By T. Scott Boatright
Landfill upgrades and an impending decision on levying millage rates were key orders of business Tuesday evening as the Lincoln Parish Police Jury held its July meeting at the Lincoln Parish Courthouse.
As far as the Lincoln Parish Landfill, jurors heard an update of the Riley Company for permits involving upgrades to the facility.
An air curtain destructor (ACD), also known as an air curtain burner or incinerator, uses a fan and ventilation system to create a fast-moving curtain of air across a burn pit, trench, or box.
“The new air curtain destructor was installed at the landfill a couple of weeks ago,” Myers said. “The manufacturer was on site for installation and to train the staff. And then we basically had to shut it all down for the (Department of Environmental Equality) to be able to come out and do their inspection.
“That inspection happened last week, on July 2. The DEQ did a walk-through of the landfill and of the air curtain destructor and were satisfied with what they saw, so we anticipate receiving a letter within the next week or so authorizing the Jury to begin operation of that destructor.”
Myers said the other thing his company has been working on is permitting C&D (construction and demolition) cells to be used to bury construction refuse.
“The permit application was submitted on May 22 of this year,” Myers said. “It was 432 pages of documents — information that was sent to the DEQ. There’s a lot to look at in all of that. Both areas (being requested for permits) were turned in with the idea that only one area would be built at a time as needed, but we estimate that based on your current capacity or rate that you bring in C&D, this will give you capacity for about 40 years for C&D disposal if you use both of those areas.”
Myers said the permits last 10 years but once established, Myers told jurors renewals are a significantly simpler process.
In other business, the LPPJ scheduled a public hearing for 7 p.m. Aug. 13 to consider levying additional or increased millage rates without further voter approval or adopting the adjusted millages rates after reassessment and rolling forward to rates not exceeding the prior year’s maximum.
“This is something we do every reassessment year,” Parish Administrator Courtney Hall told the Jury. “This is a year that all property in Lincoln Parish is reassessed for value. What happens then is if there’s a difference from the previous year’s value, and it’s significant enough, you have to by law roll your existing millages back to bring in the same amount of money you brought in (that previous year), and you have the option as a Jury to roll forward to the maximum back up to where you were.”
That public hearing is only the initial step in the process.
During the meeting, the LPPJ also authorized modifications to a current intergovernmental agreement with the Lincoln Parish Coroner’s Office for reimbursement costs for general liability insurance and also authorized an agreement with the University of Louisiana at Monroe for hosting of a Mesonet Weather Station on parish property and authorized the parish administrator to execute that agreement.
The National Mesonet is a multi-functional, multi-faceted observational weather “network of networks” that delivers critical information required for improved weather prediction and warnings across the United States.
Mesonet weather stations measure and collect data that are deemed important to the purpose of the network. Consequently, each network of weather stations may measure different meteorological parameters.
The following are some common parameters that many mesonet stations measure things like air temperature, barometric pressure, rainfall amounts, relative humidity, soil moisture, soil temperature, solar radiation, wind direction and wind speeds.
In other orders of business, the LPPJ approved John Sutton to fill the unexpired term of Don Hogan to the Greater Ward One Waterworks District through Dec. 31, 2025. It also granted travel authorization for parish administrators to travel to Lafayette for a conference from July 31 – Aug. 2 and for Highway Department employees for Diesel Technician Training that will be held in Dallas from Aug, 19-23.
