Charles Paul McCue
January 19, 2010Jan. 21
January 21, 2010Officials with the Lafourche Parish Council say the top priorities for 2010 are eliminating drainage problems, improving levees in central and northern Lafourche and finding the funds to build a new jail.
Cloggy drainages and culverts have plagued Lafourche for years, and the council’s new chairman, Daniel Lorraine, and vice-chairman, Lindel Toups, are ready for change.
“We are having problems all over the parish. Water isn’t draining properly, and it needs to be addressed,” Toups said. “A field in Gheens still has 4.5 feet of stagnant water from the last hard rain, and new subdivisions are flooding before they can even be finished.
In December, areas in Lafourche – Gheens, Chackbay, the Alidore Community in Raceland and the Sugarland Subdivision in Mathews – took on massive amounts of water during unprecedented rainfall, causing extensive water damage to homes and businesses.
“Something has to be done,” said Lorraine. “Or parts of Lafourche won’t exist 20 to 30 years from now, and it won’t be because of a hurricane … it will be because the continuous flooding in some areas has washed it away.”
Although the chairman describes the flooding as terrible, the council agreed at its January 12 regular meeting that there’s not much they can do to prevent the damage that has already been done. They do feel that a plan to prevent it from reoccurring in the future need to be created.
The parish is toying with ideas of hiring experts to evaluate the parish drainage system thoroughly.
The drainage issues in the parish have been coupled with aging levees in the central and northern parts of the parish to create a parish-wide problem.
Lorraine’s suggested the North Lafourche Levee District take a page out of the South Lafourche Levee District’s handbook and institute a sales tax that would generate a fund to improve the levees.
“We are not for increasing taxes, but the NLLD needs to lobby for a sales tax in their coverage area to improve levees and drainage,” said the councilman. “The state Legislation has already given them the go ahead to pass the one-cent sales tax.”
Lorraine also believes the NLLD should take over the parish’s pump stations. He believes they would do a much better management job than the parish is doing.
“South Lafourche handles over 90 percent of the pump stations in southern Lafourche and the parish pays fueling costs,” he said. “That’s how it should be in northern Lafourche.
“The parish government does not need to be in the pump station business. Over the years, the levee district can put something together better than the parish can.”
The other major issue on the two council leaders’ minds is the parish’s need for a new jail, one of the most costly issues for 2010. A council-appointed Five Star Committee recommends Lafourche build a 900-bed lockdown facility, estimated to cost over $50 million.
“We need a jail, we can see that,” Lorraine said. “But the question is ‘How are we going to pay for it?'”
Toups’ funding solution is to consolidate and combine some of the taxing districts in the parish to shore up a few millages that will generate needed funds for the parish.
“We could combine the water and hospital districts together and have them collect a set number of mills,” Toups explained. “Then, we can examine to see if other districts can give up a few millages. Take the Library Board of Controls for instance. They collect a lot of mills.
“We can also eliminate the Central Lafourche and South Lafourche ambulance districts and let Acadian provide ambulance services parish wide. We don’t need to be in the ambulance business. There are so many other things we can do to get the money together.”
Lorraine disagrees with Toups, slightly. He said the council does not have the authority to regulate millages in some taxing districts because they have bond indebtedness.
His suggestion is for the parish council to formulate a committee consisting of members from the parish administration, the council and sheriff’s office to take an in-depth look at the parish taxing districts.
“We just can’t come in and cut millages because they were voted on by the people,” he said. “The parish is long and wide, and you have all these taxing districts. The idea is to look at things real hard. It’s going to be a tough decision, but we can come up with something.”
The two council leaders don’t take the idea of higher taxes lightly, but they do feel new taxes may be necessary.
“Everybody is talking about taxing, taxing, taxing,” Toups said. “But you can over-tax people. The council and the parish will have to be stay united in order to improve the parish’s infrastructure.”
On the other hand, Lorraine explained, “Sometimes you are placed in a situation and you’re like, ‘What do you do?’ I am not for increasing taxes, but sometimes it takes a tax to get something done.
He looks toward the proposed NLLD tax measure as a test of the will of the people.
“It will be interesting to see how the vote goes with the northern part of the parish, should they decide to institute a tax for drainage and levee improvements,” he concluded.
