Webster Parish Police Jury-October Meeting Recap

The Webster Parish Police Jury held its monthly meeting on Tuesday. The jury sat as a board of review for the 2021 assessment of property in Webster Parish. The Jury heard from Webster Parish Assessor, Denise Edwards, who informed the Jury that there were four protests against the 2021 Parish tax roll. All four protests were by Covia/Covia Energy, which was formerly Unimin. Covia was requesting that their total assessed value be lowered from $1,921,980 to $112,500. While Covia noted that there was a pending sale on the property, Jury President Jim Bonsal stated that the Jury really didn’t feel that they could make an accurate and fair decision on what the value of the assessment should be, noting that the final decision would come at the state level anyway. The Jury voted 11-0 (Juror Allen Gilbert was absent from the meeting) to take no action on the assessment protest. Edwards did inform the Jury that the total value of all property in the parish did decrease in 2021 by approximately $5 million mainly due to a decrease in the Public Service Properties, which is valued by the LTC and a decrease in the Oil and Gas Properties due to the decline in the industry. 

 

According to Edwards, the total value in 2021 was $318,658,377 with a homestead of $58,743,332 leaving the total taxable value of property at $259,915,045. The total number of taxpayers in the parish is 26,441, an increase of 437. Of that total, 12,386 have homestead and 7,375 of those are covered 100% by homestead. There are 32,983 parces and the parish sends out 26,441 tax notices which include the municipalities of Minden, Doyline, Cotton Valley, Cullen, and Sarepta. SIbley and Springhill send their own tax notices. 

 

Tax amounts payable to the Jury include: 

 

District	Millage Rate 2021	2021 Taxes
Parish Tax Outside	4.27 mills	$725,411
Parish Tax Inside	2.13 mills	$191,770
Road District A	2.62 mills	$424,457
Road District B	3.95 mills	$381,842
Courthouse, Health Center, Ag/4H	2.77 mills	$719,964
Library	12.39 mills	$3,220,345

 

The Police Jury showed a net decrease of $67,677 for 2021, while the Library showed a net decrease of $74,289.

In other business, the jury approved:

• Board Appointments to Evergreen Fire Protection District: Appointing Kevin Miller, Chairman to fill unexpired term of Randy Crittenden, term ending 12/31/2022.
• Approved Annual Off System Bridge System Requirements for 2021, Ordinance #856 amended, and resolutions. 
• Approved resolution 008-2021, designating signature authority for Louisiana Development Block Grant for Water improvement. 
• Amended Chapter 5 Ordinance, Special event permits. This ordinance is in response to the large “flash mob” type trail rides popping up in rural parts of the parish. While the maximum amount that the Parish can fine is $500, it is expected that the permit requirement will considerably slow down the large-scale events and relieve pressure on the Sheriff Department and Emergency Responders on calls to these type events. 
• Approved Resolution 009-2021, approving an election in Evergreen Fire Protection District in Claiborne and Webster Parishes on Saturday, March 26, 2022 to authorize the levy of a special tax. 

 

The Jury heard the monthly report from the Webster Parish Coroner’s Office, which reported 58 deaths, 19 Orders of Protective Custody, and 9 Coroner Emergency Certificates in September. 

Brian Williams with Homeland Security and Office of Emergency Preparedness reported that the Covid-19 positivity rate in Webster Parish was at 6.7% as of Monday, down from 16.1% last month. According to Williams, there were 930 new cases in September and 20 deaths. In Region 7, there were 147 patients in the hospital, with 11 of those requiring a ventilator. Locally, there are 5 cases in Minden and 0 in Springhill. Williams did note that vaccinations were up in the parish.

Webster 911 Director, Angie Chapman, reported 2,911 calls were made in September, up by 161 from August. 75 of those were fire calls, 334 were for EMS, 501 for law enforcement, and 122 were calls with no one on the line, or accidental calls. 

The next meeting of the Webster Parish Police Jury is scheduled for Tuesday, November 2nd.