21490 Koop Drive
Mandeville, La 70471
Phone: (985) 898-2535
Fax: (985) 898-2523 |
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Dear Citizens of St. Tammany Parish:
Fighting the scourge of litter has been a cornerstone of the St. Tammany Parish Government since the day I became Parish President. Within ninety days of taking the oath of office, I worked with the Parish Council to take the following steps to address litter in St. Tammany:
- Passed into law an ordinance establishing strict civil and criminal penalties for
littering.
- Created a local Litter Court to help our Constables and Justices of the Peace
bring litterers to justice.
- Funded a Litter Abatement Crew to make those found guilty of litter crimes go
out on the road, pick-up litter, and help solve the problem they helped create.
To date these programs have been a success: the Litter Court has been awarded Keep Louisiana Beautiful Awards two years in a row and is recognized by the Office of the Attorney General for Louisiana as a model program; over $30,000.00 in fines have been issued since the start of the program; the Parish now has two Litter Abatement patrol vehicles for Constables to utilize when investigating litter violations; and the Litter Abatement Crew has picked up over 150,000 pounds of litter along 914 miles of Parish roadways.
But all these programs and achievements mean little without the help of citizens like you. Fighting the scourge of litter is a community effort. Citizens need to take an active role in stopping those who feel that trashing our parish is acceptable.
As you may have noticed, we placed signs throughout the Parish that have contact numbers for you to call if you witness a littering violation take place. The Parish's litter laws allow a citizen to swear out a complaint against the offender and provide detailed information about the violation. For example, should you witness someone throwing litter from their vehicle, write down the license plate number. A Constable can use that information to track down the offender and issue the person a summons to the Litter Court.
The Parish needs everyone's help to fight litter.
Yours truly,
Kevin Davis
Parish President
