LaSalle Parish Police Jurors spent the majority of their monthly meeting held Monday night, October 9, revisiting a limb and brush pickup policy they recently adopted.

Back in August, the Jury adopted a revised cleanup policy that noted the Jury’s boom truck would only pick up limbs and brush following a storm related event.

At the meeting last week, Ward 5 Juror June Fowler had the item placed back on the agenda, requesting his fellow jurors consider modifying the policy after he had received several calls from constituents.

“I’ve gotten several calls on not picking up limbs and I’ve tried to explain to them that we don’t want to run the boom truck everyday as it’s taking away men, time and it’s expensive,” Fowler said. “I just want to put this (modification to the policy) out and see how you (jurors) feel about it. It’s strictly up to you but I feel as though we need to offer the service from time to time, we just can’t do it on a daily or weekly basis.”

The modifications to the policy allow the Jury to pick up limbs and brush, not limited to storm related events, however, there were several limitations to the service.

Limitations included everything from property owners placing limbs beside the road, to all limbs must be cut no more than eight inches in diameter and cannot be over six feet in length, to any requests will be placed on a list and will be picked up when the crews are not working on other priority projects, just to name a few.

“We are not going to run the boom truck every day,” Fowler said explaining the proposed modifications. “The Superintendent will limit limb pickups to those times when weather will not permit work on roads or other high priority projects.”

Ward 8 Juror Steve Thomas asked that a cost analysis be performed to see if running the truck with three men is more expensive or cheaper than paying the additional cost incurred when residents take the limbs and brush to the transfer station at the old landfill, which is also costing the Jury every time a resident brings them out there.

Fowler explained that when the Jury picks up limbs, they do not take them to the transfer station but rather dump them in the Jury’s burn pit and the pile is set on fire as needed (when a burn ban is not in place).

The cost when the Jury picks up limbs would be the expenses related to salaries of the three men, truck expenses such as fuel and insurance, etc., while the Jury has to pay on average $200 for ever four tons deposited at the transfer station.

For Ward 3 Juror Tim Lasiter, the main is issue with him is limbs left by residents in ditches that is costing the money in road repairs.

“If we don’t have drainage on our roads you don’t have a road,” he said. “I fight that hard all over my ward and we are continually trying to fight it.”

He continued to note that whether the limbs are taken to the transfer station or the burn pit, they need to be removed from the ditches.

“I don’t really care what we do with the limbs but I don’t want to waste money cleaning ditches out,” Lasiter said. “There’s no telling how much money I’ve spent cleaning ditches out this year.”

Thomas noted that the issue is costing the Jury money whether residents take the limbs to the transfer station themselves or if the Jury picks them up.

“It’s going to chew into our budget in our garbage fund dramatically,” he said. “We’re already behind the eight-ball in the garbage fund.”

Ward 6 Juror Jack Zeagler reminded the Jury that they have already voted on this issue and to change it would put the Jury back into the limb hauling business.

“If you open this back up, they’re going to pile up and it’s going to be mountains of it,” he said. “It’s going to be overwhelming. Then you’re going to be constantly called and it’s going to be a constant aggravation. I say stay with (picking up limbs when it’s) storm related.”

Jury Superintendent Clifford Boyd noted that during his many years of working for the Jury they have always picked up limbs from storm damage of any kind.

“But here lately, we’re seeing people cut up trees and haul them 100 yards to the road so the Jury will pick them up,” he said. “We’ve always went out into the night and got trees off the road and washouts, things of that nature or picked up limbs or a tree in a ditch. That was never the issue. But it got out of hand when people got a contractor to cut their limbs and they would save a little money to get the parish to pick them up.”

Ultimately, after the long discussion, the Jury decided to keep the policy as adopted in June and not approve any of the modifications that were proposed.

In other business, the Jury voted to: -take a portion of Joseph Loop in Ward 7 out of the Jury Road System.

-transferred $43,500.00 from the General Fund to the Criminal Court Fund.

-adopted Resolution #2023-012, the annual certification compliance for participation in the federal Off-System Bridge Replacement Program.

-adopted Ordinance #891 – the Federal Off-System Bridge Program.

-adopted Resolution #2023-013, Evidencing Public Approval of Bonds.

-accepted the resignation of Shonda Price from the Summerville-Rosefield Fire District effective September 22, 2023.

-appoint John A. Gresham, Jr. to fill the un-expired term of Shonda Price on the Summerville-Rosefield Fire District with the term expiring July 2024.

-and to ratify the awarding of a bid for roll off boxes.