[0:00] chosen to represent the people of the parish bag of the Almighty God to

[0:04] enlighten our minds so that our work will be just and fair in all things give

[0:10] us the courage and strength to fulfill our duties according to the laws of the

[0:14] land and in so doing fulfilling also on earth and in heaven through Christ our

[0:20] Lord amen [Music]

[1:04] roll call mr. fusilli here district 2 is a hoppity's here district 3 ms northeast

[1:15] here district for mr. porter here district 5

[1:21] mr. tose an here district 6 up on here district 7 mr. Alexander district 9 mr.

[1:33] Rashard here in the chairs here also here presents past president Chester

[1:41] Cedars we also have the direct administrator over a their Director of

[1:47] Public Works cases for bit Director of Finance mr. Sean Huntley the clerk of

[1:52] court Lacey laughs Rouge district clerk of how so Brooke Gillespie and also I

[1:59] believe mr. duro is on our Paris attorney

[2:09] I'll entertain a motion now to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of

[2:14] April 16 2020 I make a motion I have a motion by mr. tose I vote mr. futile a

[2:29] yes yes yes mr. tose Anse yes mr. sharp on mr. sharp on your mute

[2:48] yes sorry mr. Alexander yes mr. rishe or yes and the chair votes

[2:58] yes the motion carries

[3:04] I'm six persons to address the council there are nine items seven special

[3:11] business Rowdy math urn general manager of

[3:15] Pelican waste and debris LLC to discuss remedial action for delinquent accounts

[3:26] mr. chairperson if I may Chester Cedars parish president I had requested it mr.

[3:33] Mathur appear before the council as a result of the notification that Pelican

[3:42] would be asserting his right to pick up various containers waste disposal

[3:48] containers for customers who are delinquent in their accounts I felt that

[3:53] before that kind of action would be taken that appears before the council

[3:58] would be very prudent so that you could bet any concerns or make sure all your

[4:03] questions were answered relative to that decision

[4:07] thank you mr. paternal you come on yeah I am me

[4:14] yeah yeah yeah I talked to a Chester what about two weeks ago maybe just a

[4:22] week ago somewhere around that can remember it's it's where disco in

[4:28] nineteen it's uh you know working from home and doing just like technology

[4:34] we're here to do this you know our office we use Microsoft

[4:39] teams which is a great tool as well but anyway that's just kind of a just

[4:45] address the residents that are you know we went to the contract for nine months

[4:51] now and we have still about thirty-five of Nan pain residents so we've been

[4:59] going through the areas and tagging cans last week we did district six seven

[5:05] eight nine and four or five and next week we want to do District one two

[5:10] three and four and then we'll finish up fortify so we we've already did from

[5:17] tagging before and we was very successful at it and we we did some more

[5:22] tagging and and the ones that we do in a second tag I wanted to address the

[5:27] council and the parishes to let them know that we you know the next action

[5:33] will probably start removing carts so if we have a non paying customers so you

[5:42] know this date from July first when we started to now and we did a lot of

[5:47] credits and all that we have in clay over half a million dollars oh wait

[5:55] residents that have not paid they have some residents just refused to base have

[6:00] never paid for garbage before and people right now so you know I just want like I

[6:07] said it's come to y'all guys and address and let y'all know if y'all do get a few

[6:11] phone calls we're gonna try to take it as slow as we can and and progress

[6:17] throughout in get some cans removed and maybe it may

[6:23] let people know that you know once we do that they don't have to call back for

[6:29] their their Court yeah I have a question I mean what's the form of you have a

[6:44] four word procedural process that y'all following to do this I mean I know the

[6:48] ordinance calls for initially you you know if you laid you get a 10% late fee

[6:55] on your bill and then out at some point you should be contacting the powers to

[7:03] so that we can psych psych the ones that don't want to pay for

[7:09] we've unfortunate kovin 19 came along so it was hard to you know face to face

[7:16] with the parish or do anything but the first six months are the first two

[7:23] quarter of a billing we have not did a late fee but we've done it in the last

[7:32] billing we've done and still have not gotten to know respond to it now well

[7:39] we've been fine and since we've been on the road there was a lot of empty lots

[7:42] and we took that off and you know we get into a manageable amount of resonance

