By Paige Nash
The Webster Parish Health Unit and LSU AgCenter are now back in the office and operating as usual following renovations.
“I appreciate the police jury so much. We are so happy to be back at our office. You just don’t know how happy we are,” said Nutrition Extension Agent Shakera Williams. “Now, if you go in there it may look a little atrocious. We are still getting things put up, but I really do appreciate you so much and we are happy to be back.”
It has been over a year this past March that the Webster Parish Police Jury began taking bids on much needed repairs and upgrades at the Webster Parish Health Unit and LSU AgCenter building located 1200 Homer Road, right behind Taco Bell.
When the bidding originally opened for this job, they were not expecting to close the doors and move locations, but following a pre-bid walk through that is exactly what happened. Asbestos tiles were discovered in some areas of the flooring and an abatement company was called in to begin the process of safely removing the materials in November.
In the meantime, the employees of the LSU AgCenter were spread out to open offices in Minden, Bossier and Homer. The employees of the Health Unit were temporarily located at the Springhill Health Unit.
Following the completion of the abatement, Trash Construction Services, a general contracting company out of Shreveport began renovations on both floors of the building after officially being awarded the job on November 1 with a low bid of $258,700. The list of repairs and upgrades included replacing floors, painting, converting light fixtures and installation of new ceiling tiles where needed.
The LSU AgCenter located on the bottom floor of the building provides many services to the people of Webster Parish. These services include family and nutritional information and lessons to SNAP recipients, 4-H development and a variety of services in agriculture and natural resources, including water and soil sampling. They are also the sponsoring agent for the Piney Hills Master Gardeners.
You can also now reach out to the Health Unit at 318-371-30303 for all your pregnancy, STD, HIV, cancer and Covid-19 screenings. They also offer many forms of birth control and function as the local WIC office.
