BALDWIN TOWN COUNCIL

Town Aldermen here introduced an ordinance on bunkhouses Thursday, defining limitations and restrictions of housing work crews.

“We’re taking preventative measures,” Baldwin Mayor Wayne Breaux said. “We don’t have any problems with bunkhouses within the town, and we want to keep it that way.”

The ordinance defines a bunkhouse as that portion or unit of any housing accommodation, structure, or project, including mobile homes on one or more contiguous lots or in one mobile home park, but excluding individual family housing units, which is occupied on a temporary, seasonal or permanent basis by a total of four or more workers of the same employer, whether or not such accommodation or structure is maintained in connection with any work or workplace.
The ordinance also states that it shall be unlawful to operate, construct or locate any bunkhouse within 1,000 feet of any primary, elementary or secondary educational facility, any church, synagogue or other place of worship or any residential neighborhood.Violators of the audience, which comes up next month for approval on April 16, states that anyone who violates the ordinance could be fined up to $500.

In other business, the town council:

*approved a $4,728 payment to Stelly Construction and a $236 payment to Miller Engineers, as part of the town’s obligation to provide water and sewage to Raintree Elementary School in Baldwin, which is ear-marked for partial occupancy next month. Mayor Wayne Breaux said the town will earn roughly an annual $12,000 in revenues from the school, for supplying water and sewage. The school is slate to be fully occupied this fall.

*set a public hearing on the bunkhouse ordinance at their next meeting, which they moved to April 16 due to Holy Week.

*approved a bucket toss for G.W. Hamilton Elementary School, for April 4, at the traffic light in Baldwin, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. The funds collected will be used to purchase incentives for the Renaissance Program at the school, and the School-Wide Positive Behavior Program.

*approved a bucket toss for the Church of God in Christ United, for May 2, also at the traffic light in Baldwin. The funds collected will be used to fund the church youth department’s 2009 summer trip to New London, Connecticut, to the International Youth Congress, July 13-17.