Hard-working SLLD superintendent leaves big shoes to fill

For more than 16 years, Jimmy Badeaux went the extra mile for the people of southern Lafourche Parish.

Whether it meant sacrificing his time, his safety or even part of his eyesight, the longtime superintendent stopped at nothing to make his homeland a safer place.

Earlier this month, the 68-year-old retired from the South Lafourche Levee District after more than 16 years of service to little fanfare outside of the ring levee system he helped improve, but lots of appreciation within it.

During Badeaux’s more than a decade and a half with the levee district, every inch of every levee surrounding the southern Lafourche community has been raised at least five feet, a lock has been built in Golden Meadow, a way to siphon water out of the bayou without opening the lock has been built and many steel structures and pumps have been re-done.

And if any of these structures needed service – regardless if it’s day or night – Badeaux was always willing to get his hands dirty to get the job done.

“At the end of the day I’m as dirty as anyone else. I was a working superintendent. I’ve given 120 percent I think,” Badeaux said. “If I could handle it by myself, I didn’t even call anybody out cause everybody wants their time off. It comes down to two in the morning and there’s a broken cable, and I’m out there at two in the morning pulling old broken cable, putting a new one in with another employee.”

Work during inconvenient hours – much to the chagrin of his family due to the possible dangers involved and inconveniences caused – also included checking pumps during downpours at all hours to make sure water levels were OK.

“[My wife Brenda] passed a rough time with this job. When it was bad, I had to get up lots of nights, and she said, ‘You can’t be going out,’ but it was my job… It got to where I thought she was going to divorce me a couple of times,” joked Badeaux, “cause we went to a movie, and the phone rings, so I had to walk out the movie. I got people that work 24/7 sometimes, and if something happens I wanted to know about it. That’s my job.”

Times were especially tough for Badeaux’s family during storms. While working for the levee district, Badeaux never left southern Lafourche Parish during any hurricane or Tropical Storm that made landfall – including Hurricane Gustav when South Lafourche Levee District Executive Director Windell Curole actually allowed his employees to leave if they chose to. Instead, while most of the general public had evacuated the area, Badeaux helped execute the levee district’s typical hurricane/tropical storm routine of checking pumps, driving through as much as 80 mile per hour winds throughout the area.

“He exemplifies the best in a public employee. No matter the time of day he’s always been there and he gets it done,” Curole said. “The reason we’re successful at [the] South Lafourche [Levee District] is because of people like Jimmy. They’re hard working, intelligent and willing to do anything – smart enough to work without getting his hands dirty but yet willing to get his hands dirty if it helps out the situation.”

During non-storm times, Badeaux’s contractor background allowed him to seek out good deals for the levee district, saving local taxpayers quite a bit of money.

“The [U.S. Army] Corps [of Engineers] said, ‘This is going to cost x amount of dollars to do a job.’ I’d tell Windell, ‘I figure we can do it this way. It’s a hell of a lot quicker and a hell of a lot cheaper.’ So we did, and we saved ourselves a couple hundred thousand, sometimes a half a million [dollars]. I pay taxes, and it’s taxpayer money that we operate off of. When we spend a penny, I try to made it worth our while.”

Despite his expertise, Badeaux’s willingness to get his hands dirty ended up resulting in his final and biggest sacrifice for the levee district – when he lost most of the sight in his right eye in November 2013.

After taking down a fence with other employees, Badeaux – once again with taxpayer dollars on the mind as an excavator was about to roll through – decided to go back and roll up the barbed wire. However, he neglected to put his protective glasses back on.

“So I get to the wire, and it’s strung so stiff for so long and rusty, about 30 years, when I bent it, a piece came. I never felt it. My eye just went black and [saw] like gleams of light,” he explained.

Badeaux got the eye checked out later that day – working until the appointment, of course, before a follow-up appointment two days later – working the day in-between, of course.

After an infection and two eye surgeries, Badeaux has limited eye-sight in his right eye.

“I got a little sight back. I can see a blur, eight to 10 feet in front of me. I can’t make out what it is, but at least I don’t walk into it if it’s a person or whatever. Close enough, if you put your fingers up, I can see two, three fingers, but if you get about five, six feet away, I can’t tell,” Badeaux said.

For all of his years of service and sacrifice, the Lafourche Chamber of Commerce presented Badeaux with the 2014 Man of the Year Award last June.

“The award is for someone who goes above and beyond their duties in the call of duty, and Mr. Badeaux definitely fit that bill,” explained Chamber President Lee Kiger. “It’s a prestigious award that we do year after year. We know that this community is full of employees that need to be appreciated, and so we take this award seriously, and Mr. Badeaux was definitely worthy of the award.”

Since retiring Jan. 5, the levee district cell phone isn’t in Badeaux’s pocket anymore. For now.

“I neglected to buy another phone, so [Curole] has to call the house phone, and he’d rather me have a cell cause he always wants to check in with me all the time. It’s eating him up that I don’t have a cell, but I’m enjoying not having that phone in my pocket ringing… Now the phone’s gone, but it’ll have to come back,” said the former superintendent.

Badeaux said he’ll still attend levee district board meetings and expressed the desire to serve on the board, joking that it would be nice to be Curole’s boss after serving the executive director for so many years. But for now, fishing, working around the house and spending time with his wife of 41 years and his four children will have to do for the self-professed workaholic.

Since retiring Jan. 5, former SLLD Superintendent Jimmy Badeaux has much more free time to relax on his couch.

RICHARD FISCHER | THE TIMES