Residents press council on Shady Grove bridge, cemetery upkeep and animal control; parish offers safety assessment and mowing

Residents used the public-comment period to raise local safety concerns and request parish action. Marsha Gay of Shay Grove described a damaged bridge, an overgrown cemetery and an 8-foot ditch near the roadway that she said poses a serious hazard to residents. Gay said trees had been cut years earlier and that maintenance has not been completed; she also recounted heavy truck traffic and a damaged bridge end that had been reported to parish officials.

Council and staff responded with immediate and longer-term options. A staff member said, "It'd be a bush hog out there before the end of the week," and the council offered to connect residents with a regional safety program (referenced in the meeting as "Destination 0 events and Vision 0") so the parish can pursue a road-safety assessment and potential grant funding. A regional-safety representative cautioned that grant-funded work can be slow and that local funds move faster, but offered to help coordinate an assessment and identify possible funding sources.

In a separate public comment, Monique Sarpy, identified as from the Village of Natchez, asked whether the parish maintains a dog pound or animal-control program after a recent dog-attack incident in her community. Parish staff directed her to contact the sheriff’s department for enforcement of nuisance or dangerous-dog complaints and said the shelter handles animal intake matters.