Boundary talks set for Thursday

The Terrebonne-Lafourche Boundary Committee will hold a key meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the Lafourche Parish Council Chambers in the Sondra Barrios Center, 1612 Hwy. 182, in Raceland.

The committee will possibly decide to make a recommendation to the Louisiana Legislature about where to permanently affix the border between Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes in Grand Bois, and in Bayou Blue northeast of Gray, said Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph.

Meetings were held in Bourg on June 4, and in Bayou Blue on June 28, to receive public input concerning where to locate the border.

On Thursday, the committee will discuss the schooling concerns voiced by some parents. At the two previous meetings, most of the audience members who spoke were concerned about the possibility of having to send their children to school in a different parish.

The committee will also talk about the waterline that feeds Grand Bois for fire protection.

Both the Lafourche and Terrebonne parish councils have to pass ordinances establishing any boundary change. The altered border plan would then have to be approved by the Louisiana Legislature.

State Sen. Reggie Dupre, and State Rep. Gordon Dove, have agreed to sponsor the legislation.

Any action by the Legislature would have to wait at least two years because the 2008 legislative term is a fiscal-only session.

Official Louisiana Land Office maps are at odds with Tobin Survey Maps from the early 1960s about where the Terrebonne and Lafourche boundaries are located in Grand Bois and Bayou Blue. The Tobin maps used land-ownership records to determine the boundaries.

However, the state recognizes the Land Office maps, which use data stretching back decades, to set the borders. The Land Office maps show a slice of land up to a third of a mile in width east of (the bayou) Bayou Blue near Gray belonging to Terrebonne Parish.

Speaking at the June 28 meeting, Committee Co-Chair Mark Atzenhoffer, a Lafourche Parish councilman representing Bayou Blue, said he favors establishing the middle of (the bayou) Bayou Blue as the boundary between Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.

A casual poll of the audience taken by Atzenhoffer at the meeting showed most to be in favor of Bayou Blue as the border.

Several audience members complained that more public officials needed to attend the June 28 meeting, and that, beforehand, the meeting was not sufficiently well-publicized.

The audience noted especially the low number of school board members from the two parishes at the meeting.

The informal, ad hoc boundary committee is composed of the two parish presidents, five Terrebonne Parish Council members, and four Lafourche Parish councilmen.

Having a fifth member from the Lafourche Parish Council would constitute a quorum. Louisiana law prohibits officially convening two parish councils jointly.

Atzenhoffer said that most Terrebonne and Lafourche parish officials have been invited to Thursday’s meeting.

“People asked us to invite everybody,” he said. “We’ve asked everyone to attend except the President and Gov. Blanco.”

“We have four Lafourche Parish councilmen, and four from the Terrebonne Parish

Council,” he said.

On the July 12 meeting agenda, the committee requests that persons who have been informed about the meeting notify those who are unaware.