to hunt fish. I grew up as a fish on public lands in the Toita and Sashi National Forest and wildlife management areas and, fortunately,I'm a landowner, so I'm here as a landowner, but all my life, I've worked for people's conservation, for people's ability to use a piece of land well, the land line of Southern Spirit transmission goes between two of the units, the riv National Wildlife Refuge, which worries me from a conservation standpoint, um.

I've been aware of this since it first came up, he said in 2015 or so and it became, supposedly, a hot project in 2017 before it was abandoned for a while and I resisted it for a long time. These are the reasons why it has returned and the remarkable thing is how little anyone knows about it even now, so we are going through a story of almost 10 years, but there is very little information, so now I turn to you also for the Louisiana lands. Guardians Inc which is an organization that was formed last week we are very new if I were not I could give you things in a letter but I promise we will do it very soon.

This was an effort by the landowners to try to find us. It's so secret that, like Denny Dennison, we only know each other because we came together. We have no idea who the other land owners are because of these vague maps and only in the last few months, very recently, did they put something on their website that is specific enough that we can get a land man to start working On it. and find out whose land this is going on and since before this everything was very vague and very secretive they don't publish a list of land owners so the reason you haven't heard much from land owners in Thea parish is that no one really knew who the land was going through and what was happening, everyone was left isolated, but that is changing and as Louisiana Landkeepers, one of our missions is to shed some light on this to shed some light on this and we We're going to shed some light on it and we'll certainly share any information we get.

I have to say, Mr. Belon, I agree with one thing: the devils in the details, that's for sure. One piece of information we have been able to obtain. Understand, you can get it too, uh, because it's in your Courthouse, there have been four easements that are attached to titles now in the parish of Doota, there are only four, there four, that we were able to get, we have copies of those. and if I can share one with you later, does anyone want one. I'll give you some details, some of the details we found in these easements, an oil and gas drilling rig cannot be placed within 500 feet of the 180t right away and forgive me about the pools and the houses, but there's a lot more to it than that, so that's 500 plus 180 plus 5 which is 1,180 feet now closed for a few Wells can't drill one, which means that the production, the operator will look at their runway to see if they're going to produce it or not and he'll see that he'll have that drill D up to an additional 680 feet because they're going to have to move their move this 500 and 180 and they're just going to choose to go drill somewhere else the more you look at the details, for example, uh, it's not just that they have access to the right right away. but the easement owners sign these in doota perish signed access including removing anything, it actually says they can remove anything that gets in their way, that means you give them access to your road and they can do whatever they want .

These details are there. We're in the easements so you read I'm not here to try to stop the power line. We are not trying to stop the power line. All we are saying is that landowners should have the right to truly negotiate, they should be able to negotiate. the details of these easements they should be able to negotiate the prices and if they don't want it if this company all this money this man says talking about billions and billions of dollars if they have all that money they should be able to find a way to pass on part from willing sellers, so if not this clue, then the next clue they should be able to find someone who is willing to let them through.

These binary statements are given without any justification, without any support, that yes, if this, if there is no expropriation, there will be no project, where it came from, no one knows, that is true, it is as if all the jobs were offered and all this money, does it have a contract? or guarantee that any of that work will actually be done? I mean, how many companies have come here and not come back looking for tax breaks or credits? There is no guarantee of any of this, so all we ask is to hit the pause button until we can get more information.

We have sponsored Senate Bill 108, which, by the way, passed the state Senate 36 to 1 a week ago. All Senate Bill 108 does is prohibit this company from using eminent domain and any other non-public private company from using eminent domain, that's it if they have a power line that doesn't serve Louisiana it's too narrow if they have a line of transmission through Louisiana and it doesn't serve Louisiana and they are a private company that can't use eminent domain, that's all the bill says, it doesn't say that the fact that the power lines don't come here doesn't say anything Of that, it only says that the owners have the right to negotiate with their hands untied, but what is happening right now, as Mr.

Dennison showed you, is that people feel they have no choice. So, this is like a utility company, but it's not, it's a private company that brings the power of Texas to the eastern states. It is a company owned by some investors in San Francisco that uses a Canadian sovereign wealth fund to finance a pension fund and uses Chinese funds. steel and they are bringing in experts from Oklahoma this is not a public project for Louisiana to compare it with an oil and gas pipeline that takes Parish's soda gas to the market for the benefit of those Parish is frankly dishonest there is no comparison whatsoever it is nothing like a pipeline, what are we afraid of and we will dig more of this, it is a barrier to economic development, it is like a big wall throughout the state that you cannot cross through valuable projects to say that they will allow anything to happen go to read the easement for yourself don't listen to me go to court and get the easement and read it for yourself and see if you think it's just bars pools and houses I think you'll see differently if you read Anyway all we're asking now is that no oppose Bill C 108.

