Fenton mayor responds to criticism of village’s finances

FENTON, La. (KPLC) - The mayor of Fenton is defending himself after criticism of the village’s finances drew statewide attention.

Fenton police are known for ticketing drivers who speed through the village on U.S. 165. Our sister station in New Orleans investigated the village’s finances and unusual “mayor’s court,” finding that the town of 226 people generates over $1 million a year from fines, more than almost any other municipality in Louisiana.

Last week we talked to some residents of the village who said they want to know where all that money is going.

“If you’re going to generate that kind of money, I believe we ought to see it, I believe the problem that we have, we’re not so much worried about it being done because people do speed when they come through here, the problem we have is that the money, we don’t see it,” Danny Alfred said.

Danny Alfred is a resident of Fenton and a relative of the mayor.

Following our report, he voiced his frustration to us about the lack of progress seen in the town despite the amount of money they take in.

“There’s things around here that’s been needing to be repaired. Roads, you know they finally got some money to fix the sidewalks after 20 some-odd years, and then they didn’t even do them all, the ditches supposed to be covered, we still have open ditches,” Danny Alfred said.

We asked Mayor Eddie Alfred Jr. about some of the claims.

“When you come to a meeting, we have a spreadsheet, that shows the name of the vendor, the invoice that the vendor sent, the date that the check was written, and the amount, it shows you clearly where all the money is going the money is being put back in the community,” Mayor Alfred said.

Regarding the sidewalks, the mayor said they were installed from Fenton Elementary all the way to Third Street. As for the ditches, he said the covering of the ditches was stopped after a meeting with a member of the community.

“Because one of the elder citizens in the community came to me and said Eddie, if you close all those ditches in, you going to have some trouble because how you have a good flow for the water, you going to be restricting the water, so I listened to what that elder in the community said,” Mayor Alfred said.

Danny Alfred also told us he wanted to see more being built for the children in the community.

“We just spent $112,000 on a library with one computer and eight books, and not a person went through the door. No one even works there,” Danny Alfred said.

The mayor did say someone will be at the library, but if not, they do allow residents in remotely if they need to access it. He also disputes the claim of one computer.

“We built a youth center/library across the street, Jeff Davis Parish Library is going to do some after-school tutoring. We’re trying to work the best we can to enhance the community here,” Mayor Alfred said.

He also pointed out the construction of a new pavilion and plans for a new police station, apartment complex, farmer’s market and museum.

“He bought an old train station for a museum. What in the world do we have here to put in a museum? What have we collected over the years in Fenton?” Alfred said.

Mayor Alfred said the town is progressing.

“People said we would never get a dollar store. We have a dollar store. People who say we’ll never get another business here, we have a brand new tire place that just opened up. We have housing that’s coming up off of 165, so you can’t say the town is not progressing, it’s progressing,” he said.

We will continue to look into all of the accusations and keep you updated.

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