Three road projects in Winn, hoped to be paid 75/25 by state Capital Outlay funding, will have to wait a little longer due to some technical difficulties, the Police Jury heard in committee session Nov. 29.  Those projects are the Brownsville Road, the Frank White Road and the Eugene Garrett Road.

Parish engineer Henry Shuler opened comments by observing that there was “no shortage of bids” on the work, which he described as “abnormal” at this time.  He also pointed out that while the state’s minimum standard for the projects is 2 inches of asphalt, his base bid was 2.5 inches, with one of the alternate bid options being 2 inches.  He added that the bids received were not unreasonable as rising costs are likely factored into the bids since work could be two years out.

Further, while the Brownsville and Frank White projects seemed to be “OK,” he suggested that soil issues in areas along the one-mile stretch of the Eugene Garrett project bring in big problems.  “It’s a mess,” he said.  He suggested three options, ranging from ignoring the soil problems and placing an overlay to digging out the entire length–good and bad soil alike—and replacing suitable soil before the overlay.  A compromise could be patching out the areas deemed questionable with cut and base and leaving the other alone.  

There was considerable jury discussion on this but Shuler pointed out that a problem lies in the state’s current guidelines on Capital Outlay.  The Jury must accept the low bids on each of the three projects or reject them all, rewrite the specifications and resubmit.  They cannot pick and choose.  To that end, the jury voted to reject all bids and to have the engineer modify the scope of the work to be more in line with the 75/25 funding model.

In other action, the panel looked over its budget for the year soon to end as well as for the 2024 budget.  The Jury noted that a public hearing on that new budget will be held at 4:55 prior to their regular monthly meeting Monday, Dec. 18.  (The public may view those figures in the Secretary/Treasurer’s office during regular business hours prior to that time).

The proposed 2024 budget estimates General Fund revenues at $2 million with expenditures of $98,614.  Road Fund revenues are $4.63 million with expenses of $4.52 million.  Sales Tax revenues are estimated at $2.45 million with expenses at $2.44 million.  The Special Criminal Court Fund revenues are put at $35,000 with expenses at $34,000.  The Library Fund revenues are estimated at $678,214 while expenses are $651,961.  The Officer Witness Fee shows revenues of $4,000 and expenses of $3,800.  The Road Tax Bond payment shows revenues and expenses equally at $313,388.