Terrebonne Rec Reports by District From This Week’s Meeting

Hurricane Ida ravaged South Louisiana leaving many facilities and amenities of Terrebonne Recreation damaged, some structures even have to be demolished.

Eight of the 11 district chairs were present at Tuesday night’s meeting. Roddy Lerille, Director of Recreation, began with his report. The parish’s boys and girls youth, ages 7-12, basketball program began Saturday, February 12. Good news for pickleball, the program has begun again running on Sundays, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the East Houma Gym and the Special Olympics program has started to practice at the East Houma Gym as well. They are preparing to attend the state basketball tournament in Baton Rouge on Saturday, March 12.

Pre-prep basketball leagues ranging from ages 13-17 registration is currently open and closes March 4. Practices begin March 14 and games will be played on Monday and Wednesdays beginning March 21.

Youth softball ages 7-18, and youth baseball ages 7-15 registration is ongoing and closes March 18. Practices are scheduled to begin April 4 and games begin April 18.  Softball coaches need to mark their calendars for March 8 for a softball coach meeting, and the baseball coach meeting will be on March 9. He encouraged the committee members to update on fields since practices are projected to begin on April 4.

Exciting news for adults over 18, Terrebonne Rec has some fun stuff for you too! They created three Facebook groups, one group for kickball, one for flag football, and one for coed kickball. These groups are for interested adults to get teams together and for community support. There is still room for kickball teams and encouraging adults to do so soon since registration closes this Friday, February 25. They will have practices and games will run on Thursday nights beginning March 10. Basketball registration has also been open. Lerille said they haven’t had a program in the past couple of years simply due to a lack of registrations.

Terrebonne Rec Districts Update:

For Recreation District 1 (Schriever/Bayou Black), chair Mark Amedee said Oakshire Gym should be ready to open on March 1. The Andrew Price Gym restrooms are running between 1-2 weeks behind schedule due to permitting issues and are hoping to have Andrew Price ready for May 1. They are waiting for a contractor to repair light poles at the baseball fields. 

Recreation District 2-3 (Lisa Park/ MLK, 311), chair Shawn Dupre said their board decided to hire an architect for a 5-10 year plan to update the gym before Hurricane Ida. Since Ida left the coast, the gym has had to be completely gutted due to water damage. The board decided to get some concepts in before demo plans and they should have those by next Friday at the next board meeting. He said teams have started practicing at the Southland fields. The district has had a contractor quote repair for Hurricane Ida damages, where they were quoted $153,000 which he called a “shell shock.” Since the light fixtures were older and obsolete, Dupre said they have to be replaced with newer LED lights which explains the price they were given. However, he said they won’t know the whole cost until the contractor gets there to start the repairs, so the quote given is the worst-case scenario. Dupre noted the quote is for all of the Southland, Broadmoor, and MLK/311 parks. Since they didn’t receive any bids for demolition for awnings at Broadmoor, they had to reach out to Parish President Dove who will be sending the Parish contractor to do the job and it will happen before practices begin on April 4. The good news for the district is the back two fields on MLK are now playable and the front two fields are playable during daylight hours.

Recreation District 3A was not present.

Recreation District 4 (Dulac), chair Kirby Verret reported that they are working with insurance companies and FEMA and reported they do have poles that are at 45-degree angles on their fields. They did have a spot in the building to have their meetings, but since the last meeting, he said they suffered further damage from storms rolling through, so they are trying to move forward with renovations. Grand Caillou Gym is estimated to be open in hopefully one year.

Recreation District 5 was not present.

Recreation District 6 (Montegut), chair Laura Browning reported they have the engineers’ report for their gym. They will be taking the back wall off completely because it is severely cracked. Since the back wall has to come off, she said the roof will have to be removed as well along with the air conditioners, and the generator will have to be redone. The first payment, $1.6 million, of insurance money has been received, and the district estimates they will go to the edge of the entire amount of insurance money (around $3 million) maybe even excel it due to the number of damages. They have a meeting today with FEMA and the company that built the fields so they can start building the idea of total damages. She said they anticipate the total of the gym and ballfields won’t be available to the public for two years. This also includes the pool because the pool is in the construction zone. Now that temporary housing has been taken off of the properties, they can now get an adequate estimate of total damages and they have not had anyone practice on the fields due to safety issues.