[7:48] that or you know it's kind of round 14,500 it looks like he'll be total

[7:57] maybe a little less but it's you know we started off with a big 9/11 we got with

[8:06] the water company we went from 21,000 addresses to now we to management about

[8:12] you know 14,000 some what number of residents that really exists in the

[8:18] parish and not lots I think what happened is 9/11 a lot is subdivided he

[8:24] gets an address so and it gets a name who have owns a lot so we found those

[8:30] vacant lots and or we also found a lot of abandoned homes so that they

[8:36] have no court so we removed that off the list my main concern is when you start

[8:43] picking up trash can that it's not arbitrary you know that you do it

[8:48] consistent throughout the parish and that you have a set a set guideline that

[8:54] they're overdue about one month or two months or four months whatever you

[8:58] decide that is before you do that in and you treat everyone the same throughout

[9:02] the whole parish and not be arbitrary and say I'm gonna pick up all the trash

[9:06] cans in in the north end or mid section order south ain't you no no we're

[9:13] actually gonna do it like I said we've actually wanted to tag and give

[9:17] everybody an opportunity and tag every court and you know we went and did a

[9:23] second round of tagging and now we are in the process of you know we're gonna

[9:29] be following the route it's gonna be you know Monday around we may be on Monday

[9:34] picking up in that district if it's Tuesday round will be on Tuesday cuz

[9:38] we'll have to follow the trucks and we want just bare going in any district and

[9:42] just pick up carts and but I don't think it will be you know we're not gonna pick

[9:47] up like three or four hundred courts a day because that's would be impossible

[9:51] what's the criteria you use it to pick up the corner how late you have to be

[9:55] well I mean if there are over six months I think it's you know they haven't paid

[10:01] anything then we need to look at that so okay did you get my lamp I'm sorry yeah

[10:12] well we tagged we had a lot of successful call in but we still have

[10:18] quite a bit that has not eat a call or just refused to pay anyone else coming

[10:28] several there's several people that have more than one address you know they

[10:32] might have an extra something they inherited just probably why did not pain

[10:36] on some of these wait wait yeah we we will we were there tagging they might

[10:44] have had like a BC grass you know the same address but it may have been a B

[10:50] and C and we've we've addressed all of those we took that off the list so it's

[10:58] it's been a long nine months tedious process and we've been removing a lot of

[11:05] those duplicates of the list at moderate you ride it might have been inherited a

[11:09] property or or there's multiple I guess subdivided property and they may have

[11:16] multiple ABCD and then there's a lot of numbers so we removed a lot of that mr.

[11:27] chairperson um mrs. Joseph Cedars again I just want to make sure that that

[11:34] anyone who gets their container picked up or a deed is indeed delinquent we

[11:40] have we do get to call us here at parish government we're not supposed to be

[11:44] getting the but we do and we address them and even on that last list that was

[11:49] disseminated to all of you which we received from Pelican few weeks ago we

[11:55] got calls a couple of customers saying look we paid our bills we get double

[12:02] billed so I just want to make sure that Pelican when they go out to pick up

[12:09] those cans they are actually picking up cans at places and residences locks or

[12:14] whatever then are truly delinquent because I can I can assure you our

[12:21] personnel here at parish government we get the calls Dean I think you addressed

[12:29] this I can send you a process and all the council in the parish president our

[12:36] process of what we're gonna do and also I can send all y'all a daily report of

[12:41] what area we'll be in I'm what target we me you

[12:46] know what car to me these I guess repossessing picking out for something

[12:53] so y'all can all be on the same page and everybody knows and understands what's

[12:57] going on and we definitely from the parish government perspective would like

[13:01] to know whose cards were picked up because that means they're now not

[13:08] participating in the mandatory program and there are penalties as mr. LeBlanc

[13:12] referenced earlier that needs to be addressed well that's a correct yeah and

[13:18] if you remember chests that we had talked about mean with the DA and and

[13:22] all that on that of course all of this happen and kind of being put on the

[13:27] process but yeah absolutely anything that can be picked up will be sent to

[13:32] the power office to let y'all know that Y was picked up in penalties against

[13:40] people of this nature that makes it even more important as mr. LeBlanc observed

[13:46] that we have a non arbitrary process in place correct I'm fully in support of

[13:53] you know collecting from those that haven't been paying our or taking trash