I am not even asking you to support it until this body has enough information to take an institutional position. I would ask you not to do it now. She is currently taking a stand because his lobbyist has lobbied against the Senate bill8. He did it in the Senate, obviously, not with much success, but we would ask that you be neutral until he can gather enough information and we, the Guardians of the Landg of Louisiana, will certainly provide you with information. For our part, I know that the power employer has provided and will continue to provide power on their side and then you, as a good public service and government body, will take a position, but I would ask you not to oppose the Senate for now.

B 108 until you have enough information to do so and I really spent most of my time talking not so much to convince you but to show you that there is another side to this, surely there is another side that you haven't heard. and we hope to have the opportunity to give you more concrete information as we are able to unearth it and just as a point of information we are going to create a list of all the affected landowners and we will be I'm happy to share that as we are able to build it, uh, It doesn't just affect the people you come across, it affects people on both sides and we're going to shine like I said.

Let's illuminate all those things with a little sunlight. Thank you, sir, thank you for your time. Anything else. Anyone. Any question. Yes, sir. I would like to know, uh, the group of people who are opposed to this. Do you have company? their property or because they are mentioning all the companies, um, yes, there is oil and gas, sure, certainly, there is oil and gas production on most of the lands in Parish now, one way or another, um, that's not one of our problems. except it becomes more expensive and more difficult to run gas lines through the power line because it causes, from what I'm told I'm not an expert on this, it causes the electromagnetic field to cause the pipes to corrode and they have to They have to spend more money to fix the pipes, call cathodic protection to prevent them from eroding due to corrosion in um, but you really shouldn't ask that question specifically to the gas companies, but that's not really why I'm here.

I'm here because I don't think it's right for a landowner to be forced to take this without being able to negotiate and that might include some gas issues, but for some people, not others, I get it because I'm. I really had enough oil and gas company. I look at my front door and all I can see are pipes, oil pipes for oil and then trucks constantly. This thing is between 80 feet at its lowest point and 180 feet high at its highest point, so 18 story building and it's 880 feet wide, when it crosses the rivers it reaches a height of 450 feet, so it definitely You will see, thank you Mr.

Paul, okay, more comments from guests and the public, yes, sir, good evening, members of the jury. chance mcney, your lobbyist um, i just didn't come here today to talk, i actually came here to listen. I happen to be in town, um, and I don't know you, Mr. Dixon, but just to correct the record. U, I haven't pressed. this bill, one way or another, part of the reason I came here today was to listen to the conversation and see if there was a directive that would come from the jury. Up to this point, what I've done is send one. text message to Senator Seall letting him know what we perceive the financial inbs to be and other than that, I mentioned it to Senator Presley and then I never set foot in the chamber again on this issue, so I just wanted to clear that up. uh we haven't been pushing for this bill.

If I did, I pushed the bill. I got more than one vote against. I can assure you. So I just want to make that clear if you want to take a position. that's your prerogative to do it, you haven't done it at this time, so in the absence of a jury decision telling me to oppose or support a piece of legislation, that's how you tell me what to do and that's why I just want correct the record on that front. I am happy to honor your wishes as always, whatever they may be, unless there are any questions, thank you and I am glad I came today, it is the first time I have come early for the first of the Monday meetings.

Thank you, if there are more guests and public comments, we will proceed well. Administrative items number two authorizes all staff to close all operations during jury vacation, so skip to the second question, what does this mean? This is my second debate, it basically means that all operations on all holidays would close, right now we will maintain some operations, we have staff working, other staff not working and this way all staff would be off during all holidays and probably in relation to most solid waste. most of it is solid waste. I'm sure we're going to have to withdraw those contracts.

I think we have pending agreements that designate certain closing and opening days for the landfill that have been signed. Can I take them out and look and see what we have contractually agreed on the operation of the land F Bas is well complete yes Mr. F A on the question I mean, are there any concerns? People complain about them working or some other problem with this. no it's a cost savings it's one thing we pay our staff double time and a half to be there during the holidays and some staff are out other staff would like to be out possibly and not they are allowed to be away because they have to be work, so this way it would be across the board, all staff, all staff, all employees would be off on vacation unless of course there is an emergency.

Could we consider keeping compaction sites open? The three most productive compaction sites, at least that's a guess. We could consider anything, but I mean we voted on all of these holidays to get these employees off. You know, we should allow them to be off during the holidays. Just as I feel and think about the solid waste deal that Mr. Josh made. Kids work around the trash, whether it's a day before, a day after or something, they just feel it's important to keep some of them open because people aren't working and that's when they need to take care of their trash.

