District run dry

Published 6:30 am Thursday, March 29, 2018

During Executive Committee, the Iberia Parish Council voted to move forward abolishing Waterworks District No. 4 with the eventual intention of consolidating the Grand Marais and Lydia area of the parish with Waterworks District No. 3.

Legal counsel Dean Wattigny said the move would specifically expand the boundaries of District 3 to cover the areas currently covered by District 4. 

“We’re going to dissolve one and expand the boundaries of District 3,” Wattigny said at the meeting. “This is a simpler process, by dissolving 4 and then later expanding District 3, you’ll find a smoother process.”

The decision comes at the apparent agreement with all involved in the process. Waterworks District 4 has struggled with finding funding and board members to effectively run the district. Councilman Eugene Olivier said a resolution has not yet been passed to dissolve the district, but should at their next regular meeting. 

The move would increase the current size of the Waterworks District 3 board from five members to seven, with members of the former district being represented in the new district. Once approved, District 3 would essentially be the provider for all unincorporated areas of Iberia Parish.  

In other business, the council also began the process of determining new year millages at the meeting. Councilman Paul Landry made a substitute motion to set each of the parish’s millages at their maximum. However, the vote wasn’t to set the millages, but only to determine how many mills the council will be able to deal with when millages will be set. 

Landry emphasized that the vote would not increase the millages, but when the time came for the final vote it would give the council flexibility so that they could discuss if any of the property taxes should actually be increased. 

“I’m not saying we want to go there, but if we don’t change it tonight we won’t be able to move it up,” Landry said. “The substitutes have to happen tonight, if we dont change them we’re stuck at (last year’s rates) as a maximum.”

“This is giving us the opportunity to maneuver our millages,” Councilman Ricky Gonsoulin said.

The mills set included .80 mills for Courthouse and Maintenance, 3.5 for Public Library, 4.76 for Public Building Maintenance, 2.11 for Public Health Unit, 4.0 for Drainage, .20 for Public Library debt, 2.06 for Criminal and 4.12 for General Alimony.