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CHURCH POINT - The Church Point Town Council unanimously approved a budget amendment of $100,000 to add on to the town’s police station.
Mayor Ryan “Spanky” Meche said, “What it is, basically, we have people working in closets over there. I hate to say it like that, but it kind of frustrates me when, in their dispatcher office, they’ve got a refrigerator, they’ll go eat (in there while the dispatchers are working).”
The current building is about 15 years old and around 1,000 square feet in size. The planned addition will be around 7,000 square feet. The money to fund the addition will come from the court fund.
“We don’t want to do it (add on) today and have to do it again in 10 years,” Meche said.
Meche said the addition work will be done by town employees, just as the construction of the buggy display building was done, leading to a good discount from not hiring a contractor. Meche said construction on the addition will likely begin early next year.
“We are going to get, probably, a $200,000 or $300,000 investment for less than $100,000,” he said. “We know how to do it. We’ve done it before. What we want to see for them is (to) have an adequate kitchen that they are not interrupting the dispatcher while eating. We want to get people working out of that four-by-six closet. We want to do it the right way.
“The thing about it is, the police station has run a very good budget for the past few years, and we have the money for it. I think it will be well spent.”
Church Point Police Chief Dale Thibodeaux also weighed in on the planned addition.
“Any time someone comes to sit in my office, I can put two people in my office — I can sit two people,” Thibodeaux said.
“It’s a shoe box. It’s kind of embarrassing when I’ve got chiefs or somebody from out of town coming or a family comes to make a complaint and I’ve got to have them standing up in the hall where everybody can hear our business.
“It wasn’t always like that. It used to be, the chief’s office was the big office, and they had two patrolmen in that small office. When I took over, I gave them the big office because now you’ve got three patrolmen in one office and I work out of the small office, which is the supply closet. We have people that are being booked where people in cells can hear all their information.
“It’s time to expand,” he added. “The town is growing, the police department is growing, the building needs to grow.”
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Wade Berzas owner of Acadiana Bucks Baseball, requested that the town install new lights at the town’s baseball fields. Berzas said one field is fully lit, another is very dimly lit and two fields do not have lights, limiting playing time to the afternoons during daylight savings time.
Berzas, who was joined by several players, parents and coaches at the meeting, said new lighting would help to expand the town’s recreational activities to more children as well as allow the town to host tournaments and other events.
Later in the meeting, the council unanimously approved an amendment match of $26,700 from the Church Point High School Alumni Tournament to go towards baseball park lighting.
During his Mayor’s Report, Meche said that more than 700 vehicles drove through the town’s drive-through Christmas light display at Central Park from Nov. 25-27, the opening weekend of the display.
Town Engineer Pam Granger with McBade Engineering gave the town’s engineering report.
Granger said she is waiting on the governor’s approval letter for the town’s planned water project that will include upgrades to the plant, replacement of meters and installation of valves. The project will be funded by monies from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Granger said she and Meche discussed a potential, future project to increase the town’s water storage capacity, which would benefit everyone in the community immediately.
Granger said the U.S. Corp of Engineers permit for the town’s planned detention ponds was received, and there are a few more steps left in the paperwork before the town can move forward with purchasing the land where the ponds will be located.
Prior to the start of the meeting, a public hearing for the Municode ordinances was hosted. No comments made.
Other agenda items unanimously approved during the meeting were:
• Accept the high bid of $2,291.91 for the sale of the surplus Dodge Durango.
• Adoption of the Municode Code of Ordinances.
• Reappointment of Burt Faul and Dale Wimberly to Fire District 10.
• Renewal of all liquor licenses for all current liquor license holders.
• Liquor license request for Ibtisaan Swati, new owner of EZ Kwik Stop.
• Match of $12,500 for Church Point Community Development Corporation work on Central Park Gateway and Welcome Sign.
• Match of $1,270 for barricades.
• Declare surplus a police Ford Taurus.