I think the public finds out that the holidays will get used to that and make arrangements to be there the day before or the day after the holiday like anyone else would for any other holiday.closing. Banks close on holidays. You already know your bank. the branch is closed you know you can't go that day that's as simple as we need it there there is there I don't see I don't see where someone has so much garbage that they can't keep it until the next day uh I have a lot of garbage. Sometimes I save it for a week before taking it.

Once it's you, your wife, and you know, that's how it is. There are some yeses, Mr. Baker. We have contracts on some of the garbage we receive at the landfill on what days we can close, well I guess we would have to honor the contract until we can get around to negotiating new contracts, so you know, I mean, I understand we can't break a contract we are already in. but you know we can close the other holidays. I think we should make an alternative motion to present in Pacific what we are going to do. I think we should let it be legal because she said she needed to look at some. dates and as Mr.

Baker stated that there are times when we are contracted to be open, so before we vote tonight, I think we need to make an alternative motion to delay it until we can see what those dates are and work them out and then it takes a decision. I don't think we need to take one right now because there are some things up in the air that we need to make sure are dotted and crossed out before we make that as a motion, Miss Simpson. uh yes sir, I make an alternative motion that we postpone this until we can get legal information on it regarding the contractual days that we are responsible for being open because some of those days may be one of those holidays, if I remember wrong, there is at least one or maybe several contracts and what I would say is that they allow the landfill to be closed in certain cases that we as people in general probably feel are the most important holidays, uh, and then some of these other days, you know, because there is active garbage collection for residential areas that comes to the landfill, the landfill has contracted to remain open on those days, but I will withdraw the contracts and have specific information for you at the next meeting.

I would like to second that for Mr. Fuller's second place. I have a motion from Ms. Simpson and a second from Mr. Fuller to alternate the motion to adjourn for further information. Available as soon as possible. I can have it at the next meeting. It's okay, thank you, thank you mom. I'm all for it, I mean, there's no more discussion, we want to vote, get Jody's motion passed, point number three, appoint James Robinson to the Bayu Pier Fish and Game Commission, so move it, I have a motion from Mr. Ross, a second, Mr. James. second for Mr.

Le, so he's not here tonight his father suffered a stroke over the weekend and was just released from the hospital today, but he said he would be at the regular meeting we have pushed, thank you for any discussion. about Mr. Robinson, yes, how did he come about? Have you worked with this before or know anything about it? You know something? I put it up yet, so he is a resident of Parish C, but has had hunting land in Carmel for the last 40. For years he had questions about this board, the B PA Fish Game Commission, they meet once or twice a year in Clear Lake about when to draw the dam, when to release it and, uh, there was an empty seat, so he's very familiar with that. area, so I asked him if he wanted to be on the board and he was very encouraged to be on it.

There was a vacancy, so I recommended him. Yes, he has properties. He is fine, he resides in the cattle parish. Yes, he lives in Ganado. Parish, but he has hunting properties, recreational properties in Carmel, those 4 for over 40 years, there is more discussion, if not, we will vote for one more, that's me. I'm thinking about that because I feel like everyone lives in doing a lot. motion passes right, item number four authorizes the sale of the property located at the sheriff's training center at 120 sprocket Lane to the sheriff at market value with all proceeds to be dedicated to the jail fund by the DEC a motion no Move Motion by Mr.

Parker second second by Mr. Clark any discussion Yes sir, I have a discussion, okay. I know everyone will be making this decision tonight, but I want everyone to take a look at this. I know we are going to go through committee and it should be voted on again next week. but like I said, I wanted them to do it decently, in order and correctly, so Mr. Norton kept talking about what we used to do or what we had done, so I decided I might as well do some research on what we've done. and the last time we sold a property we had to go through these changes, I mean we followed these rules, which is correct according to what I research, as I say, I like it to be done right because my vote when I give my vote I want be absolutely sure that it is correct.

This is what we did last time, as he said what we have been doing and what we were doing. This is where we sold properties in 2010. These are the steps I want everyone to take home. Don't take it home and throw it on the counter. I want you to look at it and read it and it will show you clearly what we have been doing. Then I had another concern about the value of the property when we sold this. This property here in 2010 we sold for $2,000 an acre, that's a big difference in what we're talking about now, so if it was 205 $20,000 acres in 2010, you guys can do the math, something's not right and I'm just not willing. just to give away taxpayer property.

Not really, I don't care who it is, they are the rules and regulations we should have followed regarding this property. I don't like the way it was done. When we found out they did it, they did it, they evaluated everything. The documents were drawn up during the nine. I keep telling them that we are left out of the loop where some of us do it because some of us already know when they come here what they are going to vote for. and what happened, we just don't know until we get to these yo that needs to stop, really, that really needs to stop, first of all, we should have made a decision if we were all willing to sell some property, not just shove it down our throats saying wrong, okay, let's sell a property because that's not the right way.

