Freddie Howard
July 16, 2007
Murphy Candies, Jr.
July 18, 2007The Terrebonne Parish Council heard that sinking an old ship can do more than create an artificial reef for sea life, at the council’s regular meeting Wednesday night, and the council listened to an update on recent action in the Louisiana Legislature by State Sen. Reggie Dupre of Houma.
The council also argued about the merits of having the parish council chairperson attend executive committee sessions of the Terrebonne Parish Hospital Service District No. 1 board, which oversees the operations of Terrebonne General Medical Center.
Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter proposed to the council that a 50-foot tall, 600-foot long decommissioned ship possessed by the parish be sunk in the Houma Navigation Canal as a stopgap measure to provide protection against hurricane tidal surges.
The Army Corps of Engineers is building a proposed lock complex on the canal, but the structure will not be completed until 2017.
Terrebonne Parish would need permission from the Corps to sink the vessel in the canal. Also, the ship would have to pass inspection by the Corps.
Larpenter indicated that Terrebonne Parish is at high risk of being struck by a hurricane, and that the parish has no hurricane-protection levee system.
“Terrebonne has lots of water and little land,” he told the council. “If we get a tidal surge, we’re in trouble. This ship will work.”
Councilman Clayton Voisin said that a depression on the floor of the canal would have to be dug so that the ship could sink evenly, though permission to dig would have to be given by the Corps.
“It’s a fantastic idea,” he said. “Until the locks, this would serve in the interim.”
Councilman Pete Lambert said that he entirely supports the idea of sinking the ship in the canal.
Councilwoman Christa Duplantis said that the Intracoastal Waterway nearly crested in her district during Hurricane Rita.
“I’ve asked for the (flood) gate,” she said. “Water surge is the problem.”
In his report to the council, Dupre expressed support for sinking the ship in the Houma Navigation Canal.
He said that $43 million has been secured in federal money to build the lock on the canal as a component of the Morganza to the Gulf levee system project, but the total cost of the lock would probably be $200 million.
Dupre pointed to the recent strengthening of part of the boundary of Lake Boudreaux in Terrebonne Parish as a positive development in local flood control.
“This is how we do it, instead of one great wall” to protect against hurricane tidal surges, he said.
As part of the hurricane evacuation plans for Terrebonne Parish, Dupre said that the interchange of U.S. Highway 90 and Interstate 310 in St. Charles Parish needs to be reconfigured, indicating that there has been a several-mile long traffic jam at the interchange during past evacuations.
In addition, Dupre stated that U.S. 90 in Terrebonne Parish is ready to be made into a stretch of I-49.
“You just need to change the signs (along U.S. 90) to blue (interstate) signs,” he said.
In other business, the council discussed extensively the nomination of lawyer Jerri Smitko to another term on the board of the parish’s Hospital Service District No. 1.
Smitko stated her opposition to having the parish council chairperson sitting in on the board’s executive committee sessions, which drew responses from Councilman Peter Rhodes and Councilwoman Teri Cavalier.
Anyone can attend the district’s regular meetings, but only board members can attend executive committee sessions, which are not open to the public except by special request. Even then, outsiders are only allowed to sit in if the discussion centers on the district’s strategic plans.
Only action by the Louisiana Legislature could force the council chairperson onto the district board as an ex officio member. An ex officio member would have no vote.
The parish council appoints hospital board members to represent the parish’s interests.
Smitko said that each district meeting has a comment period where the public can address the board.
Rhodes said he asked repeatedly to sit in on the district’s executive committee sessions while he was parish council chairman, but he was refused.
“I would like to be able to add something to it,” he said of the executive committee discussion.
Cavalier stated that Terrebonne General is a public hospital and needs the public’s input.
She said that a representative of the council does not need to attend executive committee sessions involving doctors and patients, but other matters discussed by the board, like mental health issues, should include a council member’s views.
“Whoever is the sitting chairman, that person represents the majority of the council,” she said.
But Councilman Clayton Voisin strongly objected to Cavalier’s statement asserting that the chairperson embodies the views of the whole parish council.
“I trust Mr. (Alvin) Tillman,” the current council chairman, Voisin said, “but I don’t know if (his) opinion would be my choice.”
“I don’t know who the chairman of the council will be in six months,” he said.
He cited a potential conflict of interest if Tillman could not attend a district meeting. Vice Chairwoman Christie Duplantis, who works at another hospital, would need to attend in Tillman’s place.
Voisin said that the fact that the council appoints the board’s members means the council has trust in the board.
“When we have an executive session, the chairman of the hospital board is not invited,” he said.
Councilwoman Kim Elfert supported Voisin.
She noted that the matters discussed in executive session are secret.
“I don’t know what the value is if we can’t come back with information,” she said.
“I should go to the board with complaints of my constituency,” she said. “It’s not an executive session issue.”
Voisin cited the numerous awards Terrebonne General has won recently.
“The hospital has done well no matter who’s chairman,” he said. “Don’t fix it.”
The council approved Smitko’s reappointment to the hospital board, with Cavalier voting nay.
