St. Martinville – The state Department of Environmental Quality approved major expansion requests for the Greenpoint Landfill solid waste disposal facility on Old Spanish Trail Highway over the objections of nearby residents and members of the St. Martin Parish Council, Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste told the council’s at its committee meetings this past Tuesday.
“This weekend we were notified that DEQ went ahead and approved the dump site expansion,” JeanBatiste said. “So pretty much everything they wanted — the expansion, the increase in height, the ability to go from covering every 14 days to now every 30 days — (has been granted). It was reported to me after the meeting they were cited again for non-compliance, and they still were granted an expansion. So unfortunately, the residents are not happy about that. At this point there’s not really much we can do about that because the decision was under DEQ.
JeanBatiste said that Cade resident David Pugh, who has been among many nearby residents opposed to the expansion and continued operation of the facility, called DEQ to ask the reason for granting the expansion but he was not given an answer other than the request was within the parameters set by the state.
“Just to let you know the citizens feel like their concerns were not taken (into consideration),” JeanBatiste said. “I just encourage them that when we’re doing something of that nature and magnitude when we decide to initially permit a dumpsite, a graveyard, a church, that’s not something that we can come back and change later on, so we should be conscious when we issue those original permits from here on out.”
The result of the DEQ decision is residents will have to live with the issue for another four or five years until the site either fills up or requests another expansion from DEQ.
JeanBatiste also addressed flooding issues at SMEDA Park along La. 182. The industrial park is roughly bowl shaped with higher ground along the edges, so businesses in the center receive more water in heavy rain events like the parish has seen recently.
The parish can’t do much about elevating the land, JeanBatiste said, but is looking into drainage fixes during road projects, spraying of grass and a retention pond as options.
Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse also told the Public Works Committee that she received a text from State Sen. Blake Miguez on Saturday that work on Sieber Road will be fully funded with Capital Outlay money. The parish and the City of St. Martinville share the road.
Public Works
The Public Works Committee considered the adoption of ordinances setting or lowering speed limits on several roads in the parish.
Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse asked for three roads in District 3 to have speed limits lowered to 15 miles per hour because of frequent reports of speeding. She hoped that lower speed limits could result in harsher penalties for people going much faster than the posted speed limit, including possibly having cars towed. Narcisse said she was not proposing towing be put into ordinance, but that it could be a penalty imposed in some cases by the Sheriff’s Office.
Roads suggested for speed limits being set or reduced included:
• reducing the speed limit to 35 mph on Zin Zin Road from Doyle Melancon Road to the bridge, in District 5;
• setting the speed limit at 25 mph on Roosevelt Brown Road, in District 7;
• setting the speed limit at 35 mph on Petroleum Parkway Extension, in District 2;
• setting the speed limit to 35 mph on Labit Road, in District 2;
• reducing the speed limit to 15 mph on South Chuck Drive, in District 3;
• reducing the speed limit to 15 mph on Neuville Anthony Road, in District 3;
• and reducing the speed limit to 15 mph on Belle Terre Drive, in District 3.
Narcisse also asked that the council ask parish attorney Lee Durio to come up with an ordinance prohibiting the blowing of grass clippings into roadways.
The grass clippings can be a hazard to motorcycle riders, Narcisse said.
Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste noted that an ordinance was recently passed in Iberia Parish recently passed prohibiting the blowing of grass clippings onto roads.
Councilman Hoyt Louviere said the council should consider possible exceptions to the ordinance for farmers who cut grass in ditches that ends up on the road.
JeanBatiste said that there are exceptions for farmers in the Iberia Parish ordinance.
“It’s more of making them conscious of the safety and having that out there to give them some warning to suggest to them to participate in keeping our parish beautiful,” Jean-Batiste said.
Narcisse said her goal is to focus on neighborhoods and not rural areas. Exceptions would be made for farmers and contractors who are clearing ditches, she said.
Public Works also considered three ordinances reducing servitude rights for the parish on properties, including:
• reducing the servitude rights from 100 feet to 27 feet on the southern side of the drainage channel designated as L-36A-2A-5 where it borders Parcel No. 04101B2238;
• reducing the servitude rights from 100 feet to 25 feet on the southern side of the drainage channel designated as L-36A-2A-5 where it borders Parcel No. 04101B1418 (Lot231);
• and reducing the servitude rights from 100 feet to 20 feet on the southern side of the drainage channel designated as L-20N-1A-1 where it borders Parcel No. 1850001650.
Landfill
Administrative/ Finance
The Administrative/ Finance committees considered several ordinances, including one allowing Parish President Pete Delcambre to enter into a lease agreement for a temporary office for the parish tax assessor.
The tax assessor will pay the full cost of the lease, likely for six months as new offices are constructed for the tax assessor.
The parish could then extend the lease for use by Consolidated Water District No. 4, which is expected to take control of three water districts in the parish within the next year or so. The water board would pay the lease at that point, and would have the lease transferred to the water board.
Other ordinances Administrative/ Finance considered included one amending the expenditures for the 2025 operating and maintenance budgets for the Fire Protection Fund.
Another ordinance would be to utilize GOMESA bond funds, with $1,150,000 leftover from the Butte La Rose bridge project.
Delcambre said the use of the funds is restricted, but the parish is reapplying to use the remaining money for work on the Henderson Control Structure.
Delcambre said the project would likely be a four-to-five phase because the water is only low enough to work on the structure between mid-August until about November. The water levels are too high the remainder of the year to do work on the structure, he said.
