Parish Will Fund Annex Storage

BOBBY ARDOIN

Editor/Consulting Writer

The St. Landry Parish Council has agreed to spend $100,000 annually over the next 20 years to provide space for records that will be stored inside a Clerk of Court-owned annex building located on West Landry Street in Opelousas.

Council members voted 11-0 with an abstention by Jimmie Edwards, to lease the 9,000 square feet inside the refurbished building Wednesday night after listening to a presentation from Jeff Coreil, an attorney representing the Clerk of Court.

The agreement also contains a stipulation that the parish can negotiate a series of 10-year renewal options for leasing the space with the Clerk of Court after the original lease expires.

Since October the parish and Clerk of Court have negotiated several options regarding use and ownership of the annex site.

State law requires parishes to provide reasonable operating expenses for the Clerk of Court. Those expenses include offices, furniture, equipment and record books, according to Coreil.

Parish president Jessie Bellard said that he was “comfortable” with the parish leasing an annex area that provides space for records.

Bellard however said that he was opposed to paying for the utilities costs inside the 27,000 square foot building, since the building is not owned by the parish.

“(The parish) is not mandated to maintain the (annex) building. Our responsibility is for the operation. The Clerk of Court needs to have a safe space for records,” said Bellard.

Records storage, Bellard said, requires climate controlled environments in order to preserve the integrity of records, which in St. Landry are nearly 300 years old.

Coreil told the Council that perhaps over the next several decades that all Clerk of Court records might become digitalised, a development which could reduce the need for storing records in their original form.

The annex building which was purchased several years ago by the Clerk of Court, is also being used as an election center training facility, said Coreil.

Clerk of Court Charles Jagneaux has said previously that space in the building will also be provided for individuals who are researching aspects of their family histories and other parishwide transactions.

Coreil said that Saint Landry is unique, since records previously pertaining to Evangeline Parish are recorded at the Courthouse in Opelousas.

Edwards abstained from voting on the records storage request.

Bellard said that Edwards should have declared his reason for abstaining on the vote, but legal advisor Garrent Duplechin said that guidelines for the Council meetings indicate that Edwards does not require council members to reveal why they are abstaining.