I asked, uh, the lawyer, did you give us a report? I did it, you weren't, you weren't here yet. I gave it during the legal process. uh, report the weather one way or another before making this decision. I want everyone to look like Mr. Nor say what we did last time because according to what we did last time with the law, it's the right way to do it. It didn't happen this time. I have to do it. I'm like Mr. Holmes that night. There's a dead cat on the line when it comes to this accessory this time and I know they went ahead with this whole thing. that and that, but I'm not questioning it because I like it.

I say I have a question: 20,000 per acre in 2010 and we're talking about $50,000 for this entire property. I can't see it, I don't care how. I see it as something that is not right in that, so I want all of you to make a conscious decision, make a decision Vis for your people in your District, not for you, not for the sheriff, not for anyone except the people who They hired us. They voted for us to represent them, that's what we're here for, it's for those people and I tell everyone that I will put them first whenever people mean a lot to me and I won't portray them.

I'll be standing flat. and firm on it, anyone else has any discussion, can I clarify this so you understand correctly? The sheriff rented that land to the police jury. Correct. Yes, he has a 99 year lease. What I understand is my understanding, so if we don't do it. sell him the property, he is still going to occupy the property regardless of the right, yes, so he offers us $50,000 to buy the property over which he can have ownership for up to 99 years correct correct okay, thanks for more discussion. I can not see well. why would you want to buy a property that you got a 99 year lease on makes sense that's what I'm saying makes sense for that doesn't even make sense okay more discussion no more discussion let's vote no mind let me clarify I don't know , but one of the things I see is that probably the reason you want to buy it is because it should have been done before they started building buildings, they probably should have brought it in before then, but if anything should happen and for any reason they have to give up ownership, the buildings come with it even though they have built them, I understand the buildings come with it so that's probably why you are asking to buy it, just my opinion, I think this is a lesson to the jury at any time F in the future not make a lease for $1 for 99 years on any type of police property.

The jury agrees with that, from what I understand, he likes to do, from time to time, he wants to make some improvements or do something to the property and he is not free to do it without appearing before the jury to get permission to do something to him. . I'm like you, he already built the buildings basically on his property, it's his property. From now on he looks like he might turn again. I don't know if he will still be yours, but the building will certainly come with ownership. I'm sure there will be no more discussions. Why just say I want to change my mind?

I'm going to buy this property next year, this time I decide I'm going to sell it for 10 times the value of that property, so you don't understand what I'm saying, that could happen, we didn't get rid of it. of properties like that and they turned around and sold them and we gave the property to the taxpayers that way and they made great books with it. I see it as protecting the citizens of this P. I don't feel like we need to do it. sell your property honestly, that's my thing and then it's supposed to be a property that is no longer needed for public use, but every property that is there is needed for public use.

I can think of a lot of things we could do with that property there. For the public, I think the property at the airport and around the airport that we own is there for development, that's what I thought it would be for uh, it's no good for anyone to just keep it and it's there as it is, oh. I've been trying not to let anything happen up there. I've been trying to develop Mr. H since I've been a cop. We already rented the property to the sheriff. He made improvements to the property, so I feel like you know.

We should sell it to him because we've leased it to him, let him make improvements to it and let him use it, so I feel like we have to make that sale, whatever property is up there. I understood it was for sale, you know. It's for development, you know, okay, let's do that for the rest of the people like s Alum, now we have a property that dates back to a 99 year lease as well, so I would love Open Door, yeah, Mr. Parker, go ahead, one of the reasons we made the motion to sell this property is the liability involved in it and all the property that we have, we have a 100, is dedicated to an industrial park and we have two businesses that have been there for sale for quite a few years, right?

Okay, that property was for sale until the sheriff came on it and I don't know for sure how long he's been there, but he took his money and turned it into a shooting range. I think there have been several organizations that have used it. that in the past and the things that are put on events related to shooting activities, it is an opportunity for us to earn some money and we get away from the responsibility if someone gets shot and hurt, anything we will be responsible for it, so like the sheriff's department will be responsible, so if we can make money off of it and free ourselves from that responsibility, I'm all for doing it, yes, I agree with you Mr.

Parker, I mean it's a training center, I have I have to look at this a lot. you go to the training center if an outbreak occurred in the parish, he put his employees on the spot, you make that call, they are there because they didn't have the necessary training there, no one else, if you don't vote, those are quick questions because I have not yet voted, are you voting for the 20,000 or are you voting for the 10,000? I mean, who did the survey? I mean, like M says we sold this accessory, we sold the right one for $220,000, up there it's 50 $50,000.

