<p class="p1"><strong>Is it legal for the Sulphur City Council to increase the motor vehicle service fee from $2 to $4? I thought the state was in control of that?</strong></p><p class="p2">Louisiana R.S. 32:429 allows local governments “to levy, by resolution, a fee for each service or transaction carried out as an operation of an office of motor vehicles field office that is not fully funded by the state.”</p><p class="p2">The $2 charge came from an agreement the city signed with the state in January 1998, a couple of months after the City Council voted to collect the fee. The council last month voted to raise the fee to $4.</p><p class="p2">Mayor Chris Duncan said the money is used to cover lease, utility, maintenance and supply costs for the office and to pay for an extra worker. Under state law, the money collected via the fee must be used to cover operation costs.</p><p class="p4">Visit <a href="http://www.sulphur.org" target="_blank">www.sulphur.org</a>; <a href="http://www.legis.la.gov." target="_blank">www.legis.la.gov.</a></p><p class="p5"> </p><p class="p5"><strong>Policy says checkout  required districtwide</strong></p><p class="p1"><strong>A friend of mine went a few days ago to check out their grandson from Barbe High School.</strong></p><p class="p1"><strong>They said the main door into the school was wide open for anybody to just walk right in.</strong></p><p class="p1"><strong>They didn’t even have to check them out. They were told they didn’t have to. It was all right to just to take the student and go. What gives?</strong></p><p class="p2">“The Calcasieu Parish School Board has a very specific policy pertaining to student dismissal,” school system spokeswoman Holly Holland wrote in an email.</p><p class="p2">“This is a districtwide policy and states that all students must check out through the school office before leaving campus during the day. Students in all grades, K-12, are not permitted to leave school without the personal authorization from a parent or guardian.</p><p class="p2">“Students in grades K-8 are not permitted to leave school unless they are with a parent, guardian, or designee as authorized by the parent.”</p><p class="p2">To read the full student dismissal policy, visit the School Board’s website; select “Policies” from the Quick Links list; and choose District Policy Manual. The provision is listed under “Section J.”</p><p class="p4">Visit ,<strong> </strong><a href="http://www.cpsb.org." target="_blank">www.cpsb.org.</a></p><p class="p6"> </p><p class="p5"><strong>Tolls not planned for existing bridges</strong></p><p class="p1"><strong>I heard a rumor that the I-10 and I-210 bridges were going to eventually become toll bridges. Is that true? Wouldn’t that cause major congestion?</strong></p><p class="p2">“There are no plans to toll the existing I-10 or I-210 bridges,” Shawn D. Wilson, secretary of the state Department of Transportation and Development, said in a statement forwarded to The Informer.</p><p class="p2">“Tolling is a tool that’s used to fund new infrastructure, and in the case of the I-10 replacement structure, tolling should be considered as the state’s gas tax cannot alone support the cost of the new bridge.”</p><p class="p3"> </p><p class="p4">Visit,<a href="http://%20www.dotd.la.gov." target="_blank"> www.dotd.la.gov.</a></p><p class="p3">l</p><p class="p7">The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by <strong>Andrew Perzo</strong>, an <em>American Press</em> staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.</p>