Parish wants to ensure no flooding issues for Briar Patch Drive
St. Martinville – The St. Martin Parish Council deferred action on an intergovernmental agreement with the Lafayette Consolidated Government regarding the Metairie Place Subdivision in Youngsville.
A small number of homes in the subdivision — about eight — will be in St. Martin Parish, near homes along Briar Patch Drive.
Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste said she wanted to ensure that Briar Patch, which already has flooding issues, doesn’t get flooded because of heavy rains draining from the new subdivision onto Briar Patch and the homes around it.
Parish President Pete Delcambre said the summary provided for the new subdivision does not include that information and said he could get that information.
She also asked if the Cade water district would provide water to the homes in the new subdivision that are in St. Martin Parish.
Delcambre said that the subdivision requested that the entire subdivision would be provided water service from Youngsville.
Delcambre said that less than 5 percent of the subdivision is in St. Martin Parish, so it was more efficient for LCG to provide water for the entire subdivision as a continuation of waterlines from Lafayette Parish. LCG passed a resolution to provide that water in this instance, he said.
Subdivision
JeanBatiste said she also wanted to make sure that since Lafayette is providing water to those homes, the parish does not use that as a reason to annex that part of the subdivision into Lafayette Parish, and eventually attempt to annex the Briar Patch area as well.
Delcambre agreed and the council voted to defer a vote on allowing the parish president to enter the intergovernmental agreement until the council’s August meeting.
Capital Outlay
The parish president also discussed capital outlay projects that had not been approved for funding, including the parish jail proposal and the transfer of a previous capital outlay of $1 million, which was moved from a proposed service road project along I-10 from Breaux Bridge to Henderson to be used for construction of a file building for the Clerk of Court.
Delcambre said he spoke to State Sen. Blake Miguez about a month before the end of the legislative session, and Miguez told the parish president that the jail project would not be in this capital outlay session.
Delcambre said that he asked Miguez to keep in mind the need for the Clerk of Court to have a building to store its files.
“You didn’t speak to him last night? Y’all didn’t have a conversation last night?” Parish Council Chairman Chris Tauzin asked.
“Yes I did,” Delcambre said, “And he explained to you that capital outlay funds are state money, not parish money, that it was up to him to move the money, and that he chose to move the money because the money had been sitting idle for X amount of years,” Tauzin said.
Tauzin said that the council and parish president had talked to Miguez when they first took office and were concerned that the governor would take away any of those funds that hadn’t been used.
Tauzin said money was to do a $2 million study regarding service roads along I-10, which was to be a $50 million project at the time.
“Right now, I feel we needed that money to build a jail before we build a service road,” Tauzin said.
Developments near the interstate have made it difficult to put service roads in, he said. Building a file facility for the Clerk of Court is more important, he said, because the current building is in such bad shape.
And since the money the parish was to have applied for to use on Section 28 Road wasn’t in the capital outlay requests, Tauzin said he asked Miguez to consider using the money for a Clerk of Court file storage building.
“So he decided, he took it upon himself, he took the money and he put it on the Clerk of Court’s building,” Tauzin said. “It’s not our money. It was allocated to a project that was never going to happen.
“I think he explained that to you, Mr. Delcambre.”
Delcambre said he did receive an explanation but he wasn’t in agreement with it entirely.
“His ability to move the money was totally accurate,” he said. “He has the ability as a senator.”
But Delcambre said it’s customary for senators to talk to the parish council and parish president before moving funds from a designated project, and that the council had agreed the only viable project to use the money on at the time was to be used as match money for a Highway 92-1 project in District 2.
“Our initial discussions were not that we did not want the service road project, but that we did not want to lose the moneys in the event that they get swept,” Delcambre said. “Now another year transpires and that money is still sitting in the account, and correct me if I’m wrong, never was that money brought up in conversation to be moved to pay the Clerk of Court’s project. Now my problem is, yes it is state money. But it’s state money that had been designed and predicated and put against a specific project in St. Martin Parish. We’re in the process of doing a master plan.”
The people who did the master plan told the parish that with two major thoroughfares through the parish — I-10 and U.S. 90 — the parish needs to concentrate on those two areas.
Two access areas from the interstate — Breaux Bridge and Henderson — have a four-mile stretch between that are perfect for a service road, Delcambre said.
“No it’s not going to happen today, and no it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but as I said at the last meeting, we have to start thinking progressively, and not only with the four year terms that we serve or possibly more, but with the ability to look at 10, 20, 30 years down the line,” Delcambre said. “If we would have taken that money and initiated the project, as I was told through numerous representatives and senators that have served in Baton Rouge, additional moneys would come at future times. How much and when we do not know, but we would have gotten a foothold in.”
The problem Delcambre has with what happened, he said, was that the first million that was moved was that he had called every council member and told them there was a project — Highway 92-1 — that the money could be used for. The other million dollars remained in the account.
“This million dollars that was moved without council participation and without my participation,” Delcambre said. “There’s an unwritten rule that a senator can move it but as (a matter of respect) he needs to be able to (do it) with an assumption talk to the parish and get approval to do it. At the very least talk to the parish and let them know what he’s doing. And that didn’t occur. And that’s the problem I had with it. Now it’s done and I’m not beating a dead horse, but I was not happy with the way this thing transpired.”
“So that’s not the same meeting that I attended,” Tauzin said. “The meeting that I attended was we didn’t have a project to put the money on. There was a chance we could’ve lost the money. Sen. Miguez said how about if we take the money and put it on Smede Highway so we don’t lose it. Do you have a road in your parish that’ll run you about $2 million? I said yeah, we have Section 28 Road.”
Miguez agreed to fund the Section 28 Road project, he said, but when the capital outlay submission was made, Section 28 Road wasn’t on it, Tauzin said.
So at the end of the session, Tauzin asked if money could be used to build the Clerk of Court project, and Delcambre had asked Miguez if money could be used for the jail or Clerk of Court building.
“Yes I did bring up the capital outlay project, but never did he nor I say the funding would come from this I-10 Service Road Project,” Delcambre said. “No. Let’s just make sure we’ve got everything straight.”
“Well, my understanding was that money was going to be moved from the very beginning,” Tauzin said. “From Day 1 when we sat over there it supposed to be on that Section 28, and it never happened. I can’t answer for the senator. He’s controlling that money. It’s not parish money, it’s state funds.”
At the end of the day, funds are being used for a project that the parish president said he wanted, the Clerk of Court’s building.
Tauzin said that the money had been set aside for a service road project during Mike Huval’s term in the House of Representatives for 12 years and had never been used, and the odds of it being used for that in the next 12 years was slim to none.
Delcambre reiterated that he thought that Miguez should at the very least have informed the council and parish president of his decision before moving the money.
Tauzin then told the council members to understand that each council member can request capital outlay for projects, but that the parish council approves all capital outlay requests for the parish. Council members who have any projects they’d like to ask for capital outlay funds for should submit them to the parish clerk so that the council can approve those projects.
Council member Tangie Narcisse said all council members should make capital outlay requests, and that they need to follow up on them.
