Water Quality- Sewage- Need $9.3 Million

Recent reporting by the Gazette has addressed the Town of Farmerville’s environmental indifference [improper asbestos disposal], drinking water quality issues, partially treated and on occasion, raw sewage being released into the ephemeral stream flowing from the town sewage treatment plant into Lake D’Arbonne. Repeated efforts by the Gazette to interview Mayor Crow and the council members on these important health issues have been denied.
While refusing to address these issues, the council has practically rubber-stamped Mayor Crow’s agenda, apparently to demonstrate where the towns priorities really lie – ‘another boat ramp’ to benefit landowner’s of the chosen property for the ramp, who are also friends and supporters of the Mayor and financial benefactors of the Mayor and some of the council. This boondoggle will cost the town $2,500,000 it cannot afford, in addition to some estimated $7,000,000.00 in additional cost to taxpayers from the state capital outlay coffers. Mayor Crow has already paid $250,000.00 of the local taxpayers money to this group for an underwater site, with no warranty of title and no title insurance guaranteeing title is good, much less any assurance that it can even be used for a boat ramp. There has been no feasibility study and no one knows the real cost of construction for this project.
This problem was compounded when Mayor Crow – without council authority – signed a document with the same group of friends and supporters entitled “Deed, Option and Cooperative Endeavor Agreement”, potentially opening the town up to future suits by this “group” to determine just what the effect of such a document is. It certainly is more than a deed, the only thing the council authorized him to sign. A quarter million dollars in public funds to friends with no guaranties of anything back from the friends to the town…a one-sided document in favor of the friends creating a ‘who knows what’ obligation from the town to the friends…more the kind of conduct and business reasoning one would expect from a ‘late night irresponsible individual crashing a car into a voters home type’ than the actual Chief Executive Officer of our small and poor town that just happens to be the highest taxed in Louisiana. According to the Sales Tax Handbook, sales tax in the town of Farmerville is 4.45% state and 7% local for a combined sales tax of 11.45%. This is 7th highest in the state of Louisiana and in the top two percent of the highest of all taxing districts nationwide.
Following the last several weeks of the Gazette’s reports of the dismal performance of town public officials under the current administration, the town employees, Town Clerk and Marshal excluded, the town leapt into action last week holding a special meeting to pass a resolution to authorize the mayor to get the town ‘in line to get in line to apply’ [no this is not a typo] to seek a $7,600,000.00 ‘low interest loan’ for sewer plant renovations – a need that was pointed out by the Riley Company’s report from April of 2021, more than three years ago, as reported by the Gazette last month with supporting public documents made available to the public by the Gazette.
TOF Resolution 09-24 reads in pertinent part: “…The Mayor is hereby authorized to submit a pre-application, application, and issue debt in the amount of $7,600,000 to the Department of Environmental Quality on behalf of the Town of Farmerville for the purpose of placing this project on the Project Priority List for funding through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan program…”
TOF Resolution 10-24 reads in pertinent part: “…the Town of Farmerville, will be applying for funding through DRA (Delta Regional Authority) for the Fiscal Year 2024 Federal Award Program cycle for funding for Foster Farms Water Improvement… in the amount up to $1,425,000 and the town agrees to provide additional funds in cash up to the amount of $210,000 of the amount applied for and any amount of additional ‘in kind’ contributions for said project; …”
Certainly Foster Farms is vitally important to this parish, and proper sewage treatment is essential to the town, but this “special meeting late approach” to addressing real problems may well be too little too late for this administration as questions continue to swirl about financial irresponsibility, conflicts of interest and why hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds have already flowed freely to friends and supporters of the Mayor and the ‘powers that be’ in this small town [see the Gazette – all July issues] while needed improvements such as sewer and water have been ignored, until the Mayor and every elected alderman in this small southern town drew opposition for office by the close of candidate qualifying on July 19, 2024. Voters in this small town are smart and they will not sleep through this election. They care and they deserve much more. Responsible public officials should be trying to determine how taxes can actually be lowered to spur economic activity, instead of wasting its revenue stream on “wants” and not “needs”. Council members who may have been misled by the Mayor and his ‘consultants’ should declare so now or be prepared to own the consequences of this conduct.
Self-serving announcements of “new projects” by public officials on the eve of elections are a common trick by seasoned politicians seeking reelection. Remember the new Delta Community College campus to be built in Farmerville that Senator Stewart Cathey rode to re-election just last year, only to see it vanish this past February in the State Budget Reconciliation Committee while an unneeded boat ramp survived. How does that work? Special interests maybe? Beware of politicians bearing new promises every four years on the eve of elections, often these are nothing more than a desperate attempt to cling to power and continue their access to public funds.