VIDALIA – The Concordia Parish Police Jury decided Monday to ask the District Attorney’s Office for legal advice regarding a committee to establish a parishwide animal shelter.

Jurors plan to ask whether the group should be set up as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation or a subdivision of the police jury — and how either option would effect the ability of the jury to donate funds to the committee.

More research needs to be done to answer those questions, said Assistant District Attorney Ronnie McMillan.

Juror Gene Allen said he is in favor of addressing the problem of stray animals but added that &uot;we would be responsible for (the committee’s) actions, so we need to look at it further before obligating ourselves.&uot;

But the committee is already working to set up a nonprofit corporation, according to committee member Donna Maroon.

That is because setting up a corporation is necessary in order to qualify for grants to help build a shelter.

Later, the jury voted to revise the 2000 budget to reflect higher-than-expected revenues, including increases in the amount of severance taxes received.

Juror Randy Temple announced that the Finance Committee will meet in early December to work on the jury’s 2001 budget.

And Allen made it clear that as part of that budget, he wants to raise his salary to $1,200 a month starting next year — the maximum raise a juror can receive.

&uot;All the other (parish officials) have gotten raises,&uot; he said.

In January, five out of nine jurors voted to raise the maximum salary they could receive from $856 to $1,200 a month. But they also voted to keep their salaries at $856 until the jury got enough money to fund the raises. The jury’s president, Charlie Blaney, receives $956.

The jury also voted to:

4Adopt resolutions in honor of the C.J. White Sr., a longtime police juror who died Friday, and Dr. William Thomas Polk, a former parish coroner and longtime Vidalia doctor who died Nov. 20.

4Spend $697 to buy six Concordia Parish flags and $350 to buy a full-color, full-page ad in a statewide police jury publication.

4Pay to repair a radar unit for the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Parish.

4Pay $549.99 for the purchase of chairs for the Sheriff’s Office.

4Appoint W.L. Stampley as a board member for Recreation District No. 3; Charles Dew, Howard Jackson and Judy Pugh as board members for Fire District No. 2; and Bobbye McIntosh as a member of the Library Board.