West Monroe, Louisiana Legislator Files Bill to Make Organizations Pay for Parade Cleanup

BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL News) - Should a parade organization be required to pay for cleaning up the messes left behind instead of businesses and city workers?

That's a question one lawmaker from West Monroe is hoping to answer with his bill that would require these organizations to do so as he attempts to tackle not only Louisiana's litter issue, but the cost of cleaning it up and this added cost for business owners.

The next day (after a parade) these businesses are going in and they’re having to clean up the sidewalks and the streets and everything else just to keep their customers from stepping on beads and candy and that sort of thing.”

Those words were spoken by Representative Foy Gadberry to our news partners at Louisiana Radio Network. He believes that parades only add to the state's litter problem and that businesses along a parade route are negatively impacted by the issue.

Many municipalities across the state pay their city workers either overtime or straight time to handle the cleanup. Ouachita Green, the litter control group in Rep. Gadberry's area, spoke to him and have asked him to allow parishes and municipalities the ability to charge parade groups for the cleanup. House Bill 23 would allow for just that as local governments would be able to create its own ordinances to establish fees.

(HB 23 Text) Proposed law requires the governing authority of any parish or municipality that authorizes an organization to use public rights-of-way for the purpose of holding a parade to require that each such organization provide for removal of litter from all used rights-of-way within 24 hours after completion of the parade and pay a deposit as surety for removal and disposal of litter.

 

 

Gadberry describes his legislation as "kind of an open-ended bill, a general bill, that’s out there for the municipalities to formula to fit their needs."

The Louisiana Legislative Session begins on April 10.