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Highway/Road Maintenance
The Parish Highway Department is responsible for the maintenance and repair of all roads and bridges within the parish. The revenue to accomplish this is derived mainly from three sources: an ad valorem tax, a percentage of timber proceeds from the Kisatchie National Forest, and the State Parish Road Fund (gasoline tax).
The Police Jury currently maintains 972 roads and streets, totaling approximately 825 miles and 119 bridges. Of these 800-plus miles of parish roads, approximately 325 miles are hard surfaced with 500 miles of dirt/gravel. As with all other parishes in the state, Highway/Road Maintenance has been faced with tax revenues remaining fairly constant over a long period of time, while citizens request more services. At the same time, inflation has escalated the cost of materials and equipment. In short, this has put the Police Jury in the position of having to do more - with less to do it with. To help address this problem, the Highway/Road Maintenance Department's labor force has been reduced by some 50 percent since the late 1980s.
On a brighter note however, following voters' approval of the 1989 Amendment #1 Gasoline Tax, the Police Jury opted to contract the Capital Outlay/ Overlay Project in order to assure that the maximum amount of money would be spent on repairing/rebuilding roads in the highest traveled areas with the greatest need. The Highway Department's crews remain focused upon grading, ditching, mowing and other general maintenance of the parish roads and bridges throughout what is one of the largest geographic parishes in the state.
It is estimated that current revenues provide only about one third of the funds that are required to do what is really needed on our roads, and until that revenue picture improves, roads will continue to decline.
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