Council not taking up lawsuit against Prairieville resident after parish threatened legal action
BATON ROUGE - An Ascension Parish fence dispute could be over with after council members did not have a unanimous vote to enter into executive session Thursday night.
The parish attempted to sue property owners for not moving their fence out of the servitude. Last month, 2 On Your Side reported about Nick Ehrhard's fence after the parish issued him an invalid permit. Admitting to the mistake, the parish offered to move the fence at their expense and made a verbal offer to Ehrhard over the phone.
Ehrhard had questions and emailed them to the parish at the end of February. Those questions went unanswered as well as several phone calls.
"They had no answer, and then the next thing we know our name is on a docket to be potentially sued by the government," Ehrhard said.
The parish told 2 On Your Side it sent a certified letter to Ehrhard with an official offer, but later backpedaled and admitted that the letter never existed. Yet because they never received a yes or no response from the offer, the next step is to file a lawsuit.
"Really, I'm perplexed why the parish finds it a good idea to have a lawsuit against one of their parish teachers and a social workers for a fence," Ehrhard said.
The lawsuit appears to have been stopped by the council Thursday night.