By T. Scott Boatright
Putting people in needed spaces and places as well as paving the way for needed paperwork played a primary role during Tuesday night’s Lincoln Parish Police Jury meeting at the Lincoln Parish Courthouse.
The people part of that equation came with the LPPJ appointing people to serve on boards of parish entities it oversees.
In making that happen, the Police Jury appoint Thomas Patton to to represent the Village of Choudrant on the North Louisiana Exhibition Center Board, filing the unexpired term of Dawn Moore and also named Amanda Norris to an open position on the Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control to fill the unexpired term of Amy Miller.
Norris’ current term will expire on Dec. 8 of 2025 while Patton is slated to serve on the Exhibition Center Board through June 14 of 2026.
The LPPJ also unanimously passed four resolutions during the meeting, beginning with authorizing Jury President Glen Scriber to sign applications with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for transportation grants and to execute necessary certifications and assurances for FTA programs such as the H.E.L.P. Agency.
“What this resolution basically does is assist the H.E.L.P. Agency in obtaining funding from DOTD for its transportation program,” Parish Administrator Courtney Hall told the Jurors.
A second resolution passed during the meeting authorized H.E.L.P. Director Ronnie Dowling to execute a Fiscal Year 2024 subgrant with the Louisiana Workforce Commission and to administer funds related to that matter.
“This resolution allows the H.E.L.P. Agency to help low-income individuals to become or remain self-sufficient through assistance with transportation, housing, energy costs and emergency food and shelter,” Hall said,
The third resolution authorizes Scriber to execute a multi-jurisdictional consortium agreement for carrying out programs and activities authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
After being passed, that resolution will allow Scriber to vote to carry out initiatives and programs put together by a 10-parish workforce commission of which Lincoln Parish is a member.
The last resolution passed by the LPPJ Thursday night authorized Scriber to execute a Memorandum of Understanding between the Louisiana DOTD and the LPPJ for transportation plan development.
“This is something we’re kind of a guinea pig for,” Hall said. “We were informed about a pilot transportation planning group and are fortunate to be part of it. We’re one of only three rural parishes picked for this program.
“The program has created a model for all rural parishes to use in developing their model for long-term transportation needs. They’ve engaged an engineer who will be working with myself mainly and some others and once we get our plan developed, DOTD is going to want feedback from us on our feelings before offering this plan to other parishes .
“This is the first step — the very beginning. This thing is going to take like a year and a half before we come back with a plan. But this Memorandum of Understanding is the first step to getting this thing kicked off, and we’ll receive regular reports in the future about it.”
