Have you heard the one about the politician whose promises are as abundant as the bad roads in Natchitoches Parish? The latest one to hit facebook is that John Salter, at a private meeting of a select group, has promised the good folks on Pardee Road that he is going pave their road the first day he’s in office. As election day draws closer, I can’t help but wonder how many other private meetings and empty promises have been made.
There are some very important FACTS that voters need to keep in mind:
1. The last Parish Council meeting before election day is this coming Monday, October 19th. The Parish will be presenting its 2016 budget and, based on the figures provided by the Tax Assessor’s office at the September meeting, the Parish is projected to receive about the same amount of money for Road District 40 as what it received in 2015.
2. Another source of revenue for the Hwy. Dept. is surplus from the Solid Waste sales tax. That surplus dwindles with each dump site that gets converted to a manned-site, which is what the sales tax is intended for.
3. All of the FEMA reimbursements for hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been paid to the Parish. A large chunk of it (almost $900k) was spent by the Police Jury in November, 2012, under the leadership of John Salter just prior to the new form of government taking over.
Before going out to vote, I greatly encourage everyone to educate themselves on how the Parish Hwy. Dept. is funded and to put pen-to-paper to see just how unrealistic all of these “pie-in-the-sky” promises are. John Salter is preying on the fears and frustrations of the residents of this Parish and I sincerely hope that we are not as gullible as he clearly thinks we are.
If John Salter has promised to overlay or pave your road in exchange for your vote please attend the Council meeting on Monday and ask him to put it on the record. You will likely find that he has made the same promise to the residents of every other bad road in the Parish. If you choose not to ask him to put it on the record, you will have no one but yourself to blame when you are faced with the reality that you were the butt-end of a really bad joke.
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” Albert Einstein
You seem to know where to go to get all the facts. But you can’t seem to understand those said facts. You should look back over the last four years at where the parish was and where it is now. Then go back 20 years and see where it was and where it ended with the jury running things. On YOUR site facts have been given and when those facts don’t support your opinion that person gets the boot, Sorry John but when you state facts it’s not mudslinging as YOU put it. And one fact is things are getting better and have been for the last four years. I for one don’t think we need a leadership change at this point. Has it been slow? Yes but you can’t fix decades of bad government in four years.
First of all, as the person that runs the largest page about the roads of Natchitoches Parish, this is the first I have heard of this “supposed” promise. I have talked to John and Rick and I know how the roads are Funded and I also know that any work to get them up to specs will be a slow one without any money.
Natchitoches Parish Residents are not dumb. They know that no one, including John and Rick could promise that their road would be paved the first day. Both John Salter and Rick Nowlin know that it will be a challenge to do. The question for Natchitoches Parish voters is to see who is the man that can do the job.
I for one am tired of the mudslinging by some on this issue, and that it only ones that are doing it are doing it to John. We have 2 men that both say they have a direction for this parish, it is now up to the voters of this parish to decide who they think that will be.
Also, let me clarify the rest of what you said while I am here.
1. Yes, the Parish Budget is being presented Monday Night. And yes, current projections are there will be about the same amount of Taxes brought in as this year
2. The solid waste tax (1 cent sales tax) was presented to the voters years ago as a dual tax. The people were told that it would first go to solid waste then to the roads. This is while the solid waste collection in the parish was done in-house. it was only costing about half of what they were bringing in. Shortly after it was passed, a decision was made to contract it out. The parish got rid of all its equipment to do it themselves, so now we are unable to do it even if we wanted to. We are at the mercy of the lowest bidder who is not stupid and knows how much the tax brings in and winds up being the low bidder and therefore the one who is taking care of the contract. It makes no bearing on making a site manned or not. In fact, it is now more inconvenient than ever to haul off trash for parish residents. The hours that the sites are open are not convenient to the working man or woman, but it is what the contract the parish signed up to do so that is what we are doing.
3. Here we go again, another shot at the last year of the Police Jury form of government. The Parish was paid funds to fix the roads, NOT have them sit in a bank account for the current administration which is what I think people are suggesting when they say that. The money was there to do something and the former jurors of this parish did it, and did not spend the whole bank account before leaving office as some would have you believe they did. Its in the audits.. I have looked.. In fact, looking at the books, other than a few overruns at the Office of Community Services at the time, the budgets were for the most part “Balanced” as some like to say. Of course there is the problem of the inmate care at the dentition center, but that was a court decision. One that even the current administration has not cleared up yet.
Spreading rumors is nothing but a political ploy right before an election, All along I have tried to keep the politics and rumors out of it and stick to facts. Its not a republican or democrat issue, it shouldn’t be a Police Jury vs Home Rule Charter issue, it is how are we going to fix the problem we have now issue. From the get go, all I have heard is “the police jury put us in this mess” answer. I could care less how we got here, how are we going to fix it. I have talked to both candidates and have put up any facts that can be proven on my Fix the Roads Page. I have had to get rid of some people because they just want to make claims without being able to back it up and mudsling on it. I will not allow mudslinging on my page on Facebook, but for some reason, other pages seem to thrive on it.
If you want to make an accusation, please, by all means cite your source, seriously, if you have this on record yourself, by all means, share it with us. I and others will be waiting to see..