They have begun work to open a park in Pointe-aux-Chenes. The surfacing has been done and parking will be in place hopefully next week, she said. She was proud to comment on the community’s excitement for a park to be coming to the area and said they are looking to add a walking track, a pavilion, and a playground. The property lies adjacent to a school and a church making it the perfect place for community involvement. “It’s going to make a difference in that community and it’s going to bring people to that community…we’re ready to have it happen,” she said.

Recreation District 7 (Grand Caillou) chair Brian LeBlanc said they are still waiting for the roof to be changed on Smithridge Gym which still has a blue tarp roof. They also recently discovered water damage in the gym when they noticed the gym floor is starting to come up. They are trying to piece together the materials to match the current flooring, but with the supply issues lately, they may have to change the whole floor. They are still waiting for the engineering report for the Little Caillou Gym. Once they receive the report, they will have to send bids to move forward with demolition. They are waiting on the engineer report regarding the pool to see if it can be repaired or rebuilt, “We all think it’s something you can’t repair, it needs to be demolished,” he said. 

They have new playground equipment for the Klondike property. They will be pouring cement Monday and after they will put surfacing. They have hired someone to clean up trees that fell during Hurricane Ida and are looking to retrieve a temporary home so that workers have a place to go take a lunch break. As far as ball fields, he reported it is estimated that it will take a year because all of the poles are bent, and the gym is available for basketball.

Recreation District 8 (Donner/Gibson) chair Roosevelt Seymore, reported they have blueprints for their bathrooms and kitchens at both Donner and Gibson facilities. They will also be starting repairs from termite damage at the Gibson gym. He said their ball fields have not been used in years and the gyms’ goals have been down. This initiated conversation about possibly using those fields for practices. Donner is ready and is open to playing. Although Devon Keller Gym in Gibson needs a supervisor, the gym is open for business. 

Recreation District 9 (Bayou Black) chair John Haston reported they are doing Hurricane Ida repairs. He said they are doing well with progress and have ordered items needed that should be in within 4-6 weeks. They have finished the outside 60 x 90 basketball court. The only thing that needs to be added is lighting that is estimated to be up in three weeks and the lighting will be on a timer. He reported they are wanting to add blowers to help circulate air while the court is utilized. The pool is ready now after they removed debris, cleaned it, and repaired the liner. They are moving forward with summer camps this year at the Bayou Black Gym!

The district purchased Mulberry Park which is 8.9 acres of land that has an adaptive playground, exercise equipment, basketball court, 40 x 40 pavilion, and a walking track. Their soccer fields have poles down and no lighting, so they are not usable at the moment. He said they haven’t worked on it, but will soon move forward. Haston said the baseball field has around 90 percent of its lights. He said he will be relooking at the baseball field so that it can be used by anyone that needs it.

Vice-Chair and Recreation District 10 (Dularge) chair Tammy Knight has a heart for her community and the other rec districts. She reported their gym is open and they are in full swing with TPR basketball on the weekends and are open to the public. They have programs ongoing and they are sharing their building with the Children’s Carnival, Knights of Columbus, and a local church. “Anything for our community and anything that we can do, but like always, our community and TPR programs come first,” she said. She went on to invite the other districts to use their facilities if they need to run programs because she said her district strives for community implementation and programs. They have been working with FEMA and a consulting group. She said they have a meeting today about the baseball fields and she doesn’t see them using them with electricity anytime soon. They will try to get them usable with no lights, only daylight use, but they will know more soon. They have two open to the public parks that don’t have lighting that she said she will try her hardest to cut, groom and get throw bases to get ready for daytime practices. “I will even take a tennis net down if I have to for our younger teams. I’ll do whatever I can to provide a space for practice,” she said. Going forward, she is eager to find new and fun programs for the community such as a mobile shuffle, cornhole, and youth programs. She announced that summer camps are “a go”.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 22 at 6:00 p.m. at the TPR Annex Building, 1192 Barrow Street.