Cyprien pump funding remains intact

A second effort to move money from a pump station renovation in Lafourche has been blocked by the parish council.

The Lafourche Parish Council killed two measures that would have removed $700,000 from the Cyprien pump station project during last Tuesday’s council meeting. The money would have gone to two projects in other districts.

The Cyprien pump station, which affects districts 4, 5 and 6, is in dire need of renovation, according to District 5 Councilman James Bourgeois. He said the station has old, unreliable pumps that need to be modernized. The parish must also clean out the canal that feeds into it so the pump can adequately handle water coming in.

Parish administration has chosen to refurbish Cyprien rather than rebuild the entire station. Engineering firm T. Baker Smith estimated a refurbishment would cost about $1 million, a far cry from the $3.5 million dedicated to Cyprien. Since then, parish administration and council members have circled the project’s coffers as a means to fund other operations in Lafourche.

The council considered an ordinance at its June 14 meeting, proposed by District 1 Councilman Jerry Jones, that would have de-obligated $2.5 million from Cyprien. However, council members were hesitant to take money from the renovation without parish administration providing a list of projects the dollars would go to. Jones ultimately pulled the ordinance before a vote could happen.

The two measures from last week, also introduced by Jones, would target work on Abby Road, which borders Jones’s district and District 3. The first measure would have shifted $200,000 from the Cyprien project to the in-progress drainage project on Abby, and the second would have siphoned $500,000 to pay for overlay project on the road. However, neither measure received a majority of approval, with councilmen Aaron Melvin, Corey Perrilloux and Armand Autin joining Bouregois in voting no, and District 8 Councilman Jerry Lafont abstaining from both votes.

The additional $200,000 for drainage was meant to address a long-term issue in the short term. According to Jones, the cross-ditch that goes into the catch basin for the Abby drainage will throw a lot of sediment into the basin. According to Jones, the parish could fix the catch basin issue now while contractors are in place at a cheaper cost than to do it separately later.

“We have to get out there every month and clean that catch basin out. But if we fix it right now, we won’t have to worry about the maintenance. It’ll be just about maintenance-free,” Jones said.

However, the additional money for the drainage project is what worried Bourgeois and other councilmen from moving money from Cyprien. The Abby Road drainage project currently has $375,000 dedicated to it. Adding another $200,000 to it would constitute a more than 50 percent increase in its price tag. Bourgeois said his fellow councilmen were concerned with the threat of a similar increase happening with the pump station refurbishment. He suggested the parish start work on Cyprien and get a better hold of the final price tag before taking money away from the project.

“Rarely does it come in at what you budget. There’s always change orders that cost more, and before we start taking money away, we need to work on it and see where we’re at,” Bourgeois said.

Jones said he would now look to next year’s budget to secure money for the two Abby Road projects. District 9 Councilman Daniel Lorraine, who voted in favor moving money for the drainage project but abstained from the overlay vote, warned the Cyprien surplus could be a continual target for council members to raid.

“It seems like y’all are going to have a little war over that money. Everybody’s going to want a piece of the pie,” Lorraine said.