MONROE, La. – Members of the Farmerville Town met Monday in regular session and discussed multiple agenda items.
Farmerville Fire Chief Billy Jung told the Council that all fire hydrants in the town are being inspected. A first review “identified 25-30 hydrants that don’t meet current standards,” Jung said. Many of the hydrants were installed in the 1950s and 60s and need to be replaced or updating.
The Council voted to approve advertising for bids for a new roof on the old jail, the two-story, white building next to the LSU Ag Center in Farmerville.
Approval was also given to renew the water contract with Water District No. 1. The agreement had been cancelled over concerns the District was not cutting off water customers who didn’t pay their bills. That has been cleared up and the contract renewed.
There was also talk at the meeting to open discussion about putting a Union Parish Tourist Commission satellite office in Farmerville. More discussion will take place at a later date.
The controversial topic of the night came up toward the end of the agenda with topic of “Consider looking into agreement with 911 about dispatching.” Several people stood before the Council and recommended that the Farmerville Police Department not change its emergency dispatch to the 911 center. Currently, if you call 911 in Union Parish, and the call is for the FPD, it then has to be sent to the FPD dispatcher. Using the 911 center would save that time of the transfer and FPD answering period in an emergency.
According to Mayor John Crow, “There have been internal and external calls about our police department. Right now all we’re doing is ‘considering looking into 911 for our dispatchers.’ We know we have some hiccups with our police department and we’re looking to see how we can help.”
The Town Council meets the second Monday of each month at 5 p.m.
