Road issue divides Livingston council

• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: May 9, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

LIVINGSTON — Rural and urban members of the Livingston Parish Council divided Thursday night on the bumpy issue of gravel roads.

The council voted 5-3 to accept six more private gravel roads into the parish’s maintenance system.

“Any road accepted into the system ought to meet parish standards,” said Thomas Watson, who represents the Walker area, when asked after the meeting why he voted against accepting the roads.

“I don’t know if they’re taking in driveways or roads,” said Marshall Harris, who represents the Denham Springs area, when asked a similar question. He said won’t vote to accept any roads into the parish system without at least seeing pictures of the roads.

That also has been the position of Councilwoman Cindy Wale, who represents an area north and east of Denham Springs. She cast the third “no” vote on each of the roads.

No pictures were shown to the council on any of the roads prior to the votes.

Rural members of the council have maintained that the people who live on gravel roads in their districts pay taxes just like people who live in towns and subdivisions and that the parish should also maintain rural residents’ roads.

A parish ordinance allows the council to accept a road for parish maintenance if the road serves at least two structures with addresses.

The issue could move to another level at the next meeting when council members vote on how to spend the $5 million available this year for resurfacing roads. Some members of the council advocate paving gravel roads, while others favor resurfacing heavily traveled roads that have begun to show problems.

Wale has suggested that the council should come up with a parishwide master plan for paving roads based on need.

Ronnie Sharp, who chairs the council’s Road Committee, and some other rural members of the council have indicated they favor splitting the money evenly among the nine council districts with council members deciding which roads to resurface in their own districts.

That would amount to about $555,000 for each district, Sharp has estimated.

Sharp said that each council member knows best which roads need to be done in his or her own district.