Monday, May 12, 2008
ASK THE ADVOCATE
| Every Monday through Friday, The Advocate will answer questions from its readers. One question will be answered per day. Send questions to asktheadvocate@theadvocate.com. |
| Monday, May 12, 2008 |
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Q: I noticed that my estimated state income tax check to the state of Louisiana is deposited in a Texas bank. Are there no banks in Louisiana able to handle this?
A: The state has a banking contract with Chase, which was awarded by competitive bid, said Tara Cunningham, spokeswoman for the state Department of Revenue. The contract provides for a courier from Chase to pick up the checks received in the department’s revenue processing center and deliver the checks to Chase for processing, she said. Usually the checks are processed at Chase’s processing center in New Orleans, but if the New Orleans processing center is having equipment problems or for any other reason, the checks may be shipped to one of their other processing centers located out of state, Cunningham said. This is permissible under their contract, she said. |
| Friday, May 9, 2008 |
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Q: What is the reason for naming the area between the River Center and the Old State Capitol Repentance Park? A: The site is the location of an early street known as Calle di Repentado by the Spanish, which was later Anglicized to Repentance Street. In 1979, State-Times Managing Editor Ernest Gueymard wrote a column that explained the legend about the street’s name as “the route over which prisoners were taken while being led to jail or court. It was a small street that angled from Lafayette Street and extended across North Boulevard by the Old State Capitol. The city later acquired the land to extend Lafayette Street to North Boulevard and removed the old Repentance Street. Construction of the Riverside Centroplex, now the River Center, removed the last segments of the street in the 1970s. Source: Ernest Gueymard, “The Story of Second St.” State-Times, Jan. 15, 1979. |
| Thursday, May 8, 2008 |
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Q: Why can’t the Sheriff’s Office stop the youngsters that race up and down the Port Hudson-Plains Road in the Sutter Lane/Brittney Renee Drive area? These kids are traveling with sometimes two or three on a four-wheeler, with no helmets. This is a 55-mph road. When you call the Sheriff’s Office it sometimes takes 30 minutes to respond and when they do catch them they usually just warn them and tell them not to do it again. Shortly after the officers leave, the kids are at it again. It seems like a few tickets to the kids and their parents might slow them down. A: Casey Rayborn Hicks, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, replied: “The Sheriff’s Office responds to all calls to service. Because of high call volume, our communications division is trained to prioritize these calls. In all cases deputies are dispatched. “Our deputies are encouraged to be mindful of such activity, especially in rural areas. We have instructed them to increase patrols in such areas after school lets out, which seems to be when the incidents occur most. Tickets are discretionary, and decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. In reference to this particular area, we have only three reports where calls came in and dispatches were made this year. Again, we respond to all calls made to us and act appropriately given the circumstances of each case.” |
| Wednesday, May 7, 2008 |
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Q: How can I obtain a copy of a criminal court case? A: Unless it’s a sealed court case, all criminal court cases are public record in the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s office, said spokesman Fred Sliman. Cases under seal are not publicly available but those are only a small fraction of the records. Criminal court records, including a subdivision for traffic records, can be viewed for free in the Clerk of Court’s Criminal Records office in the basement of the Governmental Building, 222 St. Louis St., Sliman said. Older court cases are sometimes taken to a nearby archive but can still be requested. Copies of the records are available for 50 cents per page, Sliman said. Certified copies are available for $1 per page. |
| Tuesday, May 6, 2008 |
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Q: I used to go to the Bluebonnet Boulevard production facility of The Advocate to get the leftover paper you used to give out. I went the other day, and it has closed. Do you still give out the leftover rolls of paper? And if so, where do I need to go to? A: Our location has changed to a new production center on Reiger Road, said Advocate production director Bret Dupre. The new presses run the paper down almost to the core, leaving very little paper. We recycle the cores that the paper is on whereas the old press cores were not recyclable. So, unfortunately we had to discontinue giving away the excess paper. |
| Monday, May 5, 2008 |
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Q: When someone buys an alarm system and pays a company to monitor it, why do the police get called to respond at the taxpayer’s expense? I’ve always been told that a home alarm going off is very low on the priority list for police because they are busy dealing with violent crime and car accidents. Why doesn’t the company collecting the monthly monitoring fee have to provide for the security of these homes? A: Sgt. Don Kelly, public information officer for the Baton Rouge Police Department, explains: There’s no doubt that a significant amount of police patrol time is spent responding to burglar alarm calls at businesses and residences, and that most of those alarms are false. To help reduce that number and also to subsidize the cost to taxpayers, the city of Baton Rouge since 1986 has required by ordinance that every alarm user obtain a one-time permit for every location that has an alarm. The permits cost $25 each and each allows five free false alarm responses per location per fiscal year. After that, false alarms six through 10 are fined at $10 each, and any beyond that at $25 apiece. In 2007, the city collected over $100,000 in permit fees and $50,000 in false alarm fines. Many cities around the country also have moved to a “verified response” model where the police do not actually respond to an alarm unless there is verification that a crime has actually occurred, putting the burden on the permit holder and the alarm company to conduct the initial response. But while that model does reduce the amount of time police spend responding to false alarms it also takes away much of the deterrent effect of having an alarm system in the first place — that activation will prompt a timely armed police response. It also virtually eliminates the possibility that law enforcement might catch the burglar in the act, something which does occur frequently. Most false alarms are easily preventable, caused by operator error and poorly installed or maintained systems. The False Alarm Reduction Association offers many tips for alarm owners to improve the effectiveness of their system at www.faraonline.org. Individual questions regarding the permitting process or the ordinance can be directed to our Alarm Enforcement Division at 389-3805. |
| Friday, May 2, 2008 |
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Q: Why is Prince Valiant still in the comics? Does anyone really still read it? A: Prince Valiant is, as you indicate, a very long-running comic. It is an action adventure, and it is more detailed and serialized than most. While we believe it still has a serious following, we will be asking our readers in the near future to list their favorite comics to see if we should change. We will have mail-in ballots as well as electronic ballots on 2theadvocate.com. We hope the response from our readers is great enough for us to establish definitively which comics we should keep and which ones we should drop. |
| Thursday, May 1, 2008 |
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Q: Which East Baton Rouge Parish residential subdivision has the highest elevation in the parish? Which has the lowest? A: The highest elevations in Baton Rouge with residential development are areas north of Zachary where land is 120 feet above sea level in many areas, said Jim Ferguson, drainage, bridge and flood engineer for the city-parish. The subdivisions with the lowest elevations would be the neighborhoods around Hoo Shoo Too Road along the Amite River where many homes are built on stilts because the land is at about 10 feet elevation, he said. |
| More questions |
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The Advocate keeps Ask The Advocate content online for one month. |
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Send questions to Ask The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588; or fax to Ask The Advocate, 225-388-0297; or e-mail to asktheadvocate@theadvocate.com. |
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