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THE ST. FRANCISVILLE
SERVING THE PARISHES OF EAST FELICIANA, WEST FELICIANA AND ST. HELENA THEADVOCATE.COM
1st Year, No. 18
Resident complains about road work quality
THURSDAY
FEBRUARY 12, 2015 H $1.00
Clinton
carnival
A troop of four-wheelers passes through the crowd Saturday at the end of the Clinton Mardi Gras Parade.
BY STEPHANIE WARREN
swarren@theadvocate.com
St. Helena Parish officials are looking into a complaint from a resident who says he does not believe enough asphalt was used to pave the road in front of his church, Rocky Hill AME Church. St. Helena resident Larry Freeman voiced his fury to the St. Helena Parish Police Jury during a Jan. 27 meeting, requesting that it look into the recent road improvement project that included paving Rocky Hill Road in Greensburg. Freeman told the jury that when the road was St. Helena paved, he does not believe the asphalt company, Diamond B Construction Company, laid enough asphalt, making the road much smaller. But parish officials said the road appears to be the same size as before. Freeman said he does not want the taxpayers to pay for something that they are not getting. Freeman asked the jury if they would get someone from the engineering company that was hired, Professional Engineering Consultants of Baton Rouge, to find out if the parish is getting the right tonnage of asphalt. Juror Warren McCray said he contacted PEC and voiced his concerns and requested that someone from their company go out and figure out exactly how many tons of asphalt it took to pave the roads. “Once they measure and give me a figure, I can then go ask another engineer if the numbers are correct and, if they are not, then we have a problem,” Warren said. “If the numbers do not add up, then we will go from there.” Police Jury President Theo McCray said Rocky Hill Road was a gravel road before it was paved with asphalt and that may be why the road appears smaller to Freeman. Crumbling roads are a major problem the St. Helena Parish Police Jury has been trying to solve for years. In January 2013, jury members were trying to figure out how they were going to come up with the money to pay for repairs. They considered at that time rededicating money from a parish property tax and also pulling money from the solid waste funds for the road project, Juror Major Coleman said. The discussion came after voters in May 2013 approved the rededication of a 5-mill property tax that had funded a now-defunct parish health unit and one-half of 1 percent of a 1-cent sales tax that funds the parish’s solid waste collection and disposal services. That provided about $3 million dollars to repair about 50 miles of dilapidated roads, jurors said.
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Advocate staff photos by ANGELA MAJOR
A parade-goer catches beads Saturday during the Clinton Mardi Gras Parade. Clinton residents raise their arms to catch beads as floats pass.
MARDI GRAS 2015
More photos online
THEADVOCATE.COM A child rides a horse Saturday during the morning Clinton Mardi Gras Parade.
Dancers perform for the crowd and judges Saturday during the Clinton Mardi Gras Parade.
Board negotiates old high school demolition BY HOWARD ARCENEAUX
West Feliciana
ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish School Board agreed at its January meeting to begin negotiations with an environmental consulting firm for the demolition of the old St. Francisville High School on Pecan Grove Road. Jim Ferguson, director of public works for the parish, is assisting the School Board
with contract negotiations with the firm, Terracon, which has offices in Baton Rouge and across the country. Ferguson said he would like to have the pact finalized and recommend to proceed at the next board meeting on Feb. 26. Ferguson estimated a bestcase scenario would be for the project to be completed within
Special to The Advocate
a year. “The long-term benefit for the parish is getting the property back into commerce and providing greatly needed housing opportunities for more families that would like to live in our great community,” Ferguson said. Terracon will provide a total project cost to clear the site, and if given the go-ahead by the board, would manage the entire project, he said.
“I believe the next step will be in the next few months for all stakeholders to get together and determine what the property shall be zoned and have the school board apply for a zoning map amendment to the town. With the buildings demolished, site environmentally clean, and desirable zoning in place, the school board can put out a Request For Proposal to developers to purchase the site with all of the intangibles
removed,” Ferguson added. The project includes the demolition and removal of the old Pecan Grove site including buildings and slabs. The project summary indicates the buildings, approximately 40,000 square feet, are roughly 40 years old and need to be demolished and cleared for future commercial development. Included in the remediation äSee DEMOLITION, page 2G
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