• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 15, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Residents in two East Baton Rouge Parish crime-prevention districts decided Saturday to charge themselves additional money every year to pay for more law enforcement patrols.

Residents in the Hermitage-Cross Creek Crime Prevention and Development District approved a $100 annual fee to hire Sheriff Office deputies to provide additional patrols.

The group split this year from the South Burbank Crime Prevention and Development District.

The separate district includes 415 single-family lots of the Hermitage subdivision and 80 single-family lots of the Cross Creek subdivision.

Residents approved the fee by a vote of 151-67, according to complete but unofficial returns.

The fee will be collected for the next 10 years starting in January.

Sammie Grimes, president of the Hermitage Home Owners Association, said residents had been paying the $100 to the South Burbank Crime Prevention and Development District, but were not satisfied with the law enforcement patrols the district provided.

He said the money should be enough to pay for 15 to 20 hours of patrols a week, but that will vary. Initially, there will need to be a heavier emphasis on patrols to let people know the service is back and to deter crimes of opportunity, Grimes  said.

“It looks like we have it,” Grimes said Saturday night.

But added he wasn’t going to celebrate until the results became official.

Grimes said there was a problem Saturday morning with several people who live in the district not being able to vote on the fee.

Fred Sliman, a spokesman for East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s Office, said the staff went to the location and found a problem with the codes in the machine that determined who could vote on the crime prevention issue.

The problem was addressed, but it’s possible that “a couple people weren’t allowed to vote,” on the issue, Sliman said.