Lower Ward 7 levee receives much-needed funding boost

Emergency funding will be applied to the Lower Ward 7 levee in Chauvin after the Terrebonne Parish Council’s Public Services Committee last week approved an add-on to the agenda funneling up to $1.9 million immediately for the project.

The money will pay to lift the levee to eight feet. Parts of the structure have sunk to six feet, said Parish President Michel Claudet.

Funds for the project had been set aside by the council three weeks ago, but the motion last week was required to avoid having to wait 10 days for the normal bid process to take place.

Council members said the project cannot wait that long.

“It would be an abomination not to use it (the funds),” Claudet said.

An error had occurred in the emergency allocation process that necessitated the add-on motion, Claudet said.

Councilman Kevin Voisin emphasized that funding had already been dedicated for the levee. The committee’s action would only speed up paying for the improvements.

Councilman Clayton Voisin said funds to pay for the levee improvements were deducted from money allotted to each council member for use in their individual districts.

The funds for the levee had been deducted from money council members used to pay contractors to clean ditches and culverts in the parish beginning late last year.

But Clayton Voisin said he believed that any money left over from the contractors for the ditch-cleaning would be returned to council members.

“Bad as I want to help people in Ward 7, I can’t say I understand (this emergency action),” he said.

Kevin Voisin said he was happy to use money intended for his district to pay for the Ward 7 levee improvements.

Although one negative vote could have stopped the add-on process, Clayton Voisin said he would support the measure after receiving assurance from Department of Public Works Capital Projects Administrator Al Levron that expenditures on the Ward 7 levee would not exceed the $1.9 million allocated for the project.

Voisin did note that a question had been raised about how the project was funded.

At the Budget and Finance Committee meeting last week, Parish Planning and Zoning Director Pat Gordon said his department needs another assistant planner to manage the $120 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money which will flow into Terrebonne Parish government for hurricane Gustav and Ike recovery, as well as other funding coming into the parish

The Planning and Zoning Department also needs another grant writer to apply for other available funding, Gordon said. The department currently has a single grant writer.

He and Claudet support a proposed ordinance creating the two new positions.

Gordon said the new employees are needed to help compile a database of properties in the parish that have been damaged in recent years.

Claudet, along with Councilman Alvin Tillman, said he believes the salaries required to pay for the added government jobs would be easily made up by the increased funding the new employees would bring to the parish.

“We need a person searching for grants, getting as much for Terrebonne as we can,” Claudet said.

According to Kevin Voisin, complaints were common at the most recent National Association of Counties convention about federal funding lost because of a lack of grant writers.

“No money should be left on the table,” Councilwoman Arlanda Williams said.

Councilman Johnny Pizzolatto said representatives from parish recreation and fire districts frequently ask for help from parish government with applying for grants. A second grant writer would help them, he said.

Though she supported adding an assistant planner position, Councilwoman Teri Cavalier disagreed about the need for another grant writer.

Her motion proposing ordinances creating two separate positions died for lack of a second.

The committee approved sending the single proposed ordinance covering both positions to the full council at its regular June 10 meeting, with only Cavalier opposing the measure.

Also at last week’s committee meetings, Parish Utilities Director Tom Bourg said the cost for closed-captioning TPTV would be between $500 and $1,000 an hour, based on information he has received.

Video would need to be sent out to be transcribed with the captioning and would be returned 5 days later.

Bourg said he has learned that the service could be completed substantially more cheaply, and he will look into other sources.

In other business last week, the Policy, Procedure, and Legal Committee passed a resolution asking U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu to appoint a representative of Terrebonne Parish to the vacant Section K seat on the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.

The seat has been previously held by George Arceneaux and Stanwood Duval Jr., both from Houma.

Landrieu has recommended a state judge from Orleans Parish.