– The Consolidated Water District No. 4 board approved a tentative lease agreement for land to drill a third water well for the district at its Aug. 26 meeting.
The agreement will be sent to the Billeaud Companies to approve before the parties involved sign the 50-year deal and the consolidation process moves forward. “I think we can get this thing done and put this portion of it (to rest),” said St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre, who is spearheading the consolidation process until the board is able to officially take control of the three involved water districts. “Of course, this is the last major cog in the project to be able to dig that third well. Once that’s occurred we can then move forward with the intergovernmental agreement in which the three parties — Catahoula (St. Martin Parish Water District 4), the (St. Martin Parish) Industrial Park and St. Martinville (city water) — will then sign intergovernmental agreements giving over all assets and liabilities to the new water board.”
Seven of the eight projects involved in the consolidation have been bid out, Delcambre said, and have been contracted out or are being contracted out for work.
The servitude rights for access to the water well sight are being hammered out, Delcambre added, and should be taken care of in 60 to 90 days because of the number of property owners involved in the servitude rights.
“It’s been a long year to get to this point,” Delcambre said. “I appreciate all the help that y’all have given and your diligence in making this thing work. My hat’s off to the engineering firms, the City of St. Martinville and everybody involved. We still have a long way to go but I think some major hurdles have been (crossed).”
In response to a question from board member Chuck Latiolais about negotiations with the Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative about use of a water tower for the project, which would be used to provide water to the Catahoula area. Delcambre said negotiations are under way and the project will find a way to provide water to Catahoula in any case.
Sellers & Associates engineer Nick Sonnier also told the board that he made some edits to property descriptions to the lease, which will be included in the lease agreement sent to the Billeaud family.
The board then voted 5-0 to approve the tentative agreement.
Liability insurance St. Martin Parish Director of Administration Raymond Bernard Jr. got approval from the board to move forward with acquiring liability insurance to cover the board members as the board makes decisions about the project.
Latiolais asked if Bernard thought the board needed the insurance now or if it should wait until after the consolidation process is complete to purchase the insurance, and whether the board needed to put out for bids on the insurance.
Bernard said that since Coy Duplantis of Brown & Brown had already shopped for the best policy he could find, which he presented to the board at its last meeting, no bid process is needed.
Delcambre said that since the board is meeting and making decisions that could affect residents or businesses in the parish, that it would be prudent to purchase the insurance now.
The board agreed and unanimously approved the motion to implement insurance for the board.
Engineer updates
Jeremy Fontenot, lead engineer for McBade Engineers and Consultants, updated the board on the projects that his firm is handling for the consolidation process.
Those projects include the Water Well No. 3 project, contacting the Army Corps of Engineers and contracted with an engineering firm as an environmental consultant to help with coordinating with the Corps of Engineers on any wetlands mitigation that might be needed for the project.
The water well rehab project contracts for Martin Mills are being reviewed and the contract time is 180 days.
Notice to proceed on the 120-day elevated tank rehab on Denbas Street was given on July 28 with work under way on structural improvements and new overflow lines being installed. The contract is to end Nov. 31.
Board member Danny Bulliard said that there is low pressure for Cajun Chef while the project is underway, and St. Martinville utilities supervisor Shika Hector said some residents also had called to complain of low water pressure.
The contract for distribution system isolating valves is under way with the notice to proceed tentatively scheduled to happen on Sept. 8, with the project to end Jan. 6, 2026.
St. Martinville water system manager Jonathan Vining said tests in the area showed residents had pressure in line with water pressure from the tower, and that the set points are maxed out for the system there.
Bulliard also asked if the water pressure would be lower once the grinding starts at the LaSuCa sugar cane mill, but was told that water comes from Water District 4, which is fed by the Industrial Park well, not the city’s water tower.
Water District 4 supervisor Ronald Daigle said that the system there can provide pressure in excess of the maximum 63 P.S.I. that the new system will have so that can help supplement the entire system if water pressure is low. Another project was modified to include installing a 12-inch cutoff valve between the city of St. Martinville and the Industrial Park, and shutoff valves along the back end of Durand Subdivision, which would allow the water district to continue providing water to the Industrial Park and Catahoula if there are issues in St. Martinville.
Lease
The city would have five zones once six to eight shutoff valves are installed along West Port Street. The city located and operated several valves already and has marked them so that they can be kept track of if needed in the future.
The waterline crossing project is to take 120 days and will begin once the Corps of Engineers approves a request for variance.
Notice to proceed on the meters and hydrants project was issued on Aug. 5 with the end date 180 days later, on Jan. 31, 2026.
Delivery of hydrants and residential meters is expected the week of Oct. 7.
Sonnier updated the board on the projects Sellers & Associates are overseeing.
The St. Martin Industrial Park upgrade contract work has begun with construction of an office, though some drawings are being processed.
Materials are scheduled to be delivered Sept. 9 on the Catahoula water system improvements, he said, with four crews set to be working by late October.
A meeting was to be scheduled this week with Catahoula and St. Martinville representatives as well as the company that will install billing software for the entire system. The software is necessary for automatically reading the new meters being installed. The water systems have turned in their customer information and the software firm said no changes will need to be made to the billing numbers, helping ease the transition to a consolidated water system and billing system.
BILLING SYSTEM – Engineer Nick Sonnier of Sellers & Associates talks at this past week’s Consolidated Water District No 4 meeting about the billing software that is being installed for customers in St. Martinville and Catahoula to be used in the new consolidated water district in conjunction with new water meters that are being installed in the two communities. (Chris Landry)