I know. talking about an acre, I'm talking about how many acres is 10 acres, right? It's five, so $10,000 an acre when we sold the acreage there at the airport, we sold it for 20,000, so I say, Mr. how? The market value went down, how did it go down?, being here, right? I mean, I'm not one to value it, I don't know, actually, can we ask something that you're wondering yourself, but, but, we can donate it if I mean, it's what we want to do now. What do you need to do for people? I didn't say donate, I said we could in the question, the question is the market value, what is the market value, that is the appraised value.

The value that we appraised it recently was February ago, February 13,

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is the day of praise, but it was a praise, everything was the pra and everything before it came to this year, so that is theproblem I have. I do not get it. It has to be a compliment before we can have a number to guide us. I guess the point was praise when we sold it for 20,000 acres mm. So it was a compliment, so how come not even a mile away? We used a praise firm, that's what I'm trying to figure out, it was a prae when we bought the property.

I mean, we sold the property to this Arkansas company for the $20,000 acre company that's here, so my question is what is it like? it's 10,000 now that's what I'm just trying to clarify about that yeah I understand your question but again I'm not supposed to praise God I'm not okay well I know how it sounds okay okay can I? One more thing is that okay, if I say something, yes, okay, the sheriff has the property that he has given us as a gift, he can't if we decide not to sell it to him, he will still be there for 99 years.

I'll be dead in the ground and the next Sheriff will still be there. I let them worry about that. Yeah, he's just saying, "Hey, look, let me help you. I'll give you $50,000 for this property I have anyway." Ry, he put it on and put him in jail for the new jail, so don't try to look at people and make it look like you're looking for a favor because it doesn't take much science to figure that out. That came out and I see that I would have been gone for so long, but since you all are going to try to come back here, I'll tell people what that is, come on, let's face it, you have to come in $50,000 less. the jury money to pay for the jail, well, it is not yet in concrete and stone, that we are building a new jail, it will go to the fund of the jail, whether we renovate the o or what the funds will be, okay, but I prefer to see 100,000 going down. out of 50,000 that's the point I'm trying to make that everyone would do it, but he, everyone would do it.

I would love to see 100,000, I'm just trying to clarify how it sold for 20,000 at the time and went down, now it's $10,000, that's all I'm up to. trying to understand and someone do that to me, help me understand that I vote Yes unless it's okay. Can I give you a little clarity on that other one, sir. Please give you a little clarity on the other deal on this one. Enterprise gas company oh Gas Company is going to pay more for the property if they want it why will they pay you tell me why they want it they pay for it they have a lot of money that is not right that is not fair that was the value but in the motion there is no a value in the motion says a market value look at the appraisal they gave you last month let's see it has all the comparisons as well as all the assumptions that the right made so what was the market value?

It was 10,000 you say 5,000 per acre 5,000 that was market value market value call question I didn't I just did it okay everyone let's vote don't take any rocks to calculate that comes back okay and I need to pray for the one left I know, oh okay, I don't want value on that man market value we're just saying 20,000 we're just saying 20,000 per acre or 20,000 for the property 50,000,000 10,000 acre 10,000 AC have no face value I just want people to know how they do it businesses so they can retain your account. Very well, the motion was approved, point number five authorizes the president to sign a resolution approving payment under tax agreements. pursuant to a term sheet requesting the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority to enter into such payment in Li of the tax agreement and to stipulate other matters with respect to I hear a motion, move forward, I have a motion from Mr.

Fuller, second, second, from Mr. uh J, any discussion about what does this relate to this is the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority? It is the financial institution for Desiree. This is the solar panel location here at the Cleo plant. They are requesting that we give them a 50% tax reduction or their facilities. There is some discussion about that, yes, I just want to say that that is investing in clean energy and that we need to keep up in many places or move to solar energy or all these problems that we have with the climate and things that we have to start taking seriously and uh I don't want to get left behind on this like uh that's like a broadband where we get high and we need to stop dragging our feet with things and keep up with the times. invest that's what we should do with taxpayers' money invest in things that will be positive and will have a positive impact for them.

I did some research on this pilot program called the Property Tax Incentive Financing Pilot Payment on Le of Taxes and if you read there, this is from the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authorities website, if you read, it says that a barrier that the state has. Local governments cannot provide tax reductions directly to private businesses. I have created this pilot program and the pilot program is, if you read it, it says here that the pilot program is for job creation and also for economic growth, but it is stressed here over and over again that it is for job creation. the program is not creating any jobs, they want to build this program program here, this project here and they are asking for a 50% reduction in their taxes and they are not bringing any jobs to our area, so I am against giving we told you so that fact says that the level of tax reduction is negotiated between the private company and the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority the Finance Authority made this negotiation for us we did not negotiate it at all we had nothing to say about it The Northwest Finance Authority of Louisiana is not required to provide any reduction and generally reviews each request on a case-by-case basis.

