By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

CONVENT – Wednesday night’s St. James Parish Council meeting revealed some optimistic news for the future of the St. James Parish Youth Detention Center and a call for improvements with the area recycling program.

Ridgely Mitchell, confidential assistant to the parish president, read an email he received from Judge Alvin Turner on Jan. 22 that provided details of a meeting he attended with Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack at the Assumption Parish Jail. According to the email, the attendees “do not see any major hurdles that will prevent the facility from being licensed (for use as a juvenile detention facility). A few issues exist, but the sheriff seems to be ahead of the game in addressing them.” At the conclusion of the meeting, the group provided Waguespack with contacts to assist him in preparing the facility for a formal inspection, according to the email.

Mitchell said that after receiving the email, he set a commission meeting for Friday, Feb. 9, and that Waguespack agreed to provide further updates on that day. Waguespack announced plans last year to build a new adult detention center in Napoleonville. Once the new facility was built, Waguespack intended to move the St. James Parish Youth Center into the building that once housed the adults.

Former District 1 councilman Elwyn Bocz came to the podium next to address the state of the recycling progra. Bocz said the recycling trailers were not being emptied frequently enough, creating a mess and causing frustration for residents.

“The problem is that you bring your recycling to the site and the trailer’s full. On three different occasions, in my case, I’ve gone to the recycling site, and I wasn’t able to unload my stuff. I noticed that people couldn’t deposit their materials so they put it on the ground up against the trailer,” said Anderson.

“When the parish first had a recycling program, it was curbside. We had a hard enough time getting the people to participate, and all they had to do was put their recyclable material in a box and put it by the side of the road. Now, we’re asking people to take the recyclable material and put it in their car and drive to a spot, and they get there and can’t put it in the trailer…it’s not going to take very long before they throw their hands up in the air and say ‘Hey, I’m not gonna fool with this,’” he added.

Parish President Timmy Roussel commiserated with Anderson and said the trailers located Gramercy, Vacherie and District 7 filled noticeably faster than the ones placed in other areas. Roussel said he would try to call meeting with the recycling group about emptying the trailers more frequently but said he had problems contacting them in the past.

The council members also discussed a controversial moratorium against the building of new RV parks and campgrounds in response to resident dissatisfaction, the rejection of Picadilly Cafeteria’s bid to create emergency shelter meals and an outline of future hurricane protections measures for the parish.