Imagine a town of 1,400 people depending on one police officer; an area with close to 500 homes and no fire trucks. How about a place that starts the new year thousands of dollars in debt.

There is no way to sugar coat the next statement; the Town of Melville is broke. Several bills are past due and no revenue is coming into the town.

“There is an overdraft fee for our payroll. There is a fee of $25 dollars for 13,862 dollars,” said newly elected Mayor Erena Mayes.

During her first week in office, Mayes discovered several residents have not received a gas bill since as early as October of 2014 thanks to a computer glitch.

“Without the bills being paid or they are not going out, we have no revenue coming in and some of the accounts are negative. The past administration was basicallyrobbing Peter to pay Paul,” Mayes explained.

Even while facing the large debt and the task of cleaning up accounts, this still is just one of the problems the new administration faces. Fire Chief Mickel Haynes told the council, one of their fire trucks is a 1989 model and is in poor shape. The latest repaid cost $1,200 dollars. The other truck is a 2007 model and only has one working pump but insurance requires the truck have two.

While on the topic of insurance, Haynes said, “Without this truck, everybody’s insurance is going to skyrocket.”

Haynes is in the process of financing a newer model fire truck, but it would cost Melville $24,000 dollars annually. That’s a harsh reality for a town with no money,

Further adding insult to injury is the issue of police presence. Although Melville does not have a high crime rate, over 1,400 people are currently depending on one police officer. That officer is the newly elected Chief of Police Anthony Morrow, who since January 1^st, has been on call 24-7.

“I had to borrow a police officer from another town today in order to take care of some administrative stuff in Opelousas. I need some help, I’m just one man and I can’t do it all,” Morrow pleaded.

The chief of police is requesting one full time and one part time officer. However, until moneys woes are resolved, all Morrow could do for now is to recommend reserve officers to the board.

In order for Mayor Mayes to even begin addressing Monday night’s concerns, she must first hire an IT person to come in and unlock the town’s computers from the past administration. That IT person could cost Melville up $85 dollars an hour.