Esma Orgeron
July 2, 2007
NSU business college dean elected to state CPA board
July 4, 2007By moving an $8 million balance in the Lafourche Parish Library Board’s building budget, the parish council ensured work on libraries in Lockport and Thibodaux will be completed.
The Lafourche Parish Council OK’d move the money into escrow accounts at its meeting last Tuesday.
“I don’t trust the library board as far as I can throw them,” said Councilman Mark Atzenhoffer.
Confusion arose among members who feared there wasn’t enough money to complete either project.
Atzenhoffer provided an apparent solution – money for all three projects should be kept in escrow. Thibodaux would be allotted $4.2 million, $2.5 million for Lockport, and $1.3 million would go toward a library in Larose.
“They [library board] have to live up to their commitments or tell us why they can’t live up to them,” Atzenhoffer said, saying that putting the money into escrow was a sound business decision.
Escrow is a legal arrangement where money is given to a third party pending the fulfillment of a contract.
Library Board President Jimmy Cantrelle expressed his relief at the move. “This has been a challenge for everybody. Every board member did his best,” he said.
Prior to the council meeting, the library board accepted the $934,000 bid of M&H Builders, Inc., of Thibodaux, to construct the Larose library. M&H’s bid was $57,000 less than its closest competitor.
Construction is scheduled to begin in Larose this fall.
The original budget to build the Larose site was $850,000, and with Tuesday night’s escrow figure of $1.3 million, debt will no longer be a worry.
Lockport and Thibodaux are in the construction bid phase. The estimated time of completion is uncertain.
In the latter part of 2006, the parish library system completed projects in Raceland, Bayou Blue, Galliano Annex and Choctaw.
The Lafourche Parish library system services more than 19,000 children and 2,500 teenagers. The 2006 operating budget for the library system was a little more than $2 million.
In other council news, reports were confirmed that Lafourche Public Library Director Beverly Arabie submitted her resignation in writing after Monday night’s Lafourche Library Board of Control meeting.
Arabie’s resignation is effective July 31, according to Cantrelle.
However, Parish Finance Director Shannon Chiasson resigned after 3 1/2 years of service came as a shock to every at Tuesday’s meeting.
Chiasson said she had been offered an “incredible opportunity” to take a job in the same field as the educational leadership doctorate she is pursuing at the University of New Orleans.
The council narrowly voted to keep Chiasson as the finance director last June after several councilmen expressed frustration with the amount of time it took her to notify them about developments within the system.
