By JOHN HOWARD

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Keeping St. John Beautiful held their quarterly meeting on Friday, September 18 to discuss, among other things, a grant update, a cigarette litter enforcement update, problems with abandoned vehicles and a tree project.

Keeping St. John Beautiful committee is currently offering potted tree seedlings to distribute to those individuals and organizations involved in community projects. The trees will also be distributed at parish, fall festivals. Also, between 500 and 1,000 trees are being potted this winter to distribute for the spring of 2008. If you need trees you can contact Committee Chairman Judge Tom Daley or Greg &#8220Za” Maurin.

Maurin said that the organization’s grant from Keep Louisiana Beautiful and a Cigarette Litter Grant have been renewed and Keep St. John Beautiful can expect to receive between $5,000 and $10,000 per year from the grants.

Parish Code Enforcement Officer Erwin Sansone addressed issues of abandoned vehicles on right-of-ways and private properties. He said that Code Enforcement doesn’t have the authority to remove the vehicles, but to contact St. John Parish Director of Public Works Mark Howard if there is a problem with abandoned vehicles on private properties.

Lieutenant Wayne Norwood said there is a problem enforcing cigarette littering because warrants are not being executed because of the fact that the races and ages of the litterers are unknown. Daley said he would work with the Sheriff’s Department to remedy this problem.

The committee also recognized new members to the organization, Rhea Hilken and Jackie Cupit at the meeting.