Natchitoches Parish President Rick Nowlin has declared a State of Emergency due to potential effects of the flooding conditions of the Red River. Mr. Nowlin urges all citizens to take notice and prepare accordingly.
Anyone needing assistance with sandbags should contact Mary Jones with the Office of Emergency Preparedness at (318) 471-2942.
I mean no disrespect to Mr. Nowlin or any of the people he has working for him with any of my comments but our rural roads are being neglected worse than I’ve ever seen and we need help. When you guys ain’t too busy I invite to go ride the roads in the Robeline Marthaville area.
I have been living on a dirt road my whole life and it’s not rocket science we need graders, operators and fuel. When everyone voted to do away with our police jury they thought we had it bad but was sadly mistaken, At least the police jury did come through and grade at least once every couple months as they made thier rounds, heck we may go six or eight months now and never see a grader. As for as the tax goes we pay enough taxes as it is, The city residents shouldn’t even be able to vote on a land tax they don’t own no land the only one getting the shafting on that one would be the farmers and timber growers in the rural areas who pay thousands of dollars every year already and can’t afford anymore tax!
As you say, Mr. Rawls, the day Mr. Nowlin took office, we (our roads) were in a state of emergency. It took many years of underfunding by the parish residents and mismanagement by the Police Jury for the roads to deteriorate to the state they are in. Yet, two of those very same former Police Jurors responsible for the deplorable condition of the parish roads were re-elected and still sit on the parish government Maybe your ire might be better directed towards them, instead of Mr. Nowlin. As has been stated numerous times before in this venue, there is simply not enough money in the District 40 road fund to maintain over 800 miles on the more than 1,000 parish roads. When parish residents who are most affected by the sad state of road conditions they face daily decide they have had enough, and agree to vote to tax themselves sufficient revenue to repair and maintain the parish road system, improvements can begin to be made. Until that time comes, all Mr. Nowlin can do is to try to do patchwork repairs as the funds allow.
Mr McNeely, In the long run, it doesn’t matter what caused the problem, We have had 10+ years of people who did not know how to fix the problem and for the most part, just blamed them problem on others. Now we are in a crisis here and no one will work to find a solution. You can have any form of government you want, but the bottom line is none have worked for the betterment of the parish. It doesn’t matter who is on the council, and if they used to be police jurors or not. There is money in the road fund, and no it is not enough. However I have yet to talk to one person that thinks the parish is doing the best they can with what they do have.
Mr. McAlpin, I can assure you that Mr. Nowlin’s offer to sit down with anyone, yourself included, to review in detail the revenue and expenses over the last 3 years is, in fact, a very genuine offer. He will more than welcome your constructive insight as to how to prioritize the expenditures, knowing full well that the very limited available funds will only go so far. If you will recall, last year, he appointed an ad hoc committee to review all aspects of the parish road problems and present recommendations to the Council to consider. Their recommendations were (!) Do Nothing; (2) a Parish-wide 1/2 cent Sales tax; (3) a 10 Mil Property tax split between the City and Parish; and (4) a hybrid Sales Tax/Property Tax. Unfortunately, as you well know, the Parish Council, not Mr. Nowlin, refused put any of the tax options out to the voters. Consequently, this year the parish road fund will receive the same amount of tax revenue as it has for the last 10+ years.
There is a special called Parish Council meeting Monday afternoon at 5:00 to discus the parish road situation. I encourage you to attend that meeting and to challenge the Parish Council to find the hidden funds alluded to by the former Chairman of the Council. Or, at the very least, have them go on record as recommending a parish wide tax, be it a sales, property or combination to pay for the repairs and maintenance of the roads the residents drive on.
We was in a state of emergency the day you took office Mr. Nowlin!! Fix our rural roads!!
Amen Josh!!!!!!!!!