– The St. Martin Parish Council’s Public Works Committee considered resolutions to enter into intergovernmental agreements with the City of Breaux Bridge for projects involving drainage canals along Elise Drive and Belle Terre Subdivision at its meeting this past Tuesday.
The Elise Drive Project involves a canal in the city limits that is under parish control as part of the parishwide drainage system under Louisiana Revised Statute 38:113.
The parish will be installing culverts purchased by the city for the canal.
The Belle Terre Tree Removal Project involves a tree that is interfering with a drainage canal in the city that also is part of the R.S. 38:113 drainage system in the parish.
Because the lateral is part of the R.S. 38:113 system, the parish will take care of the tree that is leaning over the canal and will soon cause drainage issues.
But the parish won’t be entering similar agreements with the City of St. Martinville for work in drainage canals in the Durand Subdivision on the north end of town because the access is blocked by large trees that the parish does not wish to pay for the removal of, Parish President Pete Delcambre told the committee in response to a question from Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse.
Agreeing to pay a tree service to remove the trees would set a precedent that landowners and communities could use to ask the parish to remove similar trees in rights-of-way along other drainage canals, Delcambre said, which could end up costing the parish a tremendous amount of money in the long term.
The parish would do the clearing and installing of culverts in twoweek increments this year and early next year if the city would clear the trees, he added.
The parish has offered to install culverts in drainage canals in municipalities in the parish if those municipal governments purchase the culverts, Delcambre said, as part of the R.S. 38:113 drainage system. But the added expense of tree removal in the St. Martinville case adds too much cost to the parish’s expenses.
Narcisse had asked about the issue because residents living in Durand Subdivision for 20 to 30 years have seen frequent flooding and drainage problems.
Delcambre said that the old Durand Subdivision to the west of La. 31 has drainage issues but that is solely a city issue.
Delcambre has talked with city officials about the newer Durand Subdivision drainage issues and said the city has some money from federal funds to use for that project. Though the drainage canal is not a mandated one for the parish to take care of under R.S. 38:113, the parish would supply the labor and equipment to install the equipment if the city purchases the needed materials for the work, he said.
However, the information provided by the city’s engineering firm did not take into account all of the issues involved in the work, Delcambre said.
Durand
“The City of St. Martinville did not know the intensity of what needed to be done for the parish to do their work,” Delcambre said. “The engineering documents we received, I felt were vastly incomplete, and when I sent out our public works directors to take a look at the project, it was a lot more involved than what had been described to us. When I brought this back to the attention of the City of St. Martinville, I said the same deal is on the table. If you take care of all of these other variables,, we will be more than happy to come in, do an intergovernmental (agreement) and lay 1,500 feet of culvert in the City of St. Martinville.”
That would involve taking out a large number of trees and Delcambre said the parish doesn’t have the ability to do so, and he doesn’t want to place liability on the parish if those trees were to fall onto a house.
“We normally would get a tree service to take care of that issue,” he said. “And I told the city, it’s not our responsibility. That tree is not impeding the flow of water. If y’all want us to come in and take care of it, y’all need to take care of taking out these larger trees.”
The parish could take out smaller trees along the bayou, he said, during a one or two week period this year, then do the other work in the first or second quarter next year. But only if the city removes the larger trees along the drainage canal.
The city said it doesn’t have the money to take out the trees at this point, he said.
Public Works
The Public Works Committee also discussed a request by Safe Solutions on Lake Talon Road in Broussard to grant 10-foot sewer servitude rights to the parish on its property.
The company also would grant rights to the City of Broussard for the parts of the canal in their limits.
A neighbor of the company asked Safe Source for those servitude rights, parish attorney Lee Durio said.
“Basically Safe Source says they don’t have a problem with it, we don’t want to give sewer servitude to a person, we want to give it to the government entities,” Durio said. “That way if a sewer servitude has to be used, they need to come apply for the permits and make sure everything is in order before anything can happen.”
There are no plans for the servitude to be used right now, he added.
The committee also considered adopting a resolution allowing the parish president to enter the parish into a Master Service Agreement with E3 Environmental Services, a parish company.
The idea stemmed from the cleanup of an oil spill/ contamination at the Parks Boat Landing that E3 handled. The Master Service Agreement would mean the parish could call on the company for similar cleanups in the future without having to get council approval beforehand.
