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Mayor says Vidalia doesn't benefit from drainage tax
Mayor Hyram Copeland says he may seek legislation to exempt Vidalia residents from having to pay the parishwide 10-mill drainage tax because "the city doesn't benefit."
He also said this week that the Police Jury needs to improve drainage in the Vidalia Canal and Cocodrie Bayou. The canal stretches 9.5 miles from Vidalia southwesterly to Cocodrie, the parish's main drainage source.
Copeland clashed with Jury President Melvin Ferrington over drainage at a meeting last week. The mayor says the Jury does nothing to help relieve drainage issues inside the town although Vidalia pays one-third of the parishwide drainage millage.
The millage generated $855,000 last year with 75 percent of the revenue going to parishwide drainage, including the purchase of equipment and materials, and the rest for the upkeep of public buildings. Copeland says the tax costs Vidalia residents $323,000 annually.
Total receipts for the drainage fund totaled $971,000 last year with about $116,000 coming from sources other than the tax.
But Ferrington and Randy Temple, a Vidalia resident who is the Jury's Finance Committee chairman, countered Copeland's complaints. Each said Vidalia does benefit from the millage and they say Copeland's remarks came on the heels of a 100-year rain event when 10-plus inches fell in matter of hours on Aug. 18.
"I got three calls from the Code Red warning system the day of the rain," said Temple. "Each call said the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning for Vidalia and Concordia Parish and stated that flooding was imminent in low lying areas and that residents should seek high ground. Anytime you get that kind rain in that short of period there is going to be flooding."
(For full story subscribe to The Concordia Sentinel 318-757-3646.) |
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