[13:58] cans that did not participate just want to make sure that the process is is okay

[14:08] miss Alexander it did you ever consider

[14:21] and fixed-income look like they would have a problem with a Harley bill well

[14:28] did you ever consider the monthly bill the way they were doing it before we

[14:32] should be a smaller smaller team we got about twenty five hundred customers that

[14:38] or paying on a monthly because of the fix income so we were working with those

[14:43] residents on that so we do have a you know I say a small portion that we are

[14:51] working with I mean over twenty five hundred customer

[14:55] that are you know paid partially or paid what they can each one so you say it's

[15:02] optional then when you send them the you know the statement it's optional they

[15:06] could either pay monthly if they want to do so I mean I'm not saying it's

[15:12] optional but we've been we understand that we there is people that are in

[15:16] fixed income that just can't pay three months in advance

[15:21] so we are working with those elderly people miss Alexander maybe I can also

[15:28] weigh in on this issue when the new program was bid it was bid for quarterly

[15:36] payments before the the former provider or before the former contract expired

[15:44] the billing to the to the parish was every four months as opposed to every

[15:50] three months then it was reduced for every monthly billing and it stayed that

[15:55] way to this contract expired and when we when we went out for RFP request for

[16:01] proposals for the current contract it was for quarterly billing because the

[16:06] amount is less okay because of the you know stay at home owner they have a lot

[16:17] more people putting out trash and garbage and so the garbage has been in

[16:21] the last two months extremely heavy so you know this I mean there's no

[16:26] additional charge to the resident but it's because of the stay-at-home auto

[16:31] we've we've been facing a lot of having to put additional equipment on the road

[16:35] as well I mean not only in st. mark parsley Terrebonne Biloxi everywhere we

[16:42] pick up debris pickup it you know and of course the garbage itself is heavy as

[16:48] well anybody have any other comments or questions I got a question mister for

[16:55] you I think I understood you correct before y'all going in each district

[17:03] collect cans for non-payment you will know the father council person for that

[17:08] district what we can we can send a Chester wants to do it you know or the

[17:14] council wants to do we can send y'all information of the delinquent addresses

[17:19] and that you know we'll be in that area whatever district it is on Monday

[17:25] collection will be out I would just like to know when you start gathering the

[17:31] cans in in in my district if you can let me know a day in advance or something

[17:37] just so I'm aware of in case I get any phone calls sure yeah no we got a good

[17:42] process we I guess we perfection it in the last nine months we definitely can

[17:48] do that we can send you you know something like Friday and this is what

[17:53] we're gonna do next week you know I appreciate it Arata would it be possible

[17:59] that each council person get a list of the addresses in their district who

[18:04] delinquent and who's not and a lot like a give us a chance to go through them I

[18:08] was looking at some of the ones that you think that I did and I know some of

[18:11] those people even very not in my district there was a few people I know

[18:14] that don't even live here anymore in this area that moved so maybe if we can

[18:19] see a list by district each council person they will be kind of there some

[18:24] names we take over there we could get which we make they don't live here they

[18:29] shouldn't have cans yeah but just not everybody's got a cane but what's

[18:35] happening there's people I a relative of mine that lives in Daniels district his

[18:40] name is on that list and he lives in Texas and he'd been living in Texas

[18:44] public the past five years but you might still have properly

[18:47] John I understand he has no cans he just getting a break they may be a rental

[18:59] property they may be getting a bill and it's being rent to someone else so but

[19:06] you still have a lot of multiple buildings people get more than one bill

[19:09] correct yes I just think if we don't buy district

[19:14] each council person we get that a dead lives for their district we kind of help

[19:17] us to go through these who they are maybe we could save you time and trouble

[19:21] or there absolutely - I agree with time great I

[19:26] can send that list tomorrow all right Thank You ruff no problem any

[19:31] other questions mr. Mathur no so my understanding mr. Thibodeau wants to

[19:37] speak I thought you might have been with you no no okay I think he thought we

[19:51] were gonna be at a meeting okay all right okay no further questions Thank

[19:57] You mr. Mathur thank you thank you

[20:11] public hearing there are no summary numbers 0 3 2 RS a resolution

[20:22] proclaiming the month of May 2020 as official air quality Awareness Month in

[20:28] st. Martin parish I have a motion by mr. Furley I heard a second talk about mr.

