– A judge oversaw a couple of weeks ago the final hearing to allow the St. Martin Parish government expropriate property for servitude rights and the passageway for water and electric utilities to reach the site of a new water well that will be used for the St. Martin Parish Consolidated Water District No. 4 to connect to the main water lines that will service customers in the new water district.
St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre said that 30 people had claim to the property in question between Aubrey Ozenne Road and the site of the proposed new well, and that every person who could be found was notified, and the appraised number for the properties was divided up by the number of people with claims to the properties. Some properties have multiple owners after inheriting the land. In some cases because of inheritance succession, there could be many owners listed for one property.
The parish is not expropriating plots of land, Delcambre stressed, only the servitude rights to place electric and water utility lines.
“That’s in the process of (being done),” Delcambre said at the most recent water district board meeting, held this past Tuesday in St. Martinville. “There’s a 30-day time period of rebuttal that’s given to the participants, so we have to wait until the end of 30 days for the court to sign off on it. We have started the process of getting the preliminary work done (to begin drilling the new well).”
The contractor, ARL Construction, and the subcontractor that will do the preliminary work are ready to go, he said.
An additional $1.6 million was appropriated by the state for drilling the new well, Delcambre said, and the parish has the $400,000 match money needed for that set aside already in the parish budget for the project.
“So the $2,055,000 was budgeted and approved either in the council budget or in the appropriation from the state,” he said. “That’s what’s going to fund the contracts for this last water well. We’re in the process of getting that last paperwork together.”
Parish Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste asked about the wetlands requirements from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding the new well site.
Delcambre said that the Corps requires mitigation for the parish government to be able to use what it deems wetlands for projects such as the new water well. In this case, Delcambre said, the parish has to contract with a predesignated, approved company that has acreage that can be used as an offset for wetlands use.
The parish approached one such company that has two acres available for $30,000, which the parish will pay for with the parish match money for the consolidation project. A Corps permit is required for using wetlands money.
The parish also is looking into where it can lease or rent office space for the consoli.Breaux dated water district in St. Martinville. Parish Director of Administration Raymond Bernard Jr. said the parish is researching locations that can be used for an office but that a decision is nowhere near ready because the district is not making money yet.
Well
The water district will be responsible for paying for the lease. Catahoula’s water district currently has some startup money set aside that could be used for that purpose, and St. Martinville’s water account also could contribute to that, Delcambre said.
Bernard said a P.O. Box for the water district also will be set up within the week. Liability insurance has been bound for March 2026 to March 2027.
Bernard also is setting up a pro forma, which is a projection for future financial transactions for the water district that includes an organization chart, employee pay rates and benefits, computers and networking, vehicles and equipment and other expenses and income.
The board will be presented multiple plans and will decide which one it wishes to implement, if any.
Engineers’ reports
McBade Engineers & Consultants Chief Engineer Jeremy Fontenot spoke to the board about the projects the company is working on in the consolidation process.
The Water Well No. 3 contract includes building a chlorination building, which requires a building permit from the parish and a letter from the state Fire Marshal’s office, which are being acquired after plans and specifications were submitted to the fire marshal. SLEMCO is laying out a design to bring three-phase power to the new water well site.
Water well rehab for the two other water wells in the St. Martinville city system is underway. Chlorination issues are being resolved in Water Well 1, which has been rehabbed. Once those issues are resolved within the next week or two, Fontenot anticipates Water Well 1 will be run for a couple of weeks and then Water Well 2 will be taken offline and rehabbed. That work should be finished within four to six weeks after work begins.
The elevated tank rehab project is 100 percent complete with punchlist items sent to the contractor to be taken care of.
Isolation valve work was scheduled to end Jan. 27 but work was halted on Dec. 19 once all the valves that were necessary to isolate the valves were complete. Placing an additional two 12-inch isolation valves on the piping for the two current wells is being considered so the wells can be isolated. Money for those two valves is already available because the project was so far under budget.
The water line crossing contract is about 5 percent complete with the installation of the water line under Bayou Teche set to begin this month with a quick turnaround anticipated.
The contract time for the meters and hydrants was extended by 120 days, with closing date set for May 31. About 1,500 meters have been installed in St. Martinville with roughly a thousand more to install and another 900 in the Catahoula area. Additional crews have begun work on that.
Fire hydrants are being installed in the city, seven to date with eight more scheduled in the next couple of weeks.
The contractor has been asked to provide more warning time before such work begins so residents and businesses are given advance notice of water shutoff.
Nick Sonnier of Sellers & Associates said electrical service has been coordinated with Entergy for the St. Martin Industrial Park upgrade.
Contractors are working on yard piping with concrete being poured for service pumps and electrical service set to be next.
The project is 41 percent complete with end date set for Oct. 6.
Catahoula water system improvements have seen the majority of main lines and tie-ins completed and service lines now being worked on to connect with customers. The project is 56 percent complete timewise and 86 percent complete for the project, set to end Oct. 16.
Supervisors’ reports St. Martin Parish Water Manager Ronald Daigle informed the board of the loss of a water well motor this past week. The damage is being assessed, he said.
With only two wells in use, repairs are needed to keep both operational.
Lime was introduced into the water system when pipes were connecting the system. Some complaints were received and those are being addressed, Daigle said.
St. Martinville Water Manager Jonathan Vining said the city is troubleshooting issues with chlorination at the water plant following the completion of rehab work on Water Well 1, which caused water pressure issues.
Additional pressure gauges are being installed in the system to assess where issues exist. The city also is researching equipment that may need to be purchased.
The city is arranging with Republic Waste so contractors installing meters have a place to dispose of the old materials.
The city also is working to correct issues resulting in boil advisories, often as the result of water being shut down during installation of meters, isolation valves or fire hydrants, he said.
The city also is working to correct water leaks, which have occurred almost daily in the city recently, with those corrected quickly.
