Some members of the Acadia Parish Police Jury are not happy with the parish’s mosquito control company and may be looking to make a change.
At their first meeting in nearly two months Tuesday night, committee members discussed the possibility of getting out of the current contract with Mosquito Control Services, LLC, and seeking requests for proposals and qualifications from other companies.
Mosquito Control Services is still in the first year of a four-year pact with the police jury, renewed in mid-2019.
Police Jury President Chance Henry explained that he was at that meeting and that he had asked attorney Glen Howie how “that” jury could enter into a contract that carried over into the “next jury’s” term.
Seven of the eight members of the jury that approved the contract with MCS were replaced in the October elections that year.
“We have to see what options are on the table,” Henry said, “whether we’d have to buy out the remainder of the contract or what.”
Henry pointed out that the parish sales tax for mosquito control generates about $900,000 annually. The cost for services runs in the area of $750,000 a year.
“The extra is kept in reserved and pulled out if we have a mild winter —like we just had — and there’s a need for more spraying, or if there’s something like a hurricane,” Henry explained.
The possibility of aerial spraying was mentioned.
“We just want dead mosquitoes,” said Gordon “G-Ray” Morgan, committee chairman. “When people pulled that lever to vote for this tax, they saw dead mosquitoes, and right now it’s just not working.”
Jurors acknowledged that the number of crawfish farms in Acadia Parish and the ban on spraying in the immediate vicinity of those farms is a problem in controlling the pests.
“You can’t throw a rock without it landing in a crawfish pond,” said Henry.
The committee instructed Howie to look into the contract with MCS and to come back with options for the jury to consider.
Meanwhile, the full jury on May 12 will consider seeking RFPs (requests for proposals) and RFQs (requests for qualifications) for a possible new contractor.
“You don’t have to accept any of the proposals, you can reject them all,” Howie explained.
In other action, the jury’s Airport Committee, after months of deliberations, adopted a standard lease for hangar space at LeGros Memorial Airport.
The four-year lease proposal will be presented to the full jury for final adoption on Tuesday.
Also concerning the airport, Howie was authorized to move forward in seeking a declaratory judgment in the matter of a cement slab that was poured at the airport an later abandoned by its owner.
The Legislative Committee also will recommend that the jury approve the holding of a special election on Dec. 5 for the renewal of a 7.97-mill property tax in support of Egan Drainage District No. 1
