The Acadia Parish Road Department is returning to a four-day, 10-hour-a-day work week schedule.
The decision to return to that schedule was voted on at the April 9 Acadia Parish Police Jury meeting.
District 8 Police Juror Troy Lantz made the motion to return to the four-day week, seconded by District 7 Police Juror Pat Daigle.
Only District 4 Police Juror Gordon “G-Ray” Morgan voted against the move.
Prior to meeting, moving back to a four day work week from the current five-day week was discussed during the Personnel Committee meeting on April 2.
The committee is comprised of Jurors Kirk Guidry, chairman, District 3 Juror Jeff Morgan and Lantz and Bryan Borill, Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer. Gordon Morgan, not a member of the committee, was the only juror to talk against returning to the four-day schedule.
The road department schedule was last changed in March of 2021. At that time, the road crew had been working four-day weeks since 2008. In 2021, the jury voted 5-2 to return to the five-day week.
Before voting on the agenda item, the decision was discussed for about 15 minutes with 15 to 20 road department workers in attendance.
Daigle asked if the return to the schedule would be on a trial basis.
Police Jury President and District 5 Police Juror Beau Petitjean said, “Yes. So like we talked in committee, the goal for the parish and for this decision is to increase production and be more cost effective for the parish and, yes, as a juror, as a group, I think we’ve decided, or all of us are on the same page that if it doesn’t work, we can make changes back ... The big thing is to be more productive and more cost effective and that’s the way we explained it.
“Yes, it can be on a pilot program.”
Morgan asked for someone to explain how the program was going to work to be more cost effective.
Corey Vincent, road manager, said, “There are things that we don’t know that are going to happen on the job,” Vincent said. “A hose can bust on an excavator. A hose can bust on anything, but, what the state stuff says is, it’s a whole day of no travel on the equipment, so you’re doing the same amount of hours.
“Your 40 hours is done in a four-day work week, and that fifth day, there’s nothing done. I know what you would say. It’s still 40 hours. Yes, it still is 40 hours, but you’re there longer per day. So, no matter how you look at it, it’s less traveling back and forth.”
Morgan said that in the past, road department equipment was left near work locations after arrangements were made with area farmers.
Vincent said that since he has been with the road department, three windows have been shot out on parked equipment, and tires have also been slashed on equipment.
Vincent also said such incidents only started to happen recently since then, equipment was moved back to the yard at the end of a workday to save money on replacing windows and tires, which on a grader, can cost $4,000 each.
Borill also said tires have been shot out on equipment, and a battery was also stolen.
“I’m just going on what I know, for a fact, has happened since I’ve been here,” Vincent said. “If y’all want to leave it (equipment) there, I’m more than happy to leave it there. I just don’t want it said that, ‘Well, that’s Corey’s decision’ because I made the decision to get it off the road because we changed three windows.”