The percentage of reduction and the timing of the reduction vary depending on the needs of the project and the economic results for the community. the economic outcomes for the community that you say here include, but are not limited to, number one, as I just said, job creation, wages, total capital spending, economic diversification and our meeting other needs of the community, that meeting other community needs is what they are trying to buy. our votes with that $800,000 that they are going to offer us, they are offering us $800,000 up front, but don't be confused and think that you are receiving that $800,000, we are only receiving a part, probably the smallest portion of the Most of it will go to our school board and then the sheriff will get a big chunk, so he'll get a chunk of $800,000, but over and over again in this, job creation is mentioned.

I spoke to Mr. Calvin Austin, who is the chairman of the Louisiana Finance Authority and when I finished discussing this with him, I told him that we were going to vote on it last month and he said, well, I look forward to all of you getting this project and all the local jobs that are to come. with that I said no, sir, he said, what do you mean, I said, there are no jobs, there are no permanent jobs with this project, he said, really, he said, I don't even see how they qualify, they don't qualify for a public relations program. .

So I mean they're asking for something they don't even qualify for, so I'm against giving them a 50% reduction on their taxes if the school board wants to give them a 50% discount and the sheriff wants to give them a 50% discount. % off so be it, but I think they should pay all the taxes, they will not bring anything to our community, even the electricity does not remain in our community, they told us that from the first meeting, this electricity will go south. this is the company moving into the old Hendrick manufacturing building there are no solar panels it's the solar panel oh okay trust oh solar panel bring it back sir I thought when we discussed this before let the police jury decide where the money is, how much money. it was who no that's what we discussed at the meeting that's what we said here no well that's what we said yes that's exactly what we said we decided how who got what amount of money the police jury decided it wasn't the school board and it wasn't the sheriff, it wasn't any of us, it's the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority that did all the negotiations, we weren't in any of the negotiations.

I'm just saying that's what we discussed very well here around this table, I think. Mr. Fuller, if I remember correctly, I think what you are referring to could be $800,000. There was some suggestion that it was going to be the police jury's decision on how to divide the $800,000 and then this matter was postponed. and then Mike would contact them to get a breakdown of the money and how that $800,000 would be divided, but the proposed term that was presented to the jury for their consideration does not have a designation of the division of that money. As I remember, but I think that's what you could be ref.

I brought up that question in the meeting, so it's true. I think you're talking about the $800,000 and Mr. Holmes in the other terms here he's talking about that was It's not within the decision making capacity of the police jury thank you oh they're here miss simple they're here Yes, just another question. I think initially, from what I understand, in the first three years it was going to bring or have the opportunity to have 140 of our jobs, but that would decrease after the work was completed. I'm right? Let me, if I can answer, my name is Mike Busada.

I'm the program advisor um for the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority and I just want to make our position clear, we haven't approved anything, we don't approve anything unless the local taxing entities request it, that's why this resolution specifically says that you're voting on whether or not to ask us to do it, you know, We're a facilitator, we're here because before you had to go to Baton Rouge to do this and now we have an entity in northern Louisiana that can facilitate this, so we're neutral, we want to know if you want us to do it then we'll be happy to do it, if not then that's fine so I just want to be very clear where we stand in terms of pilots, they don't require jobs it just requires you to do it. comply with an economic development assessment a formula that basically shows that there are more R's there are more benefits to the community of those that go to the company and therefore if you have a large amount of capital, invest in a property where it is better and higher use um so you wouldn't necessarily have to have jobs similar to what Governor Landry just approved with his executive order U with ITP that eliminates the jobs requirement from there as well and just to address some of the specific points of the project starting with jur Simpson to answer your question, you are absolutely right, there would be about 250 temporary construction jobs associated with this project that would exist for about two years, two and a half years of construction after that, there would be an output of probably between five and 10 permanent jobs that would be given to local constituents here, we can't outsource them to someone from, say, Oklahoma or somewhere else, or you know Texas to have them fly in and you know, cut and clean panels, it has a lot more sense, it is more economically viable, it is better for the project that the locals do it.

Second, get back to project momentum from the Genesis of the project when the Dole Hills liite facility was closed in December 2021. There is a gap in the tax base for police. sworn, we are doing what we can to fill that gap, specifically on the Cleo side, this is still going on, the power is still on in Louisiana, it's within you, know the myo network as much as possible, um, specific of this tax deal, we are looking as I said to replenish as much as possible with the tax base that was lost with the closing of that plan with respect to spending discretion for his jury appointment Fuller um as far as I understand and Mike can weigh in on this, maybe a little bit more, what is the signing of the agreement that leads them to the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority being the facilitator and the spending discretion is up to the right of the police jury, so everyone has the discretion here. we're still providing we're still providing, you know, there's not a lot of jobs, however, I'll make the point and I have in the past if you want an Amazon fulfillment center set up to move to SOA.

