VIDALIA — The owner of Southern Designs addressed the Concordia Parish Police Jury Monday after Concordia Park residents brought noise complaints and environmental concerns to the jury’s attention last month.

Residents say the sandblasting coming from Southern Designs is keeping them up all night, and the sand had been collecting in ditches and getting into people’s air conditioning systems, said Police Juror Willie Dunbar, who lives in and represents Concordia Park.

Southern Designs attorney Scott McLemore said demand for their products has required the business work two, 12-hour shifts, keeping the business operating 24 hours a day. The company primarily produces business and home décor signs, but it also works on medal fabrication such as fire pits and truck bumpers, said owner Tance Hughes. Hughes said the business no longer prints T-shirt designs.

Hughes said Southern Designs, which was founded in 2008, moved from Vidalia to its current location at 4894 U.S. 84 because it outgrew the old location after six years.

Over the past 18 months as the business grew, Hughes said, he had to move to 24-hour schedule.

“We need to continue to work around the clock at this time,” Hughes said. “Our ultimate goal is to not do that, but it is not feasible at this time.”

Hughes said the business has 36 employees and a payroll of more than $1 million each year. More than that, he said the business is bringing younger people back to the Miss-Lou.

“We have had a few of those graduates coming back from college to work with us,” he said. “While this is a small impact, this is the start — a part of the puzzle.

“I hope our business doesn’t run into a roadblock because of this situation.”

Hughes said he wanted to be a solid corporate partner with the community, and McLemore said the company has spent approximately $40,000 to mitigate the sound and environmental concerns with plans to spend more.

McLemore said the $1,200 netting material purchased this past month and put up where the company sandblasts is what the Department of Environmental Quality asked to bring the business into compliance.

Regarding the noise, McLemore said the company has put up eight-foot fencing around the property, and when fully completed, will have spent $11,000 on fencing the whole property. Southern Designs has also put up a metal wall on the back of the building, with plans to put in foam insulation on the walls and ceilings.

Further, McLemore said the way the law is written, he didn’t believe his clients were in violation. McLemore said the code doesn’t have a decibel level restriction such as some other towns including Covington, Monroe and Lafayette all do, which is 70 decibels for a night-time reading.

McLemore said from the backyard of the business, a decibel level of 56 behind the first fence of the property was recorded from the sandblasting.

The juror recognized Concordia Park resident Kenneth Brannan, who played a recording of the sandblasting on his phone to demonstrate the volume of the noise and commented he thought it was loud.

“I’m proud to see this young man here establish a business, it’s a good thing — and it’s a good thing to bring young people in to give them work,” he said. “But you have to do things in a legal manner.”

McLemore said permits are not required to sandblast in Concordia Parish. Juror President Jimmy Jernigan said the permits do not specify a time the business can and can’t be open.

Area resident Willie D. Yerby asked how a man can be arrested at the Dodge Store for playing loud music, yet this could be allowed.

“I have lived here for 40-something years, and I’ve never heard all kinds of noise,” he said. “It is waking the children up all through the night. Can’t nobody get no sleep.”

Juror Joe Parker said with Fruit of the Loom recently closing, he didn’t want to make business in the parish any more difficult. But he also understood the concerns of the people.

He asked the community to form a committee of three people, led by Darryl Curry of Concordia Park, to discuss this issue with Southern Designs.

“If it doesn’t work out, come back and we’ll make a decision one way or another,” Parker said. “I think we can come to a happy medium.”

Though they have since resolved the issue, McLemore said the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office shut the business down one night. McLemore said he’d like to avoid that situation potentially happening again and asked the jury to consider providing a noise permit, but no one offered that motion.