Residents and jurors spar over road conditions as jury details recent spending on repairs

Residents from Ward 4 and other parts of Sabine Parish appealed to the Sabine Parish Police Jury on April 16, pressing for more reliable road maintenance and quicker responses to damaged culverts and washed-out stretches.

Public commenter Gloria Bruce said her family frequently cannot safely use their road and described repeated vehicle damage from poor surfacing. "We got text message. I got pictures. I can tell y'all kind of stuff, and I don't appreciate the way he talks to me when I try and talk to him outside of this meeting," Bruce said during public comments on agenda item 21.

Juror Bruce Taylor and road staff responded with a review of recent work orders and expenditures. Taylor said the jury budgeted $500,000 for gravel and rock in Ward 4 for 2024; he supplied a line-item accounting for five roads residents named. Taylor reported the five roads (New Hope Road, Middle Creek Road, Pump Station Road, Gohagen Road and Bay Springs Road) together received roughly $181,250 in rock and aggregate during the period he reviewed, or about 36% of Ward 4’s gravel budget, and that those five roads total about 23.2 miles of the ward’s roughly 56 miles of maintained roads.

Road staff and jurors said some repairs — culvert replacements and ditch cleaning — have been completed in spots, and that more work orders exist than residents may realize. Taylor described a recent success: after a crew installed a higher culvert on Go Hagen Road, the stretch stopped flooding for years. "Ever since he did that, that road hasn't flooded again, not 1 time since he's done that," Taylor said.

Bobby, identified in the meeting as the parish road superintendent, and Juror Gary Hughes (who chairs the road oversight in the discussion) said staffing and equipment constraints limit how quickly every request can be handled. Hughes noted that the parish crew is small and that emergency tasks and other planned work can delay responses. He and other jurors asked residents to continue reporting problem spots and said the road office will follow up and inspect the sites residents named.

The jurors also discussed pipeline- and logging-related damage. Residents said large rock used to stabilize some stretches has been uncomfortable for passenger vehicles and that pipeline contractors had left visible damage on Mill Creek Road. Jurors repeated that funds that are collected for repairing specific roads are intended to be spent on those roads; those funds must be tracked and assigned to particular work orders.

The jury chair asked staff to follow up directly with the residents who testified and encouraged ride-alongs to inspect conditions. Jurors also urged residents to continue submitting photos and work-order requests so staff can prioritize repairs.

Ending: Jurors said they will continue to monitor the named roads and follow up with the road superintendent and staff; residents said they will press for clearer timelines and better communications. Several jurors urged that the road office and the parish administration document work orders and follow through on the culvert and drainage repairs residents named.