By T. Scott Boatright
Budgeting was a primary order of business Tuesday night as the Lincoln Parish Police Jury held its October meeting at the Lincoln Parish Courthouse.
One of those orders of business saw the LPPJ approve both the Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau’s 2024 Amended and 2025 Proposed Budgets.
The amended 2024 budget decreased from a projected $1,371,860 to $1,309,481 while the projected budget for 2025 is $1,326,902.
CVB President and CEO Amanda Carrier said personnel expenses were bumped down for the 2024 budget.
“We hired a Director of Destination Sales a little later in the year, so we saved a little there,” Carrier said. “But that goes into a full year 2025 as well as adding another person for community help.”
The LPPJ also considered and accepted proposed 2025 budgets for parish agencies that were introduced during its September meeting.
Those budget amounts approved during Thursday’s meeting that will come from the LPPJ’s general funds are as follows:
- Bayou Lake D’Arbonne Commission, $1,800, no change
- Sparta Groundwater Commission, $2,500, no change
- Council on Aging, $5,000, no change
- Lincoln Total Community Action, $10,000, an increase of $2,000
- Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, $25,000, no change
- Parish IT Department, $20,000, no change
- Lincoln Parish GIS, $25,000, no change
- Lincoln Parish Registrar of Voters, $51,000, no change
- Lincoln Parish Coroner, $67,804.68, no change
- Third Judicial District Court, $140,739, no charge
- Lincoln Parish District Attorney’s Office, $300,000, no change
Budget amounts approved during Thursday’s meeting that will come from other LPPJ funds are as follows:
- North Delta Human Services Authority, $5,000, no change
- Keep Lincoln Parish Beautiful, $7,500, no change
- Lincoln Parish Health Unit, $18,500, no change
In other business, the LPPJ also authorized advertising for bids for one year’s worth of gas/diesel, gravel and culvert materials as well as six months work of maintenance hot mix.
“We’re doing it that way because the cost of hot mix is so volatile,” said Parish Administrator Courtney Hall. “This isn’t the hot mix used to overlay roadways, it’s for maintenance work.”
Also approved was the abandonment of Cantrell Road in Choudrant at the request of Dennis Cantrell, who asked the parish to give up the road so that he and a neighbor, the only ones that use the road, can maintain it without the use of pesticides which in the past have leached into a pond on Cantrell’s property and caused fish kills, as well as a portion of Liggin’ Bluff Road.
Jurors also approved preliminary plats for the proposed Red Haven Ridge, Unit 2 located south of Dubach and the proposed Pylant Road Subdivision.
Also approved was the authorization of a consulting services contract with Hunt. Guillot and Associates for long range parish transportation planning as well as authorization of a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Lincoln Health Foundation and the City of Ruston for a Lincoln Parish Healthcare study.
The LPPJ also appointed members for the Lincoln Parish Industrial Board, which the Jury wants to revive after decades of dormancy.
Appointees approved Tuesday night for the revived board were:
- Lucius McGehee of Argent for financing knowledge
- Quanisha Armstrong, Assc. VP for Finance at Grambling State University
- Melanie Koskie, Marketing
- Jay Guillot of HGA for engineering
- Sid Moller, a retired lawyer for legal needs
- Mike Kilgore for construction knowledge
- Dud Holland for real estate knowledge
The LPPJ also voted to reappoint Bill Davis to the Lincoln Parish Communications District for a four-year term and approved applying for off system Bridge Program annual certification from the state of Louisiana.
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