By Marilyn Miller

Members of the Dixie Inn Board of Aldermen are anxious to begin hiring part-time patrolmen for their village. However, they first must decide how much to pay them, and Mayor Donna Hoffoss advised them during Tuesday’s monthly meeting that “We need to get us a new chief first, and we can go from there.”

The aldermen then discussed why there was such a dire need for law enforcement, largely due to a non-regulated trailer park in the west of Dixie Inn where guns, knives, beatings and drug deals thrive.

“I’m tired of singing this song,” alderman Nell Finlay commented, after describing how the neighbors of the trailer park live in fear of having their cars and houses broken into and their private property used as a public by-way.

Alderman Judy McKenzie suggested that a special meeting be called to decide on a new chief. “We can’t just keep going month after month after month,” she said. “We are spinning our wheels. We need to move forward.”

Mayor Hoffoss told the Board that she has a candidate in mind, and that she would contact them about a special meeting if it’s required before the August regular meeting.

In other business, the Board:

• Moved to allow the mayor to draw up an ordinance requiring restaurant employees who work where alcohol Is served to have ABO cards issued by the Village at a yearly cost of $25. “It would mean money for us,” said Alderman McKenzie. “The City of Minden requires them (ABO cards), as does the State. I think we need to do it;”

• Commended the Louisiana State Police and other law enforcement agencies for helping the Village;

• Adopted the Minutes of the June Regular Meeting and the Special Meeting on June 30, 2024;

• Adopted the June 2024 Financial Statements;
• Mayor Hoffoss reminded aldermen that qualifying for the November 2024 elections will take place July 17-19 at the Webster Parish Clerk of Court’s Office.