Drainage Topped Project List in 2018, in Lafourche

The Progression of Drainage and Flood Protection
February 13, 2019
Positive & Negative Changes in Law Enforcement
February 13, 2019
The Progression of Drainage and Flood Protection
February 13, 2019
Positive & Negative Changes in Law Enforcement
February 13, 2019

 

“We have the hardest working public works crew of any parish. Their work speaks for themselves, despite having to deal with tight and in some instances, almost no budget, as well as rain.”
– Jimmy Cantrelle

 

Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle said he can look back at 2018 and be proud of his public work staff and the amount of drainage projects they completed, despite inclement weather conditions and a lack of funds.

“We have the hardest working public works crew of any parish. Their work speaks for themselves, despite having to deal with tight and in some instances, almost no budget, as well as rain,” Cantrelle said. “For instance, we have saved this parish at least $7 million, by rebuilding our pumps instead of replacing them with new ones.”

Cantrelle said the parish has 81 pump stations, and when he took office only half of them were working. That number is far greater at press-time — one of the biggest feathers Lafourche has in its cap in 2018. By the end of 2019, Cantrelle said the goal is to get that number up to 100 percent in operation.


Cantrelle rattled a list of the completed parish drainage projects including the Coastal Pump Station in Lockport which cost nearly $3 million and it is situated on the Company Canal; and, part of the Larose Pump Station between Lockport and Valentine, almost $2 million in improvements.

He said in Chackbay, in the Sugar Ridge subdivision, there were numerous problems, and that public works has corrected the substantial ones by adding pumps in key areas.

“Sugar Ridge is not perfect, however, we feel we’ve corrected some of the major problems there,” Cantrelle said.
Other areas saw pump installation including Point Au Chien and Bayou Blue.


Cantrelle said Lafourche has also installed automatic on and off switches so that the pumps are working more efficiently, especially when the parish canals are filled.

“We continue to clean outfall canals, and are still surprised to find many that were so full of debris, we did not know they even existed,” he said.

Additionally, the parish president said construction work began last year on the $4 million Lockport Community Center – pilings were driven and now more foundation work has started.


Work also began last year on a $6 million system to get water to the Forty Arpent Canal from the Twenty Arpent Canal, in the Cutoff area.

Cantrelle explained that there is a big ridge behind St John Catholic Church, which does not allow water to get across it, as it is 6 1/2 feet above sea level, and Bayou Lafourche drops down to one foot above sea level in that area.

The object of the project is to have the water pumped out and across the South Lafourche Levee to get the water from the 20 arpent canal to be pumped out across the South Lafourche levee.


“This is much needed for the people in that area,” Cantrelle said.

Another project on Cantrelle’s agenda is the Choctaw Levee, which he said, “was constructed in the wrong place.”

He said this construction occurred during a prior administration.


“The Environmental Protection Agency fined the parish $168,000 for this mistake,” Cantrelle said.

But since he has grappled with the snafu, he has been able to get the fine reduced considerably as public works began degrading the wrong levee, and started construction of a new, correct one.

Still another project he touted was the remodeling of the old agriculture building in the Thibodaux.


“We remodeled the first floor, and now they’re working on the second floor. This has been done all in house. If you attend the civil service meeting there, you won’t believe you’re in the same building,” Cantrelle said. “Since year one of my administration, we have tripled the amount of work orders of any administration, since the day the parish changed its status as a police jury.”

The parish president said at the end of his first year in office, 2016, his administration completed over 750 work orders; in 2017, 850 work orders; and in 2018, almost 900 work orders.

Cantrelle also addressed some of the issues he has at times with the Lafourche Council — a contentious relationship that has spilled publicly into several meetings in the past year.


Cantrelle said he wants better communication between both he and the council in 2019, but added that some of the anger the group feels toward him is misguided and off base, in his opinion.

“Although we have a lot of arguments with the council, there are a few of them who want to do a good job, and they are working with me. I’m hoping to move forward with all of them this year, to make this parish even better for the people of Lafourche Parish,” Cantrelle said. •

 

BY HOWARD J. CASTAY, JR.