Council approves appointment of new OHSEP director
St. Martinville – The St. Martin Parish Council was updated on efforts to increase high-speed internet access in the parish through the state’s GUMBO 2.0 program during this past Tuesday’s council meeting.
Bart Spell, project manager at Royal Engineers and Consultants, told the council that the second phase of the state’s broadband access expansion program will focus less on how quickly work can get done in laying fiber optic cable for high-speed internet access and more on ensuring the work is done properly.
In the first phase, laying of fiber optic lines led to damaging utility lines such as water and electric lines, as well as disrupting some existing cable or internet access by damaging the underground lines for those services.
“The first phase, it was based on how fast (it could get done),” Spell said. “(For this one) it’s not going to be ‘run by the footage as fast as possible.’” Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (GUMBO) is funded through the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The state was allocated $1.36 billion by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for its GUMBO program, the eighth highest amount nationwide.
“We were hired by the state of Louisiana to oversee or bridge the communication gap for the next phase of the federally funded fiber project to feed the underserved areas of the state,” Spell said. “In St. Martin Parish, 2,615 locations/addresses are going to get fiber. In the first phase, there were a lot of complaints, a lot of lessons learned because of the damage, so we were brought in as a contractor for the state. And we’re implementing more communication, 30 to 45 days ahead of time, with the water companies, sewerage companies, any provider.”
Spell said that when Phase 2 is done, there will be four providers in the parish, including SpaceX (Starlink), which is a satellite provider of broadband with no cable needing to be laid to connect to customers. SwiftBroadband, Cajun Broadband and Brightspeed will be the other providers in the parish, with Cajun Broadband currently already serving some customers through GUMBO’s initial phase.
“We’re going to reach out well in advance (to utility providers),” Spell said. “…to give them the prints, kind of let them know where they’re going to be, (let them raise) any concerns. We don’t want it to be like the first time where they just came in. Nobody knew until you had damages.
GUMBO
“It’s basically going to be boring, trenching and plowing. With that many lines in the ground, there will be damages, but we’re going to try to mitigate them as much as possible.”
Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste was among those raising concerns with the way the work was done in the early phase. Cut internet lines lead to splicing them to repair them, which leads to diminished service, Spell said.
“One of the concerns that I had in my district is when lines were being installed (during the earlier GUMBO phase), we had previous or older companies coming in and boring holes and cutting the lines, so we went from excellent services to spliced services and it’s interrupting that,” she said. “So my question is will y’all be monitoring that so there is no overlapping?”
Spell said that Royal has inspectors (monitors) who will do multiple inspections. That includes inspecting to ensure that the materials used are made in America, which is a requirement for the GUMBO program, and documenting any damages from the work.
Spell added that when a company applies to provide high speed service in the parish, the state has contracted a company to test the ISP’s speed to guarantee it meets the advertised speed.
The state’s ConnectLA website has an interactive map that allows residents to zoom in on their location to find what broadband access is available at their address. The map can be accessed at https://connect.la.gov/ bead by scrolling down to the BEAD map under the Broadband Need by Location heading.
Each address is indicated by a colored dot. The color of the dot on the map for a location indicates level of service — served (grey), unserved (pink), underserved (blue) or funded (green).
Zooming in and clicking on a dot (a specific address) brings up more details including the funding program (where applicable), which internet service provider will be serving the area under GUMBO 2.0, and whether the location is eligible or ineligible for BEAD funding.
Spell said that the providers are not likely to overlap — GUMBO provides funding for one company to lay fiber optic cable in one area. But other companies could opt to string lines from the utility poles in those areas, at their expense, to try to get new customers.
New OHSEP Director
The council also passed a resolution ratifying Parish President Pete Delcambre’s appointment of Stacey Blanchard Bouquet as the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (OHSEP) director.
Bouquet was introduced by Sheriff Becket Breaux, who told the council that she has worked for the Sheriff’s Office for 34 years. She takes over for Terry Guidry, who was the previous OHSEP director.
“Back then it was the Office of Civil Defense,” Breaux said of what developed into OHSEP. “Before it was Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Stacey was there. And Stacey’s committed. She’s a loyal employee. And she’s a leader. And I thank y’all for doing that (appointing her and ratifying the appointment).
“We have probably the best OHSEP office in the state, and Stacey’s been a helping hand in doing that and getting it to where it’s at.”
In answering a question from Councilman Vincent Alexander, Bouquet said she has worked for three sheriffs in the SMPSO — Charles A. Fuselier, Ronny Theriot and Breaux.
“As a lifelong resident of St. Martin Parish, this community is home to me, and protecting our residents has always been more than a job to me,” she said. “Over the past 30 years, my career in law enforcement and emergency management has given me the opportunity to work alongside dedicated public safety professionals during some of the most challenging situations our parish has faced.”
Parish Council Chairman Chris Tauzin said that the work done by the office of emergency preparedness was second to none during the 2016 and 2019 floods.
