MCCI wins St. Mary service contract

The St. Mary Parish Council snubbed a local business owner at last Tuesday’s regular meeting, voting to renew a $274,000 contract for mosquito control with a New Iberia business through 2010.

Members voted 7-3 to award New Iberia-based Mosquito Control Contractors Inc (MCCI) the new contract. The current deal with MCCI expires Feb. 24.

The parish council first hired MCCI in 1994. According to the new contract, MCCI will provide mosquito spraying and surveillance in the unincorporated areas of St. Mary as well as in to the Town of Baldwin and the City of Patterson. Residents who live in these areas pay a $2 monthly fee, which pays MCCI’s yearly fee.

Councilmen Kevin Voisin, Butch Middleton and Mike Domingue voted against a deal with MCCI, opting instead to support Cajun Mosquito Control LLC. The company is based in Glencoe.

Cajun Mosquito Control’s owner, Jessie Boudreaux, said the deal he was offering the parish council would have saved St. Mary Parish taxpayers $11,000 yearly. The contract, he said, would have also included a two-year trail period with a 30-day cancellation agreement, facets MCCI does not provide.

The Glencoe company currently holds surveillance and spraying contracts with the City of Franklin, upper and lower St. Martin Parish, Cypremore Point and Duggsa Carbon Plant in Louisa, La. Boudreaux said his firm also holds a spraying contract with Stephensville.

Boudreaux was not allowed to address the council at the Jan. 8 meeting. Council Chairman Albert Foulcard stopped the contractor as he approached the podium. “For you to do this would be unfair to the other person bidding on the contract,” Foulcard said as Boudreaux approached the podium.

Councilman Peter Soprano argued that Cajun Mosquito Control failed to meet the request for qualifications. “We have those in front of us,” he said. “To [consider] anything else would be beating a dead horse.”

Councilman Chuck Walters, who voted in support of the MCCI contract, called Boudreaux’s proposal a “hatchet job.” “We haven’t had any problems [with MCCI]. Why fix it if it ain’t broke?”

Several councilmen, including Walters, said Cajun Mosquito Control is unable to provide the needed surveillance, alerting the parish within 48 hours if the West Nile virus is detected. Because the company does not have a full-time entomologist on staff, Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange advised Cajun Mosquito Control’s required qualifications did not match MCCI’s.

“It’s obvious that Mosquito Control Contractors is the most qualified,” he said.

Boudreaux contends that he does not employ a full-time entomologist because he relies on LSU. “I use a pool of entomologists on staff at the LSU vet school. That’s the number one place in the state where parishes send infected birds for testing.”