[20:35] tose and anyone want to speak on the motion mr. mr. fusillade how do you is

[20:54] nor season yes mr. for you yes mr. tose Ann yes mr. sharp on yes mr. Alexander

[21:06] yes mr. Rashard yes yes motion carries unanimously

[21:17] summary number zero three three RS a resolution reappointing miss Pamela

[21:23] Lemoine's to serve as a member of the sixteenth Judicial District Children and

[21:28] Youth Planning Board I have a motion by mr. batiste

[21:32] I hear a second I'll second it second by mr. future late and he won't care to

[21:38] comment ready for the vote mr. fusilli yes this is your party's yes

[21:46] this is North Sea's yes the poor you yes mr. tose Ann yes yes Alexander yes mr.

[22:00] Bouchard yeah and the chair votes yes motion carried unanimously summary

[22:09] number zero three for RS a resolution authorizing and approving the parish

[22:15] president to execute change order number three in the amount of one hundred

[22:19] eighteen thousand three hundred fifty one dollars and six cents increase and a

[22:24] 116 date contract time extension for the k-pork pavillion basketball court and

[22:31] paving project by JC construction mr. seeders care to comment yeah well I

[22:38] could come in very briefly this is one of those change orders that I did not

[22:44] want to sign before bringing it to the council because of the amount of the

[22:49] change that's a substantial sum I just wanted to let you know that I did have

[22:55] some personal conversations with our project manager mr. Babineaux as well as

[23:00] the architect and contractor I wanted to make sure this this 118,000 change order

[23:07] which is substantial was within the scope of the contract that it wasn't

[23:11] something that we just pulled from the air they because of the amount and it

[23:17] was not it still falls within the scope of the contract the most significant

[23:22] part of this change honor is for some large that fans high velocity fans

[23:29] the basketball court area I have that there call a big a SS fans and that's

[23:36] the literal name Louisville we have them in other two other of our parks there

[23:42] they're expensive but they did the job they work very well so I was satisfied

[23:48] that there was you know we would be within the scope of the contract by

[23:52] granting this change older also would it also make sure that it would be function

[23:58] well they would serve a purpose and after having met or talked to the

[24:02] architect and the general contractor and this all occurred in early March so I

[24:11] just wanted to impart that information to you that it was vetted again

[24:16] particularly because of that amount you get mr. seeders it is still with it

[24:22] budget is still within budget I have a motion by mrs. drum botties I hear a

[24:26] second I'll second it second but I missed Alexander to the front

[24:33] ready foot up I saw you reached it for you oh yeah ready for a vote

[24:41] mr. few Julie yes this is Draupadi's yes this is no season

[24:48] yes mr. Poirier yes it's a toes and yes it's a sharp on

[24:56] yes mr. Alexander yes mr. Rison yeah it's caribou yes motion carried

[25:04] unanimously

[25:09] and ten ordinances introduced for publication there are nine item 11

[25:16] informational items not requiring council action Paris president Chester

[25:21] Cedars to provide an update on the Kobuk 19 crisis and other matters mr. Speers

[25:27] thank you it's gonna be hard because normally when I talk to you long I can

[25:33] know them going over the time I ought to and I should because I read the body

[25:39] language of mr. tose

[25:42] gages reaction the first thing I want to point out for the public is that our

[25:51] council chambers are open this meeting is being broadcast on our big screens

[26:00] that we project on there in our regular meetings and we do have the press some

[26:05] members of the press in the chambers I'm in my office also want to establish just

[26:11] for the record that the reason we had to do this remotely is because of the 10

[26:16] personal limitation is still in effect on the governor's executive orders we

[26:21] have nine council members the parish president who by charter has to be

[26:25] present as well as our clerk has to be present and we would have it would have

[26:30] had it regular you know in person we would exceeded that limit also these

[26:41] meetings these remote meetings now we I think using zoom there's other providers

[26:47] out there I've used quite a few different providers since the crisis has

[26:52] begun and there's a positive I guess is that I have learned that this is very

[26:57] very effective way to do business meetings as you know we have to be

[27:03] frequently with engineers and sometimes lawyers and other professionals who

[27:08] charges to travel to come be with us new charges by the r4 that travel time I

[27:14] intend to have zoom meetings or to have these type of webinar type meetings

