Many unpaved roads in Bossier Parish will soon be in for a facelift after members of the parish police jury awarded a bid Wednesday of just over $409,000 to F.J. Furnell for aggregate road improvements.
Parish Engineer Butch Ford told members of the police jury that the use of aggregate for the road surface will help the parish save money.
“That’s (aggregate) why the difference is from $542,000 down to $409,000,” Ford said.
According to the state Dept. of Transportation and Development (DOTD), three types of aggregate are acceptable, Ford explained. Contractors may use stone, sand clay gravel or crushed concrete. Crushed concrete will be used on the parish roads.
“DOTD and the highway department has been urging recycling, and crushed concrete performs just like any other aggregate,” Ford said. “It will be checked to be sure all DOTD specifications are met.”
Ford also told jurors that FEMA would have an assessment team in the parish next week to revisit parish bridges and paved roads that were damaged in the latest round of flooding earlier this year.
“They’ll be in to discuss disagreements on costs of some bridges like on Kelly Rd. and Swan Lake Rd.,” he said. “We will ride the paved roads…we want them to see the damage now as compared to March so they can see the flood did it. We need to get closure on how much we’ll get from them.”
Treasurer Sheryl Thomas presented the parish police jury’s estimated 2017 operating budget of slightly over $53 and a half million for approval along with the 2017 estimated budget for the consolidated waterworks system of just over $3 million.
Jury members officially approved the 2017 budgets, and scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 21 to consider adopting the 2016 amended budget.
Those figures represent a reduction in the totals estimated for the 2016 budgets. The 2017 estimated operating budget for the police jury is $53,557,870 compared to $54,908,467 for 2016. Estimated operating budget for consolidated waterworks is $3,061207 for 2017, and $4,237,210 in the estimated budget for 2016.
