Dove drains the swamps

Few people like reading drainage stories, unless the drainage in question concerns whether their house remains dry and uninvaded by water during a catastrophe. And nobody much likes writing them either.

But like it or not writing about drainage related topics is a necessity for anyone who writes about what goes on in Terrebonne Parish.

It was good to see that Parish President Gordon Dove considered his announcement regarding the Hanson Canal station that will protect Chacahoula as a “major drainage project announcement” because it is, even if you have no idea where Chacahoula is.

For the record, it’s that area near Gibson where it looks like nobody actually lives, but where people actually do.

GIS Engineering will permit and design this new station. Last week, Dove drove to the US Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans to sign and receive the permits. He didn’t have to travel to New Orleans to do this, it could have been handled in the mail. But Dove says his experience has been that going makes it all happen more quickly. Does he appear obsessive? Yes, he does. But he points out how he has witnessed the aftermath of massive flooding, and if he can shorten a day or two or a week from the process, so that everything can get started, he’s a lot happier.

This is the time where my more cynical news guy personality is supposed to take over. I’m supposed to think about how there will be an election sooner or later. But I am not going to do that here. I’ve been covering Gordon Dove long enough to know that those sentiments are sincere. And while there may be many points on which his political opponents can make hay — and maybe should — flood protection is not one of them. Michel Claudet, who hasn’t announced yet but looks every bit like an opponent who will try to claim Dove’s seat in the Government Tower, has his own track record of accomplishments on drainage and fighting the floods. So they’re pretty much even in that regard. Clauder, like Dove, hired the people he thought could best do the work. Dove’s critics have questioned his propensity for giving GIS and some other firms preference, as he is allowed to do. But other parish presidents have done the same thing on contracts up to the threshold amount. In Dove’s case, use of GIS on a lot of projects is based, he says, on their ability to pick up and move quickly, and get things done. I am not a pump expert. And I am not the Parish President.

But Dove is, and he is seeing through this massive station that will pump a million gallons every two minutes. That’s a lot of water. And while it’s called the Chacahoula Pump Station, you should know that the communities whose woes will be less include Gibson, Bayou Black, Schriever, Deadwood, Sugarwood, Manchester, The Lakes and places around Savanne Road.

Actual construction will be bid out. The plans call for four 60-inch pumps, a debris lily rake system, 900-hp electric motors and a 3500 kw backup generator.

Credit should be given where credit is due, and this administration has, in this instance, stepped up to the plate. Politics should play no role in the granting of kudos in situations like this, when everything possible must be done to drain the swamps when emergencies exist.