[27:21] whatever possible and I think we're going to ultimately save some money in

[27:26] terms of professional charges by having these type of remote meetings and I

[27:31] think some of you in the business world have been doing that for a long time and

[27:35] you know what I'm talking about

[27:39] we also want just to let everyone know that although our gender was a little

[27:45] bit like we wanted to get back on a normal rotation the first Tuesday our

[27:50] regular meeting and our second Tuesday have in our our committee meetings and

[27:55] we will get back to that schedule although we will have a special meeting

[27:59] also matters before our committee meeting on May 19th I want to start with

[28:08] some positive news we continued our dead processes even though we could have

[28:15] suspended them under the builders executive orders we continue to call for

[28:20] bids on some of our projects two of them or the RESTORE Act projects for the

[28:25] floating peers at Catahoula Park in uncle dick Davis Park well we had

[28:31] $400,000 budgeted for those two projects the bids came in last Wednesday 29 the

[28:39] low bid was $184,000 so we were very much within budget the RESTORE Act

[28:48] Council has deposited in our account $400,000 so we we're looking into what

[28:55] else we can do with additional monies within the scope of the RESTORE Act

[29:00] itself so we're very pleased with that development you will remember in our

[29:07] last meeting I advised you that the Henderson volunteer fire department had

[29:12] received a reduction in their fire rating from with class 5 till class 4

[29:17] I'm pleased to announce that today I received a letter that the Stevensville

[29:22] volunteer fire department it also has also received a reduction in its Pell

[29:27] rating from class 5 in class 4 that's big news and that just speaks very

[29:34] highly of our volunteer firemen it speaks very highly of the administration

[29:41] at the fire service district mr. Brody Miller mr. David Duguay the work has had

[29:47] a lot of positive results I had a meeting with the library Board

[29:54] of Control I've had some personal discussions with some of you in the past

[29:59] one of the villages that funds the library system is coming up for renewal

[30:04] in the fall election you will be voting at the special meeting on May 19th to

[30:10] call to formally call for that election I will be sending each of you a detailed

[30:15] report within by the end of this week outlining all of the parameters

[30:22] associated with that renewal that millage the library board was very

[30:27] pleased with some of the ideas that I advanced relative to the renewal and

[30:32] there's going to be a little bit of a rededication a portion of an image as

[30:37] well but I'm gonna give you specifics on that so that you will be fully prepared

[30:41] to bet that issue as the future develops Cobie 19 updates got a lot to talk about

[30:56] here very brief on most of it because I post there regularly developments with

[31:04] parish government relative to Cobie 19 you know the last money on April 27th

[31:12] the announced that stay at home would be extended and there would not be hurry

[31:21] opening of some of the businesses on the phase one of the day all of our

[31:38] employees return so long had been most of they've been working remotely as

[31:43] you'll recall but on April 27th a everybody came and we were fully staffed

[31:49] we had often we're operating under some protocol checking temperatures of

[31:55] everybody in the morning wearing masks when we go out in public

[31:59] disinfecting all of our workstations multiple times a day so things are going

[32:05] real well the spirit of our employees is second to none I think everybody was

[32:11] excited to to get back to the workplace and working with all the developments

[32:18] there I have made some decisions as you know our poor parts were open

[32:24] last Friday May 1st the only exceptions is that our pavilions stayed closed the

[32:34] playground was open for the children

[32:39] kourt's them remain closed a parks are being used as you know our restaurants

[32:50] were allowed by executive order last week to offer outdoor dining

[32:57] without table service in under certain other restrictions that's going pretty

[33:01] well to also religious services can now be outdoors with restrictions that came

[33:10] about Friday afternoon late I was on the phone with several people on late Friday

[33:16] afternoon and a significant part of Saturday speaking to some of our clergy

[33:21] sending them all the protocols they had to follow it to open as dictated by the

[33:26] Department of Health in the far Marshall but understand that that went very well

[33:30] to all of our outdoor services what I did I made an exception on the pavilions

[33:37] any pavilion in our part that can be used for outdoor services I am allowing

[33:43] that for outdoor religious services only

[33:50] it's under control of circumstances relative to the religious services along

[33:57] those same lines Thursday for the National Day of Prayer allowing the

[34:01] courthouse lawn to be utilized for services firm

[34:07] for that in connection with that day I think it begins at 6:30 p.m. I invite

