Photograph: St Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard addresses the Opelousas Noon Rotary Club. (Photograph by Freddie Herpin.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Maintaining 900-plus miles of roads on a limited budget requires innovative methods of financing, a dilemma that St. Landry Parish president Jessie Bellard says his administration is constantly seeking to solve .
Bellard explained the parish process of supplementing local dollars with state and federal funding for road projects and other spending projects during a Tuesday meeting with the Opelousas Noon Rotary Club.
His solution for obtaining money for fixing parish roads is simple, Bellard told the Rotarians.
“If you don’t get out there and aggressively ask for (funds), then you are never going to get any. It’s like a batter in baseball. You get up there and take your swings,” Bellard said.
Bellard, who is seeking reelection in October, said the parish is due to eventually receive $10 million in federal funding for road projects and another $15 million that will be spread over several years from state sources.
The Smooth Ride Home program, funded annually through an extra two-percent sales tax collected inside unincorporated areas and other revenues from local taxing districts, also provides money for road maintenance and improvements, Bellard said.
Bellard said the administration is currently focused on spending money for heavily-traveled connecting roads such as Flagg Station Road and Nap Lane and others such as Chris and Domengeaux roads, that serve developing residential subdivisions.
Then there’s the issue of corrective action for road overlay projects that were completed less than a decade ago, Bellard said.
Some overlay projects completed as part of the Smooth Ride Home initiative that began in 2014 and 2015, Bellard noted, are already showing signs of deterioration.
“In some cases they are beginning to crack. Those roads with good foundations are something that we intend to fix by building on top of them. The engineers are not too happy with that, because they won’t be getting the work, but I have to do what I can do to help save (the roads),” Bellard said.
Bellard additionally pointed to a pair of recently completed District 9 overlay projects that affect 31 homes on Tom Schexnayder Road and another project on Hunt Lane that also combined expenditures from both taxing districts and the parish.
Gravel roads, which normally demand more maintenance and financial resources, are also receiving attention and rehabilitation, Bellard said.
In some cases, Bellard pointed out, it’s cheaper to consider blacktopping a gravel road than paying for the unpaved, upkeep factor which often includes digging ditches for proper drainage.
Asked during his presentation about whether the parish has a priority list which commands the order of road projects, Bellard said a list does exist.
However that list is not always strictly followed, said Bellard.
“In some cases road problems are addressed as I hear about them,” Bellard explained.
