By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

EDGARD – For the 17th straight year St. John Parish will likely retain its mosquito control provider, after the St. John Parish Council received only one bid for mosquito control for the next year from its current contractor for $852,600.

The council did not accept the bid, instead taking it under advisement to decide what parts of the contractor’s programs it wants added or removed, including spraying hours and quantity. However, the council will likely renew an altered contract for St. John Mosquito Control at its next meeting on May 22, according to Councilman Steve Lee.

The decision comes one year after St. John Parish faced its largest mosquito population in recent history, but that infestation arose from climactic changes created by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and should be decreased, according to St. John Mosquito Control General Manager Steve Pavlovich.

&#8220You can’t prevent the mosquito populations from coming up, but once they hatch you can reduce the larvae and number of adults,” he said. &#8220We have a lot of new breeding sites out there, and one of the things being done in the renewal is an increase in services to further prevent that, such as additional equipment.”

The company updated its mosquito prevention strategy, including upgrading tracking technology and planning new ways to use equipment to eliminate the insect.

Lee expects the mosquito population to be reduced this year.

&#8220I really feel it was a south Louisiana problem. I had dialogue with all the surrounding parishes and we were all in the same boat. There was a different breed of mosquito last year that caused us to do some additional spraying but these guys are experts in their fields,” he said.

In other business, the council hired a disaster recovery company to assist with clean-up for the upcoming hurricane season.

In a unanimous decision, with Sean Roussel absent, the council hired Beck Disaster Recovery Inc. to help the parish with debris removal and financial FEMA documentation in case another hurricane makes landfall.

The national firm offers its services at no charge to the parish, instead charging FEMA for all its disaster recovery work in St. John Parish.

Since Hurricane Katrina, St. John Parish government was responsible for its own FEMA reimbursement paperwork and expects this agreement with Beck Disaster Recovery to ease what was a large burden.

&#8220These things are very complicated. So when you have an expert who knows how to shuffle the right paper to get money back – that’s a great service,” Lee said.