Gordon Dove shows his true colors

The sun shone majestically over the marshes of Cocodrie, with a few towering storms far in the distance providing hints that things might get rough later.

Inside a work-trailer at the Great Lakes Dredge company’s dock reporters, government officials and other interested folks got a basic rundown from John Huit, a Great Lakes manager, on what they had all come to see, progress on a $110 million barrier island project.

The overview was succinct as it was impressive.

Sand is being directed from underneath the ocean to the headland on Whiskey Island, part of Terrebonne Parish’s Isle Dernieres barrier chain, where it is forming beach. Ten million cubic yards. Think about a half million dump trucks full of sand and that should give you a good idea of the scope.

Steve Trosclair, Gerald Michel and Dirk Guidry, along with Al Marmande, were the parish council members who came along. Also there was Parish President Gordon Dove.

Gordie was in the state legislature when the disaster that led to this funding through the NRDA process began. The money went to the CPRA, which protects Louisiana’s coast, and this is one of the projects it has granted. It is the result of fines paid by oil giant BP arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout.

It is an ebb and flow to which we are far too accustomed in Louisiana, the oil and gas industry taking away but then showing up with currency to dry out tears.

We all got in boats that were readied for the trip and traveled rapidly to the site, the sun baking us once we stepped out onto land. The hardhats and life jackets only made it worse, and as I looked at the workers there was a special good feeling that came into my heart. They are the hands-on guys, the ones who operate the equipment and make sure that all the big metal tubes through which the sand travels are set up right and that the pumps all operate correctly.

Standing out on this wind-blown island gave me nothing but admiration for all of them.

Finally I let my ego deflate enough to sit, at the edge of a container-trailer on the job site, and watched Gordy Dove as well as the levee district director, Reggie Dupre, field questions.

I finally went up to Gordy and asked a few questions of my own. As usually in these situations, he was a walking encyclopedia of everything having to do with the job.

Hot as it was, uncomfortable as it had to be for him – as it was for me – this legislator who turned parish president answered all the questions, flipped out all the facts he had at his disposal, and he was indefatigable.

This is his way.

Political issues may come and go, clashes with the press over information on a matter may erupt from time to time, and there may be a joust occasionally with a parish council member. While answering a few questions he points far in the distance, to an area of island already covered by vegetation, and releases chapter and verse on that part of the project also.

Some may say it comes with the job, or should, and so all of this is nothing special. But I disagree. What Gordon Dove brings to his job in these matters of restoration is passion. He has an understanding of the stakes at large. Somehow, he seems sensitive to the plights of those who work with the resources that are affected by all of this, not appearing to favor one over the other. It is the longevity of the good earth over which he presides that takes the front seat, and spending even a few minutes out there with him leave no doubt of this. It is said that in governmental matters the right people for the time gravitate to office. When it comes to these issues of coastal restoration, Gordon Dove appears to have gravitated to the right place. This is because his understanding of the bigger picture allows response to the smaller ones.

After the tour we piled back onto our boats. Gordon Dove had places to go so I didn’t catch him at the dock. Had I done so, I would have given a thank you for his caring. I would have thanked him for being there.

John DeSantis