When will your parish road get paved?

It is almost becoming a ritual that St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot explains the Smooth Ride Home Program to a resident at a Parish Council meeting.
It happened again at the Wednesday meeting and it was something of a repeat of what he said at a May meeting about Prayer House Road near Washington.
Tara Mire, of Prayer House Road, returned to the Council to complain about the condition of the road she lives on and questioned when it would be paved.
“I guess our main concern is with the Smooth Ride Home project. We were told it was going to get paved and each different resident has a different understanding ...” she said.
At the May meeting, Fontenot said he felt like he is wearing his statement out, but launched back into it.
Mire said she had made a public records request for Smooth Ride Home documents that would give a date for when Prayer House Road would be paved.
Fontenot said, “As far as records go, you can see all of the records we have. Then you will find no record that has a date because even in state or federal work we can only give you a timeline based on the resources and how these conditions are set up for funding,” he said.
“Before I arrived here, St. Landry Parish never had a road program. So, I will be telling you today without that road program you will never have a paved road ...” he said.
Fontenot said Prayer House Road will be paved because it connects two highways and is likely to see development.
“The intent of the program is to pave eventually all of the roads, ... I never said we were going to do a certain road by a certain time,” he said.
The initial bond issue for the program was $66 million and by 2028, the end of the 15-year bond, about $75 million in work will have been completed, he said.
In May, Fontenot said Prayer House Road is about 4.5 miles long and 1.5 miles of it has been paved at a cost of about $200,000 a mile. The rest of the road will cost about $300,000 a mile to pave because it is hilly with drainage issues, he said.
In 2013, Rural St. Landry Parish voters approved a 2 percent, 15-year sales tax for road improvement. Tax collections began in 2014 and road work began in 2015.
There are about 800 miles of road in the parish.
About 300 miles of road will be paved by the spring of 2018, he said.
Fontenot said Prayer House Road may get additional paving in a fourth phase of work.
“There are many roads that still need to be worked on,” he said.