East Feliciana Parish police jurors were handed a last-minute Christmas shopping list at their Nov. 21 meeting, and some jurors were less than pleased.

Clinton Mayor Mark Kemp asked the jury to buy lights to decorate a donated 20-foot Christmas tree that will be erected on the courthouse grounds in time for a 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. program on Friday, Dec. 2.

Kemp explained that when organizers went to get the lights that were used on the tree last year, they could not find them. They thought that parish jail inmates had taken down the decorations last year and stored them at a Sheriff’s Office facility, Kemp said.

Sheriff’s official Kenny Sanders told them, however, that the Sheriff’s Office did not have them, Kemp said.

“The lights are not to be found,” Kemp told the Police Jury.

Juror Chris Hall and Parish Manager Joseph Moreau seized on the request to note that organizers last year told the jury to stay out of the planning for the event because decorations the jury provided for an earlier Christmas celebration were deemed to be “hideous.”

“Last year, we were told by the town of Clinton not to do any decorations,” Moreau said. In securing permission to use the courthouse grounds this year, a representative of the Chamber of Commerce said the jury did not have to do anything more, he added.

With jury President Louis Kent banging his gavel numerous times trying to bring order to the heated debate, Hall finally made a motion to the effect “that from this day forward” the jury will provide decorations for programs at the antebellum courthouse.

Hall’s motion included putting jury secretary and Assistant Parish Manager Yamesha Harris in charge of the project.

“If I’m in charge, I don’t think any other entity should be able to say what we do up there,” Harris said, after expressing mock shock at her appointment.

“The courthouse is yours,” Hall agreed.

Harris also said, however, she will work with any townspeople who have been planning for the event.

In other action, the jury:

  • Voted to declare the old furniture store building it owns as surplus property, clearing the way for a possible sale of the St. Helena Street property. The jury bought the building at the request of Sheriff Jeff Travis, who wanted to renovate it for his criminal division offices. His plans fell through, however.
  • Set a public hearing for 5:30 p.m. Dec. 19 on the proposed budgets for 2023.
  • Named Tiffany Taylor as the sheriff’s representative on the parish’s Emergency Communications District board.