Marina Prestenbach
@MarinaPrestenb1

The Scott City Council unanimously voted to amend their budget for a total of $341,600 at the city council meeting Thursday Nov. 7.

$205,800 of that funding was directed for the Scott Police Department. The money will support one new 2020 patrol vehicle along with updated equipment, new radios for the department, and updated computers.

$36,000 of the money funding the police department was originally mandated for perimeter fencing, but Police Chief Scott Leger requested that the council redirect the money to computer updates and to add an additional $7,400 to cover the full cost of updating the department’s computers.

 “We were informed by our IT people recently that the Windows 7 program will be obsolete after Jan. 1. Unfortunately, 18 of our laptops and desktops operate on Windows 7. We received a quote from our IT people to replace these computers, which is right at $43,400.”

The majority of the remaining budget amendments will fund the engineering and construction of a traffic signal at Westgate Road and Eraste Landry Road.

Property exceptions were unanimously approved for a new automotive accessory store, and a new driving school to open within the city.

Resolution #2019-44, an issue discussed in previous city council meetings, was unanimously approved to allow for Richard to execute amendment No. 1 to the wholesale water agreement between Scott and the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government. This agreement determines water rates that residents throughout the city pay.

“This is a resolution extending the term of our agreement with LUS, in terms of water,” Richard said. “We were the only municipality that wasn’t in line with the remaining municipalities, which was affecting the water rates as a whole. So, trying to get in line with the rest of the municipalities so that our rates when those rates are increases will be in line with everyone else.”

According to Richard, Scott was always nine to ten cents above other cities because their agreed-to term with LUS was significantly shorter than other municipalities.

“We did get word that the rates will be going up a little bit, but we will be in line with the remaining municipalities in the parish so that we are all on the same playing field.”