Parish, it would be a big investment, but it would also mean a lot of new houses, a lot of new infrastructure, a lot of wear and tear on your roads, suddenly, you know, call it, 1,500 new students in your schools. Provides a completely different tension. What we are providing here is what some may colloquially consider letterbox money. This is, you know, it's not a terrible drain on your infrastructure on your roads on your water system on your electricity. um using domestic products um we are making every concerted effort to use products made in the United States uh for this project, we are not trying to outsource it in order to reduce costs um and I think generally speaking here you know we're trying to be long-term partners here within Doota Parish.

We are trying to employ as many people as possible for this project. While we keep it viable, what's your name? Mike Busada Rada, yeah, and you're in northwest Louisiana. Financial Authority yes,We're looking at putting some money into it, uh, to get through that window, hopefully the state will take over after that's over. okay they will take over when the 305 breaks yeah well our agreement should be if it is in this repair they will repair that one before we take it okay any other discussion Listen and vote the motion passes the Last item authorizes the President to sign a corporate investment agreement with the City of Stonewall to replace the cobs on Baker Road, Mary Street and Brian David Road, for a motion.

I make a motion. Mr. Holmes, second for Mr. Rice. Mr. R. Mr. R, that's the right one, put it there, yeah, Nick. change places with him, they pay him more, without a doubt, uh, any discussion, how many questions, how many covers in total are they talking about, now there are three RADS, but how many covers in those Road, Chang Mr. Phil, can you answer what passes to three. locations, some of them have double barrels in the location, but it's only three locations. What happens to them deteriorates, oh, metal, metal coverage, okay, no discussion, please vote, okay, motion passes motion to adjourn no motion Mo for Mr.

Fuller second for Mr. .Parker we are daily thank you call solid waste committee to order call for any additions or deletions to the agenda hear no guest in public comments it's John Souther here, it's pretty big, it's hard to miss, so oh yeah, yeah Yeah, I don't think it ever appeared. up, go to point d, solid waste items, authorized president, sign an Endeavor corporate agreement with SH Port, green for

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garbage campaign, so move second, have a motion from Mr. Fuller, second from Mr. Parker, any discussion hearings, none, please vote now, the motion passes the motion to adjourn, so second, all those in favor say, "I accept Mr.

Fuller's business service." I'm not ready to leave yet, but no, anyway. I'm going to call everyone for further agenda removal. Any guests in public comments, okay, community. article of service article d u article one authorizes the jury to accept the donation of a vehicle from the Ganado Parish OCS to the community service office, so withdraw the motion of Ms. Simpson second, who seconded Mr. Parker . Any discussion, can you tell us that he would mind telling us a little bit? a little bit about that quickly, I'm not watching football tonight, a lot of the guys can't review it, so when Priscilla came down from the LHC, she contacted them about the van they had there, they don't use it, they don't have their HVAC program anymore when they had it, they hired it, so the truck was just sitting there, so they offered to donate to our weatherization program, but we have to get their approval to do that, okay?

Thank you very much, I appreciate it being long. 'Everyone go watch their football game, try to tell other discussions, please cast your vote, pass the motion, thank you, motion to Jour we Jour, thank you, oh yes, first I commented C, are there any additions or deletions on the agenda?, any guest and public comments should not be personal. elements approving the abandonment of equipment for the highway department and modifying the budget, so pass the second discussion ready to p any discussion. I'll make, I'll make the motion h I said I'll make, I'll make that motion I guess, I think you've got it. a motion in a second oh, I don't think Mr. is Mr.

Fuller, okay, Clark, okay, Miss Simpson is this, uh, a total of three positions, a total of four, four positions, one , well, multiplied by two, well, I thought that was its title, that's two. total for the position What is the total price? Well, actually it's whether they accept everything. I mean, it really depends on where we bring them. Has the range you know for your heavy equipment operator, from whether they choose Insurance. He's looking for 61,000, all of them. road to 87 for equipment operators, about 29,000 to 44,000 uh depending on if they get insurance, you know it's 40,000 to 55,000, so your class driver, if they get insurance 55,000 to 77,000, so it really depends on whether we take them to the entry level position, whichever is the lowest and then whether they choose safe or not, I would say roughly if I had to guess, you know, the people who come in they're probably looking at 150-180k for the four positions, 27mm pair, do you all have Michael? or Philip, either of them has an idea of ​​how long it would take to clean the ditches during our parish life, a relevant assignment.

