St. Martinville – St. Martin Parish Council-Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste laid into Parish President Pete Delcambre at this past Tuesday’s Parish Council Administrative/ Finance Committee meeting over Delcambre’s characterization of the reason the parish council rejected all bids submitted for the expansion project for the parish government’s central office complex.
Delcambre introduced scaled-down plans for the renovation and expansion work after the council had voted at its Aug. 12 meeting to reject all bids for being over the available funds for construction. JeanBatiste and Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse had been the only council members who voted in favor of a resolution presented by Delcambre to award the bid to Castle Row Construction for $1,890,000.
In order to meet the council’s requested budget of $1.5 million, one-third of the original project was cut out including reducing the size of the parking lot by half. Other cuts were to a Public Works director’s office, a break room and a small break area outside the building.
