Councilman: AG opinion needed on sewer pump station

Terrebonne Parish Councilman Billy Hebert wants an opinion from the state Attorney General’s Office about the parish’s proposed purchase of a small piece of land in Bayou Cane to construct a sewer pump station.

Hebert introduced a successful motion at last Wednesday’s parish council meeting to delay a vote on the land purchase for two weeks.

The pump station would be included in a sewer system being built by the parish along Martin Luther King Boulevard close to Bayou Gardens Boulevard. The station would serve private land developments nearby.

Hebert said the parish does not normally build sewer pump stations that would serve private land developers; landowners pay for constructing the stations.

Hebert asked for an opinion from the Terrebonne Parish District Attorney’s Office at the council’s May 14 meeting, delaying the parish’s purchase of the land for at least two weeks. The District Attorney’s Office issued a letter on June 5 stating the proposed purchase does not violate any laws.

Regions Bank bought the land, which is smaller than an acre, in January and is selling it to the parish for $27,000.

The Houma engineering firm Shaw Coastal is performing engineering work on the Martin Luther King corridor sewer system for $209,000. Shaw signed the agreement to do the work in August 2005.

The Baton Rouge-area construction company Nottingham Construction will build the sewer system for $932,000. A resolution authorizing the contract was passed at the council’s May 14 meeting.

Both companies will be awarded contracts only if the parish council passes an ordinance. The motions by Hebert at the May 14 and June 11 meetings asking for legal opinions have delayed the parish council from voting on the purchase of land.

At last Wednesday’s council meeting, Hebert said the parish’s construction of a sewer pump station to service the Northpark subdivision in Gray was the only other time the parish has built a pump station benefiting private land developers.

Northpark is owned partly by Houma land developer Henry Richard, who resigned as Terrebonne Economic Development Authority board president in November.

Richard sold the land containing the proposed Martin Luther King corridor pump station to Regions Bank in January. He also owns a tract of land adjoining the proposed pump station.

“The owner/developer should build to connect to the sewer system,” Hebert said. “If we pay for one private developer, what will we say to other private developers? Do they deserve to be reimbursed? What will the policy of the parish be in the future?”

Ronnie Theriot, who owns Evangeline Business Park in Gray, told the council he is paying the entire cost for sewer improvements to his property.

“My situation is not much different,” he said. “Developers are responsible for building the lifts to get to collection stations.”

Richard wrote a letter to Parish President Michel Claudet on June 2 stating that a common sewer collection system is more effective than building numerous independent plants.

Richard wrote that if the parish council did not vote in favor of purchasing the land for the proposed pump station at the June 11 council meeting, he would build his own pump station and cancel rights of way he granted to the parish to build the sewer system.

Claudet has said he believes the parish should build the pump station because it would benefit several landowners.

Parish Councilman Johnny Pizzolatto at last Wednesday’s meeting also said he favored a parish-built pump station, speaking out against multiple private developers building numerous stations.

Hebert said Richard implied in his letter that Hebert had a personal agenda against him. The councilman rebuffed the insinuation.

“There’s nothing exceptional in Richard’s case,” Hebert said. “There’s nothing to stop him from designing his own sewer system.”