By Michelle Bates
A contractor who has previously made repairs to town property in Arcadia has been arrested by the Bienville Parish Sheriff’s Office for felony contractor fraud.
Sheriff John Ballance said Melvin Combs, 58, of Ruston, was charged with felony residential contractor fraud and as a fugitive from Jackson Parish on the same charge.
“He was wanted in Bienville Parish for some work he’d done in the Mt. Calm area,” Ballance said. “And he was wanted in Jackson Parish.” He said Combs was paid more than $10,000 for the job in Mt. Calm, and when he didn’t come back to finish the work, the victim contacted the sheriff’s office.
Lincoln Parish officials say Combs was arrested on January 25 at the courthouse on a fugitive warrant around 4:30 p.m. Bienville Parish Sheriff’s Office was called to come pick him up. He was transported to the Bienville Parish Jail for booking. Bond on the Bienville Parish charge was set at $150,000, and the bond for the Jackson Parish charge was $50,000.
According to an investigative legislative audit in 2023, two vendors were paid approximately $1 million and Mayor O’Landis Millican said in a separate interview, Combs was one of the two vendors the Town of Arcadia paid with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for repairs and maintenance on the then Arcadia Outlet Mall as well as other town-owned properties. Invoices totaled $317,900 from Jan. 1, 2022
to June 10, 2022, “for the installation of doors and walls at town hall, installation of fencing and repairing electrical equipment and wiring. In a follow up interview with Millican, the $317,000 was paid to Combs with the remaining amount paid to A&S Tree Services for tree cutting and debris removal from recent storms.
The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors (LSLBC) website showed that Combs was only licensed for “home improvement registration” from December 2018 to December 2022. Combs was only licensed for home improvement projects or existing residential structures; LSLBC officials said; however, he performed modifications to the town hall building and the town’s commercial mall, both of which are not residential structures.
In October 2022, then District 4 Councilwoman Patsy Roberson questioned why the town was paying Combs to do work on town properties that he was not licensed to perform. Town Attorney Sean Crain explained that Millican does not need approval from the council to enter into a contract, however he does need approval from the council to allocate the funds to pay the contracted vendor. If the money was already approved in the budget, then Millican does not need approval a second time.
In a Legislative Audit Advisory Council hearing in Baton Rouge in July, Millican admitted Combs and A&S Tree Service did not have contracts with the town, when asked by panel members.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.