Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot indicated he is ready to end city crews picking up curbside waste.
At a meeting Thursday to begin setting the agenda for Tuesday’s city meeting, Fontenot said he wants to speak about residential and commercial waste collection in the city and the parish.
“This is a topic that has been discussed many times. There is an 0.8% sales tax that is collected parishwide to fund solid waste operations,” he said.
The tax pays for the parish landfill and the contract for waste pickup. In 2019, the tax raised $9.8 million. The tax collections through October this year totaled $8.8 million.
“We’ve been having issues with that for quite a long time,” Fontenot said about the collection of large items left on the side or roads.
“We’ve had the executive director, Richard LeBouef, sit here and promise some things that we still haven’t seen come through,” he said.
Fontenot said this year has been difficult with hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“But they are still collecting their taxes and they are probably collecting more than ever because sales taxes are the highest they’ve ever been in the parish. I don’t think the city of Eunice and the residents are getting their fair share,” he said.
“It is time the city of Eunice of stop picking up trash because we are not the trash collector in the parish,” he said.
Residents are used to the city picking up curbside waste, but Fontenot said that is not the city’s responsibility.
“We’d like to quit picking up at the end of the year,” he said.
Also at the Thursday’s agenda-setting meeting:
— Ginny Moody, city clerk, said property tax information is late from the parish assessor’s office. She will ask the Board of Aldermen to approve a Feb. 1 due date on property taxes.
— Four properties are scheduled for hearings that may lead to condemnation. The properties are 331 Pierotti St., 600 E. Peach Ave., 610 E. Peach Ave., and 330 E. Ave.
— There will be reminder about the Eunice Food Bank Food Drive from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.
Alderwoman Connie Thibdeaux asked Fire Chief Michael Arnold and Police Chief Randy Fontenot about their departments’ COVID-19 protocol.
Arnold said if a person is positive for the virus they are told to go home until they are symptom-free for 10 days. The buidling the work in will be sanitized.
The police chief said if one of his employees test positive they are told to stay home until a doctor clears them to come back to work. Two or three employees have tested positive, but it is believed they contracted the virus outside the office, he said.
The Board of Aldermen meeting is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chambers on the second floor of the Eunice Municipal Complex, 300 S. 2nd St.
