LETTER TO EDITOR: Smithridge problems overlooked for too long

Dear Editor,

This letter is a response to the Houma Courier article dated Wednesday, April 18, 2012, concerning the sewer problem on Warren Street in the Smithridge community.

In the late 1990s, a grant was issued to install a public sewer project in the community. The project was designed to install sewer pipelines down all the streets from Van Street to Moses Street.

Although $2.4 million dollars were spent on the project, the project was not completed. Warren Street was left out. The excuse was that the money had run out, and there weren’t enough residences on Warren Street to warrant spending more money on the project although there were three residences on the street. The people who reside on Warren Street are forced to use makeshift sewer lines, which never worked and have been at risk of causing environmental and health hazards.

For several years, we’ve been trying to get this project completed and have been consistently told there is no money to complete the project. In the meantime, soccer fields, walking tracks and other projects have been installed in many of the preferential communities.

The present administration has now labeled Warren Street as a commercial area. When contacted by the Courier about the problem, the administration told the Courier staff writer that I owned trailers and rental property on Warren Street. That is completely false. I have no trailers are rental property on Warren Street. The only property I have on Warren Street is the building that houses The Laundry Room that does not generate any money. It is there as a service to people who have a need to dry their clothes. All the other properties on Warren Street belong to other people.

Mr. Claudete (sic) stated that he has to represent the entire parish. Oh, really! Well that’s a statement he should start to take seriously. He also stated that he was never in agreement with completing the Smithridge project as long as he is parish president. It won’t be done. If he has the power to enforce such a bold statement, then why does this parish need a council? Mr. Parish President, you can exert your power as you please, but two things I behoove you to remember. There is a God and people are people whether they live in Oakshire, Broadmoor, Mulberry, Ellendale, Cocodrie or in the community of Smithridge.

Sterling Sims,

Chauvin, La.