"The Elephant Man" (Baton Rouge)
January 25, 2010
Octavia McCoy White
January 28, 2010The St. Mary Parish Council is faced with the tough decision whether to spend more than $150,000 to repair its 42-year-old Avoca Island ferry or to permanently dock it, saving parish taxpayers hundreds of dollars in operational costs in the process.
Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange told the council the upgrades will cost at least $150,549 to repair the 50 items cited by the U.S. Coast Guard and a local marine company.
The cable-operated water locomotive has been in operation since February 1968. It totes Morgan City passengers to and from Avoca Island, a 16,000-acre private island 580 feet off the city’s coast.
LaGrange said Bollinger Shipyards submitted the lowest bid on the project. Among the other companies bidding on the repair work were: LD Marine, which submitted a bid of $155,697; Hudson Drydocks, with a bid of $159,848; and Conrad Shipyards, with a $264,070 bid.
The ferry became a hot topic in St. Mary Parish in late 2008, after council finance chairman Kevin Voisin suggested the parish permanently drydock the vessel because of its huge drain on parish finances.
The Coast Guard cited the craft for several violations last fall, demanding the parish quickly get the vessel compliant with the operating code. In response to the citation, LaGrange hired Greenwood Marine Management in Morgan City to review the deficiencies. The review cost the parish $2,800. In all, 50 deficiencies were found.
Since 2005, St. Mary taxpayers have paid nearly $1 million to keep the vessel operating. The majority of that figure was spent on operating costs, fuel, insurance and liability issues.
Voisin was critical of the cost because the ferry shuttles only members of the island’s private hunting club as well as various oil and gas interests. Only one person, a caretaker, resides full-time on the island.
In exchange, St. Mary receives proper tax revenues generated from island business. In 2008, that figure totaled $150,214.31. However, according to parish records, St. Mary paid approximately $270,000 yearly – nearly $46 per passenger – to run the shuttle.
Last year, the council agreed to reduce the ferry’s operations to 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The vessel previously ran from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
In December, the council trimmed operations to weekdays, saving taxpayers approximately $45,000.
Morgan City Mayor Tim Matte said the parish should keep the ferry until provisions could be made to build a bridge over nearby locks. “The parish could take the money they’re spending on the ferry and bond it out over four to six years, which will allow them to get the money they need to build a bridge,” he explained.
If the council chooses to make the repairs to the ferry, LaGrange said service will be shut down for six months while the work is completed.
