Parish looking at Code Red weather alerts

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, April 28, 2009

VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish Police Jury could follow Adams County’s lead and opt in for the Code Red weather alert system.

Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office Capt. Frankie Carrol appeared before the jury to discuss the system.

“When a weather warning is issued, this company, within three seconds, begins calling the people in the affected area,” Carrol said.

The system also targets warning calls to affected areas, he said.

“If Ridgecrest is under a warning, Ferriday won’t get the warning,” Carrol said.

The program also allows emergency responders to program a recording for a specific area in the case of an emergency evacuation, such as in the case of a gas leak, Carrol said.

Code Red only calls citizens once a warning has been issued, not a watch, he said.

Police Juror Willie Dunbar made a motion to table the decision until the next meeting and to allow the finance committee to study the proposal in the meantime, to which the rest of the jurors agreed.

Lake St. John Advisory Committee Chairman Tom Bell also appeared before the jury.

All of the parish’s drainage systems have been stress tested by heavy rains in the last year, he said.

“We didn’t come out really bad, but we have found a few spots that need our attention,” Bell said.

One of those is a drainage culvert in Buckner Bayou that Bell said is obviously caved in.

“There is no water that is coming through,” he said. “If this culvert is replaced, it appears we will get an additional 20-30 percent of water out of the lake faster.”

Approximately 300 feet from the culvert, a drainage canal connecting to the bayou has a significant silt bar at its mouth, Bell said.

“This slows the velocity of the water down and slows the drainage,” he said.

It is a problem that can be fixed with a piece of equipment like a track hoe, he said.

Since 2002, the lake advisory committee has maintained an electronic gauge on the lake that can provide information about the lake’s level over the course of several days to a commission member who calls it from a phone or accesses it through the Internet.

The problem is that the lake commission’s contract for the gauge expires in October, and they don’t have the finances to renew it, Bell said.

The commission pays $3,000 of the contract and the federal government pays another $3,000, but if the commission fails to renew their contract they will fall out of the government program that pays half of the costs.

“The funding is limited and will not be increasing in numbers, so if you get out you won’t be getting back in,” Bell said.

The commission isn’t without options, Police Juror Joe Parker said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had allotted grant funds that could be used for the monitoring system, Parker said.

“The bad news is that somewhere between (Hurricane) Gustav and the State of Louisiana, (the money) got caught up in the shuffle,” he said.

Parker said he has spoken with District 21 Rep. Andy Anders and has gotten the process moving again for the parish to receive those funds.

In other news:

• The jury voted to send a letter to Wagoner Gravel stating that the company needs to improve their product or lose their contract.

The jury recently let a bid to Wagoner Gravel for heavy clay gravel, but Juror Jimmy Jernigan said the quality of gravel Wagoner has brought in hasn’t been up to snuff.

Hauling two buckets of gravel before the jury, Jernigan pulled a handful out of each bucket, showing the jury how the Wagoner clay crumbled easily while what he maintained was the quality gravel could be molded and retain its shape.

“If he can’t produce a heavy clay pit run, I make a motion we get it elsewhere,” Jernigan said.

• The jury discussed the procedure they use to appoint members to parish boards, specifically recreation boards.

Juror Willie Dunbar said he is not pleased with the two members of the Recreation District No. 3 that represent his area, and that as a police juror he felt he had the right to appoint someone else when those members’ terms expire later this year.

The jury votes to approve nominations that come from the boards themselves.

But some jurors balked at Dunbar’s idea.

The different board members know who they can best work with, and it is often hard to find volunteers to serve on the boards, Juror Randy Temple said.

“It has to be a pretty strong argument against this person for me and Whest (Shirley) to send this message to the board, because that’s basically saying they don’t know what they’re doing,” Temple said.

Rather than appointing someone other than the person the board nominates, if the jury rejects a nomination they can have the board send them a letter explaining why that person is a good nominee, or they can send the jury a different nominee, Shirley said.