Agenda light for new Board members

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The agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, as of Thursday, was fairly light for two new members.
Chad Andrepont, Ward 1, and Ernest Blanchard, Ward 3, attended their first agenda meeting Thursday as aldermen.
Andrepont, a Eunice High School basketball coach, offered his apology in advance for not attending the Tuesday meeting. A game scheduled long before he was elected conflicts with the meeting.
Andrepont said he would be at subsequent meetings.
City officials also plan to hold a formal inauguration at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Liberty Theater.
A public hearing is scheduled at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday before the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.
The hearing is on an amendment to a ordinance on trash fires.
The amendment reads:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to start or set any trash fire or burn paper, grass, trash or debris within the municipality limits other than that of natural wood which has been prepared for use as firewood. Firewood shall only be burned while contained within an approved fire container and must remain a minimum of ten (10) feet from any structure. Fire utilized for the cooking of food shall also be approved but shall be limited to the use of designated cooking appliances such as a bar-b-que pits, smokers, etc. Whoever starts or sets a trash fire within the municipal limits shall be fined not more than two hundred dollars ($200.00), or shall be confined for not more than thirty (30) days, or both, for the first offense, with an additional one Hundred dollars ($100.00) and/or an additional fifteen days for each subsequent offense.”
Also on the agenda is the mayor’s appointment of city clerk and tax collector, treasurer, auditor, city attorney and city engineering firm. The appointments are for four-year terms.
The Board is to appoint a mayor pro-tempore.
There will also be an appointment of a director and alternate director to the Louisiana Municipal Gas Authority Board.
The agenda also includes show cause hearings for 411 S. 10 St.; 1211 Gregg St.; and 320 Jelks St.
Bill Thompson, code enforcement officer, said the 411 S. 10th St. property is in the process of being sold and, while it will be discussed, it will be removed from the agenda.
A request for a show cause hearing is scheduled for 620 Bernice St.
The agenda no longer includes the owners of the properties under consideration for city action.
Mayor Scott Fontenot added the lease of about 15 acres off Fruge Street to Kay Radio to the agenda. The proposal is to lease the property for a communication tower that would be used by city police, firefighters, city marshal and State Police.
The lease would be for $3,000 a month for 30 years.
Fontenot said the property appraised at $96,000.
The lease would include Kay Radio maintaining the property, he said.
City police often are unable to communicate with one another on their radios, he said.
The mayor called it a very serious issue.