Mathews Wal-Mart site for parish council

It is official: the old Wal-Mart in Mathews is the new home for the Lafourche Parish Council.

The former one-stop shop in Mathews has been a temporary home for the council since Hurricane Gustav damaged the council’s former office, the Barrios building in Raceland.

The cost of the old Wal-Mart, a 54,223-square-foot structure, is about $2.25 million and includes a new roof, interior renovations, new air-conditioning units and purchase of a generator.

However, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the insurance will pay for

about $1.17 million of that, according to the parish’s Finance Department.

The sale of the Barrios land for about $175,000 reduces the estimated cost for the old

Wal-Mart purchase to $902,247, Parish President Charlotte Randolph said.

The council passed two separate ordinances last week, one to approve the transfer of money for the purchase and the other to approve the purchase itself.

Councilman Phillip Gouaux was the lone voter against both ordinances. “If we move from the Raceland area, it will be a dead zone,” he said.

However, Randolph said the council could only continue leasing the old Wal-Mart until the end of July before they had to either buy the building or move out.

“We have to have a place where we can call home,” Randolph said. “This is the best we can find at the time. This gives us an opportunity to plan for the future.”

Councilman Lindel Toups said he is against buying the building but voted for it because the council needs a permanent home. But he did say he does not believe the building will withstand a storm.

“There is no way I stay in this building for a hurricane,” Toups said.

“The people of Lafourche Parish and the people who work for the parish deserve a safe harbor,” Gouaux added.

The council did have an option to repair the Barrios building, but the option failed, mainly due to price. Repairing the 22,840-square-foot Barrios building would have cost the parish about $1.1 million, even after FEMA and insurance paid $1.24 million, for a total of $2.35 million.

“I’m not 100 percent for this building, and we have to be stewards with the taxpayers’ money,” Councilman Joe Fertitta said. “But we have to live within our budget, and we can only do what we can afford. And this is all we can afford.”

FEMA rebuilt the government office in St. Tammy Parish after a disastrous storm.

Gouaux asked why that option was not provided for Lafourche and the Barrios building. Randolph said the building has to suffer more than 50 percent damage before FEMA would consider rebuilding it.

The Barrios building’s damage was a little over 45 percent.

Though he voted against the purchase of the building, Gouaux still agreed to continue leasing the old Wal-Mart, with the assurance that the administration would consider buying or building somewhere else.

Randolph said with the purchase, the parish would own all the property in front of the building up to La. Highway 1.