By T. Scott Boatright
After a year of work and progress they feel good about, the Lincoln Parish Police Jury felt that status quo was the way to go as they held officer elections for 2026 during their January meeting inside the Lincoln Parish Courthouse.
With no other nominations made except for returning the elected officers from 2025, meaning no actual voting was necessary, the LPPJ moved to bring back Glenn Scriber as president, Greg “Big Coach” Williams and Michael Sutton as treasurer, in a brief voting process led by Jury Legal Counsel James Buckley.
“Thank you very much for that vote of confidence,” Scriber said as the LPPJ moved out of the elections back into the meeting agenda. “My pledge is just as it always has been, to do the very best I can to my ability to represent Lincoln Parish in a manner which is best for all involved.”
The LPPJ also approved new generator installations from funding derived in the aftermath of 2021’s Hurricane Ida, which became the second-most damaging and intense tropical storm to make landfall in Louisiana on record, tying with 2020’s Hurricane Laura and the 1856 Last Island hurricane as the strongest on record to hit Louisiana.
That 90/10 (federal funding/parish funding) split received a low bid of $1,096,500 million from Albritton’s Service Company to start installing generators at Fellowship Water System, Grambling City Hall, Mr. Zion Water System, the Police Jury’s off-road lift station, Courthouse Annex, and the North Louisiana Exposition Center, among others.
“The city of Simsboro has three new sewer lift stations and a new water well, Lincoln Parish Waterworks District 3 has an office and airport well and Longstraw Water Well,” said Parish Homeland Security Director Kip Franklin. “That’s what’s being awarded.”
Also approved was authorization to advertise for bids for new C&D Cell B construction at the Lincoln Parish Landfill.
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of years, anyway,” said Parish Administrator Courtney Hall. We had our permit renewed. That was the first step and we got over that last summer. Now that the permit’s in place, the engineers have been doing the design work on what they call Cell B. We’re actually going to build two cells, but it’s going to be in phases. Phase B will be the new cell after we close the existing cell and we’ll come back later and get permission to accept bids on Cell C.”
The LPPJ also authorized the signing of a certificate of substantial completion for the Pea Ridge Road Box Culvert Project.
“OK, the project is basically complete,” Hall said. “We’re still waiting on some technicalities. It has to be load-rated.”
Assistant Parish Administrator Kevin Klepzig said he expects to receive that paperwork (today).
“Once it’s load-rated and we get that to the engineer, he’s got to submit that with a set of digital plans and some other documentation to (The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development) can get it open.
“I know it’s been kind of a sore spot with the people up there because they’ve been saying, “The bridge is completed. Why can’t you open it.” But until all these things are taken care of we can’t do that. What we’re doing tonight is a formality that starts the 45-day period for the contractors to receive money.”
During a single vote, the LPPJ also approved the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory 2025 Amended and 2026 Proposed Budgets and voted to relocate a polling place from the Greenwood Club House to Vienna Town Hall.
“That’s an advantage because the Secretary of State likes the use of governmental facilities if they’re available (for voting), rather than private locations which have to be paid for use of those facilities” Hall said. “I’ve checked with the Secretary of State’s Office, the (parish) Clerk of Court and the (parish) Registrar (of Voters), and there is room in Vienna to accommodate another voting machine.”
The LPPJ also made three appointments during Tuesday’s meeting — Terry Havins to Waterworks District 2 for a five-year term, Dr. Tiffany Bates to the Northeast Delta Human Services Authority for a five-year term, and Jesse Davis to Lincoln Parish Fire Protection District 1 representing Ward 1 for a two-year term to fulfill the remaining two years left on the term of Richard Aillet, who is moving out of the parish.