[34:13] you to come I think if you ever needed a time to pray I think this is probably it

[34:19] I'm not trying to proselytize I'm just pointing out that that opportunity is

[34:23] going to be available pursuant to all the guidelines announced by the governor

[34:27] in the state for Marshall Thursday this Thursday

[34:31] uncle dick Davis or the park operated by the parish will be open for business I

[34:36] remind everyone that this is Mother's Day weekend so I thought it would be a

[34:41] good time to open it there's a lot of people up to use our recreational parks

[34:46] on that day the opening of our offices is a day-by-day thing you know when I

[34:53] say opening of the offices I mean opening of the parish facilities for to

[34:57] the public that's a day of analyzing that on a day to day basis because of a

[35:03] lot of the criteria that we want to look at it's ever-changing but ever-changing

[35:07] positive as I said here now I anticipate that we will be open May 18th at the

[35:16] latest and I have some protocols and I'm preparing for the public when they come

[35:21] to meet with us what they have to have like masks

[35:26] I'm also developing protocols for our employees as well when we interact with

[35:30] the public in our workplaces but I will keep you

[35:35] informed it may be before May 18th lots gonna depend on what the numbers dictate

[35:42] relative to some of the positive tests that they're coming back one of the most

[35:48] significant things that we've started working on about two weeks ago is our

[35:52] hurricane preparations this Kovach 19 is really causing our ope fischels to do a

[36:01] lot of study as well as the state facilities the governor's office of

[36:06] homeland security and emergency preparedness for example sheltering the

[36:10] people that's going to be materially affected by the the current crisis that

[36:16] were faced with and even transporting people to a

[36:21] shelter that's gonna opossum some challenging tasks as well as the

[36:25] distribution of flood mitigation measures such as sandbags but all of

[36:30] that is being planned and worked on as we speak we'll have something in place

[36:35] very shortly the hurricane season begins on the June 1 I know what I'm gonna be

[36:42] praying for on the National Day of Prayer one of the things is going to be

[36:45] no hurricane examined very closely some of the stay home orders beginning with

[37:05] the most significant that was March 22nd this year but even going 27 JBE 2020

[37:14] which was issued on March 16 let me assure you members of the council and

[37:20] let me assure the public that we have done everything from a parish government

[37:25] perspectives to ensure that as many businesses that can legally be open were

[37:32] indeed in or indeed open y'all have read about some of the gray area businesses

[37:39] and some of the middle-of-the-road businesses there was a great deal of

[37:44] confusion about those businesses and rightfully so because the governor's

[37:50] executive order 33 JBE 2020 that was issued on March 22nd did lead one to be

[37:58] a little uncertain is he or she tried to interpret that order I I apparently had

[38:06] some issues too early on in fact I had some phone calls from officials in Baton

[38:14] Rouge relative to the parameters of that order it was issued on March 22nd March

[38:21] 25th week and said weren't parish had clarified

[38:24] our confusion and in fact I invite you to look at my post

[38:29] March 25th 2020 where I outlined the parameters of that particular

[38:38] stay-at-home order and also as a result to some confusion that still existed I

[38:43] did a post last week Facebook recording where we talked about the businesses so

[38:51] we've been pretty well aware of some of the businesses that people initially

[38:57] thought couldn't be open could indeed be open and we've been fully on to advance

[39:04] that information beginning March 25th of this year so I'm pleased to see some of

[39:13] the businesses now starting to get back up and running they could legally be up

[39:17] good morning also in anticipation of the phase 1 reopening

[39:23] of those businesses that were absolutely closed such as our nail salons

[39:30] barbershops places like that I've formed a committee a couple weeks ago to start

[39:36] working with the barest government to make sure that everyone I knew what the

[39:42] rules were we entered the phase 1 reopening we're

[39:46] going to we're continuing to do our work as a committee I have prepared some

[39:50] preliminary parameters and rules restrictions that we anticipate may be

[39:57] coming down if they don't come down then we will remove those and however we do

[40:03] we have developed some safety recommendations and we do that for two

[40:07] reasons number one we want businesses to operate and we want them to operate

[40:12] safely but more importantly we want to encourage patrons to patronize that

[40:18] business and one of the ways we can help people feel safe to do business is to

