§ 2. Parish divided into five wards.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana, that section 7 of Act 26 of 1871, be amended and reenacted so as to read as follows:

Section 7. Be it further enacted, etc., that said Parish of Webster shall be divided into five wards, as follows, to wit:

Ward number one (1), composed of all that portion of said parish east of Bayou Dorcheat and north of the township line dividing townships twenty and twenty-one;

Ward number two (2), composed of all that portion of said parish situated west of Bayou Dorcheat and north of the township line dividing townships twenty and twenty-one;

Ward number three (3), composed of all that portion of said parish situated west of Bayou Dorcheat and Lake Bistineau and south of the township line dividing townships twenty and twenty-one and extending to the south line of said parish;

Ward number four (4), composed of all that portion of the said parish situated east of Bayou Dorcheat and Lake Bistineau and between the township line dividing twenty and twenty-one and the township line dividing townships seventeen and eighteen; and

Ward number five (5), composed of all that portion of the said parish situated east of Bayou Dorcheat and Lake Bistineau and south of the township line dividing townships seventeen and eighteen extending to the south line of the parish.

(Act No. 168, 1944, § 1)

Editor's note

Act No. 26 of 1871 which this act amends is the act which originally established the parish. As originally created the parish had six wards. By the provisions of Rev. St. 1870, § 2726 and subsequent versions of such section which are today embodied in L.S.A.-R.S. 33:1224 the police juries of Louisiana have the power to redistrict their parishes into wards. In three different ordinances, one on May 17, 1895, another April 6, 1937 and another October 3, 1944, the police jury described five (5) wards' boundaries. The May 17, 1895 ordinance did not purport to redistrict the parish, but only decreed that "the ward lines shall be as follows:…" and then proceeded to describe five wards. Either the 1895 ordinance was intended as a redistricting of the parish or as a reiteration of ward lines established by an earlier lost redistricting ordinance. In the 1937 ordinance, the police jury purported to "more clearly [define] the boundary lines of the … wards." This ordinance, in different words, described the same lines as the 1895 ordinance. In the 1944 ordinance, the police jury purported to divide the parish into five wards and described their lines, which in different words described the same lines as the 1895 and 1937 ordinances. The reason for the 1944 ordinance seems to have been that the lines described in the 1944 act (No. 168) of the Legislature were slightly different than the lines in the 1937 ordinance. The 1944 act is printed in this part at the direction of parish officials. The 1871 act is omitted at their direction due to the confusion that might result because of the original six wards. It should be noted that the 1944 act is mainly historical because the 1944 ordinance redivided the parish along the 1937 lines. The 1944 act was passed on July 10, 1944 and the ordinance on October 3, 1944. Also it should be noted that the parish on February 2, 1971 was redistricted into two wards.