– St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre told the St. Martin Parish Consolidated Water District No. 4 board that bids were opened on the final part of the consolidation project, drilling a new well on leased property.
The project will provide a third well, located about a quarter of a mile from the two existing wells that will be absorbed into the new consolidated district.
“We received three bids,” Delcambre said. “Everything is under advisement by the engineering company to make sure that all the T’s have been crossed and all the I’s have been dotted.”s The low bid was just under $4.5 million, Delcambre said. That numer was to be confirmed so a bid tab could be released.
Jeremy Fontenot, lead engineer for McBade Engineers and Consultants, told the board that ARL Construction was the apparent low bidder.
The project will expropriate the right of way along the road to install pipelines and electrical service to the new well. That expropriation does not mean taking of property, Delcambre explained recently, only using the right of way and servitude rights and paying the heirs a fair market value for that. No property is taken, only the right to bury the pipes and electrical service lines. Funds go into an account for any heirs that can’t be found and is paid to them if they are located, or held in the account if they cannot be located.
“That (new water well) being the last cog (in the consolidation projects), we are moving forward,” Delcambre said.
Delcambre also said that the state water sector board has agreed to allow the project managers to use all federal funds that have been granted for the project first, with the parish’s match money to be spent last.
The project must be completed by Dec. 31 this year.
“We have seven of the eight projects presently contracted out and they’re in the process of being completed as we speak,” Delcambre said. “Everything moving along as anticipated, we should be able to get this thing and bring everything in under the wire to bring this project to fruition.”
Attorneys are working on intergovernmental agreements between the parish, the City of St. Martinville and the Catahoula water district to turn over all physical assets and all liabilities to the new water board late in the year.
St. Martin Parish Director of Administration Raymond Bernard Jr. told the board that he is working on a business pro forma for the consolidated water district.
Engineers’ reports
Fontenot, lead engineer for McBade Engineers and Consultants, updated the board on the contracts his company is working on.
The water well rehabilitation project is proceeding with work on water well No. 1 completed. The well had been offline for quite some time, Fontenot said. The well will go through a one to two week test run, then go online while well No. 2 is rehabilitated. That work is expected to take six to eight weeks.
Distribution system isolation valves in St. Martinville were being located and tested in another contract and was completed in December. There are 12 valves that can be installed in other areas with money already budgeted for that use, so areas where they could be installed are being evaluated.
The water line crossing project received approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a variance for the depth of the lines, and the project will issue notice to the contractor to proceed this month.
Work on meters and hydrants will continue but the contract time will be extended beyond the end of July because there was a 100-day delay in receiving the meters and hydrants after they were ordered. About 700 meters have been installed in St. Martinville, Fontenot said, and additional crews are on standby for when the project moves into Catahoula.
Lease
Engineer Nick Sonnier of Sellers and Associates updated the board about projects that his company is working on for the consolidation process.
Work on the St. Martin Industrial Park office building continues, Sellers said. The project has used 50 percent of the time allotted and 27 percent of the money allotted for the work.
Contractors have installed most of the main lines for the water system in the Catahoula water system area with work being done on Catahoula Highway (96) and Banker Road (Parish Road 4). Service line work will be the next phase of the work. The project is 44 percent complete on the money side and 50 percent complete on the time side.
Sellers also said that some repair work will need to be done on columns in the existing water treatment plant building because of rust and damage at the bottom of the columns. A price has been requested for the work.
Supervisors’ reports Water District 4 supervisor Ronald Daigle told the board that sugar cane grinding season has ended and that the average increase on water demands from the sugar mill was about 575,000 gallons a day, a 60 percent increase over normal consumption.
The Catahoula water system is doing system inspection, checking older hydrants and doing minor flushing to make sure the hydrants are in good working order.
Daigle said that no major issues had developed from recent freezing weather up to that point.
St. Martinville water supervisor Jonathan Vining submitted a written report to the board as he was unable to attend the meeting.
In the cutoff valve location project, 379 of the 585 valves are operational. Thirty-eight valve boxes need adjusting, he said.
The St. Martinville water system had two leaks that caused system-wide outages, a hydrant leak next to a power pole on Claiborne at MLK Boulevard, and a leak on a 2-inch line where a 4-foot section had to be cut out and replaced.
Some system deficiencies are being addressed after a public notice was issued on those by the state, including well casing issues being corrected in the consolidation projects, a backflow prevention program addressed with a contract with CENLA Environment and getting a backup power source to operate the wells, being addressed in the consolidation projects and through the Louisiana Division of Administration’s Community Water Enrichment Fund.
CWEF funding also will be used to install Variable Frequency Drives at the water plant.
St. Martinville Mayor Jason Willis brought up an issue of high water bills resulting from leaks at the site of newly installed meters. Pam Granger of McBade Engineers said that rather than billing the customers for the water that was used, a credit is issued and the reason for the credit is noted.
The water provider is obligated by state law to charge for any water used, but in this case the water system does not charge customers for water that was leaking at no fault of their own.
“You’re not giving them anything free, you are literally adjusting for what the construction project led to,” Granger said. “You can’t give away free water that somebody used because they have a leak, but if the contractor did (cause the leak, you give the customer a credit).”
Willis added that the city has established a policy requiring customers to install a shutoff valve between the meter and the home or business that they can use to shut off the flow of water in case of a leak because it may take some time for the city to get to the location to shut the water off at the city’s shutoff valve.
He suggested the consolidated district employ a similar requirement to help prevent flooding in their homes or businesses in case of a leak.