[40:24] let them know the businesses are not only open but open pursuant to safety

[40:29] protocols so that will hopefully encourage people to circulate and start

[40:34] getting around so we can commence to return to normality

[40:42] you know I have a we did not meet last Monday we posted this and talked about

[40:48] this in my post we didn't mean one the gating criteria as you know I had some

[40:55] meetings with some epidemiologist from the department health and a meeting

[41:00] yesterday together with some other parish presidents and we're hoping that

[41:06] the matter of applying and positive cases that we have to the guidelines

[41:12] will take into consideration several factors that I don't think have

[41:18] heretofore been considered for example I think it's important that we eliminate

[41:22] from our evaluation those cases there are clusters those cases that arise from

[41:29] confined environments like a long-term care facility such as a nursing home

[41:33] because those aren't communal cases those are cases that are confined so

[41:38] cases in a confined area are not being used as a negative when we're trying to

[41:45] determine how many positive cases or they're out in the community

[41:49] okay and the epidemiologists with whom we spoke said yeah you write me we

[41:54] definitely need that to be a factor among all the other factors that as well

[41:59] as the number of people who have recovered numbers that we had 20 days

[42:05] ago really we should have recovered right now and that should not be looked

[42:11] at as the total number of potential positive cases so a very optimistic that

[42:17] we're making headway by working with our state leaders but working with the

[42:23] builder's office so that we will meet those gating requirements not only as a

[42:28] parish known as a region but as a state so then we can get back to our normal

[42:33] lifestyle so that our business partners who opponent we rely can get back and

[42:40] resume their business operations again we're working very very diligently with

[42:47] them and we'll continue to do so as well as working with all the other

[42:51] in our parish and to an extent working with all the other parish presidents and

[42:56] parish government officials in Acadiana

[43:02] the big question I know that you have is okay what's going to be our financial

[43:07] impact as a result of this this this crisis to call the nineteen crisis still

[43:15] don't know remember on April 16th in our meeting I commented on it still don't

[43:20] know we will probably probably have a better picture showing hardly our

[43:26] Director of Finance and I talked about this yesterday we will be getting

[43:33] numbers from our sales tax collections for May for April at the end of this

[43:38] month and we'll have a better understanding at that point in time what

[43:43] we're looking at financially we can tell you now that we will lose a lot of video

[43:49] poker revenue we've already lost and we've been shut down for the front over

[43:53] two months so we're going to lose revenue in that arena and we depend on

[43:58] our video poker revenue substantially for a lot of our programs and a lot of

[44:03] our maintenance work and that's how we subsidize some of our mandated

[44:09] requirements such as the judicial system so we're looking at that as we go with

[44:15] that that's all I had to say certainly will be more than happy to entertain any

[44:20] questions so any of you may have I'd like to know do we have covered 19 tests

[44:34] incitements of manpower or different sites instead monitor very good question

[44:41] in indeed the state is planning a mobile testing sites I have had discussions

[44:48] with our health units as well as dr. Stefanski about locating the mobile

[44:53] sites in st. Martin parish and that answer your question directly the answer

[44:59] is going to be yes they're doing that by region

[45:03] and right now they're working on the I want to say it's the Ascension Parish

[45:08] region the New Orleans region I think they're going

[45:12] starting tomorrow there will be mobile sites in region I forget the numbers but

[45:17] it's the modern regions they're hitting the hot spots first but we will have

[45:22] mobile testing sites not just tested without testing sites now with the

[45:27] clinics and some the walking facilities but I'm interested in a mobile testing

[45:31] site and I hope that we have that in place working with the state by the end

[45:38] of the month certainly by the month the governor's objective is to have over 200

[45:44] the ability to administer over 200 tests statewide but it's a statewide plan that

[45:50] we're working with and not in necessarily independent love right now

[45:55] but yes that is something that's being worked on Thank You mr. mr. Alexander

[46:07] also the National Guard is helping with those mobile testing sites by the way ok

[46:14] I'm sorry miss especially in lower Saint Martin I want to thank chain and M fall

[46:22] hard work be doing their water goes up goes down buddy it's not going down

[46:27] weekly like we want I just looked at it it's at 2.7 right now which is it's not

[46:37] good we have some streets flooded but I just want to get off me and telling you

