Police jury’s land sale: ‘What are they thinking?

Published 12:00 am Monday, September 18, 2000

What are they thinking? It’s a question that was posed to us about the Concordia Parish Police Jury’s decision to sell a parcel of parish-owned land near Black Lake.

The land — some 400 acres according to the police jury, only 287 according to the tax assessor — is ripe for hunting, fishing and logging.

And, given that, the parish police jury could reap income for the land for years to come.

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For example, in June 1999, the jury netted $80,000 from the sale of timber on the land. With the right management plan, that land could again yield significant income from timber.

And, because the land is ideally situated for hunting and fishing, the parish could explore the option of leasing the land for hunting or fishing clubs, providing the parish a sustainable and annual revenue source.

Instead, five of the jury’s members want to sell the land, voting to move ahead without offering the residents in Concordia Parish an explanation about why.

Is there a potential buyer waiting in the wings?

How much will the jury make from the sale?

Why dispose of this particular land — one of an untold number of parcels owned by the parish?

And have jury members exhausted all the options for generating regular income from this land?

Yes, there are still many unanswered questions.

Police jury members need to offer those answers.

More important, they need to let us know just what they are thinking.