Harlan Kirgan
Gravel will do just fine for some parish roads and the Smooth Ride Home Program’s 2 percent sales tax will pay, but not if it is just for a couple of loads of gravel.
That was the decision from Wednesday’s St. Landry Parish Council meeting in Opelousas.
Garrett Duplechain, legal counsel, had been asked to review the wording of the Smooth Ride Home Ordinance to see if the program covers gravel roads.
Duplechain said there is not distinction made between gravel and paved roads.
The wording in the bond proposition is the tax money be used “... exclusive for constructing, improving roads, bridges and related drainage.”
Councilman Timmy LeJeune wanted the legal counsel to make clear whether the tax money is for maintenance or construction.
“I think the intent of this tax was not to use it just to spread rock,” he said.
“I think the intent was to construct gravel roads that would remain as gravel roads,” he added.
Councilman Harold Taylor said the Council may amend the ordinance to make it more specific, if needed.
LeJeune said there are gravel roads that never would be blacktopped, but they need to be reconstructed.
Parish President Bill Fontenot agreed that the Smooth Ride Home program is not meant for maintenance, but to improve paved and gravel roads.
“We knew we weren’t going to be able to pave 100 percent of 800 miles with the tax we had,” Fontenot said.
Since the tax went into effect in 2014, more than 300 miles of parish roads have been repaved.
In other business, Fontenot said dogs are under quarantine at the parish animal shelter due to a distemper outbreak.
The disease was discovered in dogs shipped from the shelter to Florida, he said.
“Canine distemper is a contagious and serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems of puppies and dogs,” according to the American Veterinary Medical Association website.
The shelter remains open to other animals, but dogs are not being accepted except if they are loose and aggressive, Fontenot said.