[46:42] guys how hard they did you know everybody so you know that how hard they

[46:45] working they really doing a good job and that is

[46:49] really baffling I had a conversation earlier today about that it was at two

[46:54] six one now you telling me to even a little higher the perplexing things

[47:00] about that miss fusion lay is that I understand you know waters

[47:04] without is fluid into by you definitely and nobody can really I don't understand

[47:10] why it's not dropping any better all right quicker but yeah you're right

[47:15] you Shane in that workgroup have been very diligent just to let y'all know we

[47:20] have pumps in when we had the inclement weather recently somebody wouldn't cut

[47:27] the puzzle at two o'clock in the morning Shane had to get up and cut those pumps

[47:34] back off that's just wish people would be a little bit more considerate but

[47:40] yeah the Shane and his crew have done DISA a yeoman's job in managing managing

[47:46] that I think we've got about four streets in certain areas that are on the

[47:50] water and they also say that pelicans worked pretty well with us too because

[47:57] you know when those streets go underwater there's an issue with

[47:59] collecting of the trash you know us about pillaging a lot but they've

[48:05] they've come to our aid and we're trying to locate some more we're trying to find

[48:12] the mechanism where we can maybe find another difference right for another

[48:16] tossed refer a waste pickup alright that's all I have thank you any other

[48:23] councilmen yeah Justin this is chess I do you need speed the government

[48:31] extending this thing any further and if he would he was to some just to consider

[48:37] you know most of our cases that we all take pieces and everything I've been in

[48:42] with in clusters with the nursing homes and all I know there's a big push right

[48:47] now about sending huge and a few other people to try to get a Paraguay parish

[48:51] open and hopefully the whole state opens up and get her body back up and running

[48:55] but do you would you anticipate that the governor if he does that they could be

[49:01] you know I say more in parish could we look to try to get you know to get off

[49:07] Irish move I don't think you're gonna see a parish by parish opening mr.

[49:13] Tillison course this is all speculation okay right

[49:18] because I thought we would have a phase one opening on April 27th or May 1st I

[49:25] thought we would have a phase 1 reopening I think you may see a regional

[49:32] open I think the government will consider a regional opening and that's

[49:35] one of the reasons that the analysis that I mentioned about excluding those

[49:42] clusters from as a factor or if you're going to include them include them as a

[49:48] positive factor factor towards meaning consider them as what is predominating

[49:56] for a reopening not the other way around I think I think it I think that you're

[50:03] gonna see a reopening by region if not statewide but keep in mind that on April

[50:09] 27th now this is what's important on April 27 the one of the regions that had

[50:18] not met the second criterion under the guidelines under the gating criteria was

[50:25] regent for our region the Acadiana region we had not met the second

[50:30] criterion which was a 14 consecutive day of a downward trend and we were

[50:38] mentioned that together with the Baton Rouge region and I think the region in

[50:41] the Monroe area some of the hot spots that we initially saw had met the

[50:48] criteria so but I think our numbers are real good in the region and I just

[50:54] prepared a post as when this meeting ends I'm going to correct it and I'm

[50:59] gonna be posted it talks about our numbers you know we haven't had very

[51:02] many positive numbers in the last four or five days I want to say we went two

[51:09] days holding sir with zero zero positive places which was very encouraging and we

[51:15] saw similar numbers throughout region 4 so I think things are looking real

[51:19] positive at least from my perspective that I hope really hope

[51:25] that we have that reopening sooner rather than later

[51:29] I joke with people that if I don't get a haircut soon I'm gonna get a tattoo

[51:33] because my hair's my wife volunteer did they help me out she had a razor one

[51:49] hand in my life insurance policy and the other side I declined her offer if you

[52:00] want either a to our ring out any other comments

[52:10] this was a unique meeting probably historic and hopefully all made it 19th

[52:15] we're meeting in person and st. Martinville but the weather business

[52:20] I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion ocean maggot think

[52:25] about mister toes and ready for a vote mr. fusion of a yes missus robot ease

[52:32] yes this is nor cease yes mister for you yes mister toes man yet to shop on yes

[52:43] mr. Alexander yes mister Rashard yet in the chair Bose

[52:50] yes meeting adjourned thank you I yell thank

[52:55] y'all

St. Martin Parish Council Regular Meeting of May 5, 2020

Transcript