Ono, yes, this would be keeping our ditches clean, keeping our roads in good repair, you have to start over from the beginning before you can do that. finish I know our trenches are in terrible condition right now, but a few words in the future, if they worked, they would clean all these trenches and then you wouldn't need a trench crew permanently every day. I'm just saying that if it took 3 years to clean all the ditches after that point, we don't need four people there. I'm just saying that once the dishes are clean and when they fall off, when there are leaves there, you won't have to scoop up a bunch of dirt and scoop it out.

I just go there cleaning up the debris that's there, so it's a much quicker job. I don't know if we need to hire four people permanently to do this. Perhaps it would be better to consider outsourcing it or hiring someone. kind of temporary help yes, I was thinking about what you said there, Mr. Parker, but like he said, in the fall the leaves will fall for four people to clean the whole parish, that's G, it will be a great choice, I understand, We could, we could, if we did temporary people, it could be that we could hire more to do it right quickly and then come back to say just two that we would have additional employees to keep, once we have cleaned them, they haven't been cleaned in 50 years, that is That's, that's something you have employees, I mean, ask these companies to hire people and we can't even hire people to wash our own dishes.

I mean, four people we didn't order, we're trying to create four JWs, not 150, four dishes we need. being clean all that's what I get most of my call for those plates come get these files out these plates and when it rains you know it creates trenches and everything else so it's constant work mother that's constant. I'm just throwing out an idea. Outside, I have you, I have you, oh, in my now, in many of my ways, now I'm just leaving. I have a question: trench them, the trenches need to be dug every year because they take off to cut, they just dug.

I am very happy because every year. I had to call Mr Wood and they were told look you all have to come dig the ditches in M ​​Ro, that's another one, it's just certain roads, you're going to have to maintain the ditches because like I said some of them had flooding problems . to wash not just leaves and stuff, it will wash the dirt all night, they will come back Shadow, now you have a fluid problem, okay, we all need the ditches we need, we need HDE, we need them, ask what, uh, what are these ? Are these four employees going to have a discussion?

We are still discussing what these four employees will do. One on a machine, three on a truck, three driving trucks back and forth, or where I didn't get intimately involved with Mr. Norton and probably with Mr. Woodley. most of the staff needed to be used there, but yeah, that would be that you have a piece of equipment on that list that you have there, you have a truck driver, your truck driver, your heavy equipment operators, you have a track over there and also . like your truck that's hauling material and then you know I wouldn't call them workers, we don't have workers, but your flaggers and stuff like that are out there, but yeah, this is also changing the The way we clean the ditches, we already You know currently or in the historical past, we would run a grader down the side of the road with that dirt on the back of that wind, we would be out there removing that wind and digging a proper trench, etc.

So that's what we're trying to move towards, you know, there's tree cutting, you also know keep in mind that's a big obstacle that we have and this is an opportunity to move in a different direction where we can do a proper cleanup. of trenches and trench, you know, Creating trenches in some scenarios, it creates the trench that I add one thing to and by pulling that row out of there, you can pull that row to the side of the road and that helps widen the road, yeah, where that big wind is is where the the ditch should be right, it should be, is your team how to put a ditch in the grave?

Let's, we are sure to try it. We sure don't want to dig a pond and go nowhere, right, Phillip, is it cheaper? hire a man and provide a dump truck to transport this from one place to another or is it cheaper to have the trucks provided by contractors let's provide the truck for the truck is for the truck I say it would be It would be cheaper and more efficient use contract drivers for round trip trucks, probably not, no contract drivers, $5, probably like 75 dollars an hour, how many trucks, how many trucks will we have driving two, so they fill two trucks and they?

I'll be sitting on the spot waiting where they take it to dump it to take it to the spot with two trucks behind, that's the plan and also normally when they see you hauling oh they want that land, yes they want, I mean give. you give it back to the community, you recycle it, you order it all the time, I mean, at $150,000 a year, you know, we don't want the machine sitting there waiting on the trucks half the time. Sure, okay, no more discussions, can you vote? move insurance policy okay insurance committee called to order will always call you for any additions and deletions public comments invited no insurance item number one discuss and take action on self insurance plan second a second, just giving you all an update.

I talked to the insurance, uh. agent today um Blue Cross needed um claims until March United Health couldn't get them to them yet so they don't have a um quote for us um I will receive a quote and it will be valid for probably 30 days so that's something we will reach out to everyone and respond to any questions so everyone is informed. We will have to act quickly and I found out that the library, the child support office, the tourism department and the water department are on this plan, so we will recommend that we send an invoice to those four organizations for the administrative work that we do.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me about it, but there's really nothing to go on. Other than keeping things the same, so I don't even know if we need to vote on anything. I don't believe it. Let's wait for the quote. Yes, just wait for the motion. Robbie. I did it. Yes, I do. for discussion, but there is nothing to vote on yet, any other motion, we have to be a good judge, how are you doing next?