Police Jury deadlocks on noise ordinance

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish Police Jury deadlocked 3-3 on a proposed noise ordinance after a lengthy discussion Monday.

The proposed ordinance arose from complaints last year about a motorcycle track used by a professional rider and has been modified several times.

Six parish residents spoke for the noise restrictions, including several people who originally complained about the track last summer, and five spoke against it.

Jurors Heather Howle, Lea Williams and Otis Wilson voted for the new law, while Mel Percy, Ricky Lambert and Melvin Young dissented. Juror John Kean was absent.

Howle urged the jury to pass the ordinance, saying it had been changed with “additions in red.”

Opponent Hamilton Willis reminded jurors that people in the audience were not privy to the changes “in red,” but said the ordinance would infringe on property rights.

Lambert also said he had not been informed of the changes Howle mentioned.

James Welsh, who said he had another track built near his property line, said dirt bikes create the “most horrible, obnoxious noise you can imagine.”

Other topics before the jury included:

CHARTER DELIVERED: Jack Hanemann, chairman of the parish’s Home Rule Charter Commission, delivered nine copies of a proposed home-rule charter for the parish, which the jury must submit to the voters. The commission worked on the proposal for 17 months.

If approved by the voters, the charter would substitute a parish president and five-member parish council for the seven-member Police Jury. Four of the council members would be elected from districts and one would be elected in parishwide voting.

TAX VOTES: Jurors agreed to call elections Nov. 6 to renew a 1-mill property tax for economic development, a half-cent sales tax for recreation and social services and a half-cent sales tax for the hospital. Voters also will decide whether to increase the homestead exemption for veterans with 100 percent service-connected disabilities.