Duties of retiring manager assigned

CLINTON — The East Feliciana Parish Police Jury voted Tuesday to give the duties of secretary and treasurer to two members of the jury staff without corresponding raises in pay.

Jurors also took turns praising the service of retiring Parish Manager Judith G. Kelly, who also served as the jury’s secretary-treasurer. The meeting was Kelly’s last after 37 years as a jury employee.

The jury accepted Personnel Committee Chairman Ed Brooks’ recommendation to name Barbara “Babs” Hebert as the jury’s secretary and Joe “JR” Rouchon as treasurer “for the rest of the year.”

Kelly was named secretary-treasurer in 1982 and took on the duties of parish manager in 2008.

Other topics before the jury included:

DISASTER ASSISTANCE: Parish Homeland Security Director Bud Weigand reported that the state Department of Children and Family Services will open a site in Clinton either Wednesday or Thursday to process applications from families who need extra help in buying food because of Hurricane Isaac.

The Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program site will be at the former temporary parish courtroom on Plank Road near the parish jail, Weigand said. Residents may begin the application process online at the website, http://www.dcfs.la.gov/preapply or call (888) LAHELP-U (524-3578).

Weigand said he is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to find a location for a Disaster Recovery Center for the parish.

BRUSH SPRAYING: Jurors increased the budget for roadside spraying of brush in rights of way from $7,500 to $14,000 in an attempt to cover two-thirds of the parish roads needing treatment to prevent bushes from encroaching into travel lanes. The $7,500 spent last year did not quite cover a third of the parish roads, Rouchon said.

A private company does the spraying for $90 per acre, Rouchon said.