Council Chairman Chris Tauzin said the agreement is a good idea and is long overdue.
The committee also considered an ordinance granting a reduction in servitude rights from 100 feet to 50 feet on the northwestern side of the drainage canal designated as M-48 where it borders Parcel Number 09202C2553 as the landowner wishes to build a house on the site.
Adminstrative/Finance The Administrative/ Finance Committee considered an ordinance that would allow Optimum to bring a trunk line from Iberia Parish into St. Martin Parish in order to provide telecommunications and other services in St. Martinville, and heard objections from Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste on the issue.
“My concern with Optimum was just in the presentation,” she said. “I know initially they talked about offering services, and then we had a meeting and it became a trunk line, and then the potential ordinance is also asking for underground installment as well. And so I’m kind of confused about what’s actually going to be occurring. Is it actually going to just be a trunk line, or is it going to be for a potential underground service?”
Delcambre said he would assume that the company would like to serve as many customers as possible, but at this time the request is for a trunk line down La. 182 and La. 92-1 into the city.
JeanBatiste said she thinks it would be better for Optimum to go down La. 31 instead of through the Cade area where it would overlap services provided by Cajun Broadband, which the parish helped fund through ARPA grants.
“I too understand about capitalism and having competition, but I’m going to just be blunt, I’m not interested in District 2 in having Optimum run through there, specifically because of the money that we have invested with our ARPA funds with Cajun Broadband to render those services,” JeanBatiste said. “As you know, with another provider, they’ve caused disruption and interrupted services and interfered with service that’s currently being provided to the residents.
“There’s not enough consistency and clarity about what’s actually going to happen (if Optimum is provided with access), so as a representative of that district, I’m going to let you know I’m not supportive of that.”
The parish needs to continue seeing to the needs of more rural residents rather than provide another service for businesses in the cities at their expense, she said.
The committee also heard from Delcambre about a request from the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office to install a camera on West Mills Avenue (Louisiana Highway 94) to monitor cars entering Lafayette Parish from St. Martin. Tauzin said the request came from the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office. The camera is being relocated from a temporary bridge on the parish line Delcambre also told the council about an amendment to the Inmate Health Care Services Agreement between the parish and St. Martin Hospital Inc.
Lynn Guidry, the architect for the expansion and renovations to the Central Office Complex, made recommendations about the project to the committee.
Low bid for the project was by Castle Grove Construction for a base bid of $1.890 million, about $364 per square foot. The most recent other project he’s done was over $400 per square foot, making the cost a good deal relative to other recent projects.
A similar project bid in November was for $60,000 less, with more items in the bid. Just six months later that bid rose by $60,000 with fewer items in the bid, he said, showing how inflation has affected the bidding.
“My recommendation to you is to accept the low bid, assuming that the funds are available,” he said.
An alternative is to rebid the project, but the price would go up again, he said.
Three ways to affect the contract would be through quantity, quality or time.
There is a one-year window in the contract to complete the work, so time is not a factor.
Reducing quality would mean causing issues down the road through an inferior roof or inferior construction materials.
“I wouldn’t want to reduce quality,” he said. “I think we have a good building. It’s not gold-plated but it’s one that should last you a good, long time.”
That leaves a reduction in the quantity, or the size of the building. There’s little that could be taken out, he said, so he recommends approving the low bid.
JeanBatiste also discussed the creation of the Greater St. Martinville Economic Development District, through Act 141, which became state House Bill 107 sponsored by Reps. Marcus Bryant and Tehmi Chassion.
She said that the purpose of the district is to provide for cooperative economic and community development among the district, the city, the state and owners of property in the district That would involve enriching and preserving the culture, developing stable and more extensive business opportunities, and to improve infrastructure in the district, which is primarily in the city.
The district would be overseen by a seven-member board. St. Martin Parish districts 2 and 3 would together be granted the right to nominate one representative among them to serve on the board.
Narcisse said she was excited that the state representatives had considered St. Martinville for an economic development district and asked the council members to consider who could be a strong candidate for the board member’s spot nominated together by the two districts.
The parish president reported that the recent storm event this past week did not present extensive flooding issues in the parish as had been feared might be the case.
He also reported that after a weather delay, millage was completed and asphalt work was ready to start on Herman Dupuis Road and expected to be done quickly.
