Deborah Carney
October 20, 2009
Mrs. Leontine (Tina) Harris
October 22, 2009Local public officials and community leaders at least week’s Terrebonne Parish Council meeting mostly expressed support for relocating families living on Isle de Jean Charles in southeast Terrebonne, but residents said they want to stay.
The two-mile Island Road, the only route leading to the community, was reduced to one lane in parts by hurricanes Gustav and Ike and will cost an estimated $6 to $10 million to repair. The parish-owned road had also suffered damage from other storms.
Isle de Jean Charles, which had been home to 78 families in 2002, now has 22 families, said Terrebonne Levee District Director Reggie Dupre, who is from nearby Pointe-aux-Chenes.
“So relocation is already occurring by Mother Nature,” Dupre told the parish council.
The community, home to many members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe, is located outside of the proposed Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane levee protection system.
In a letter read at the council meeting, state Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City) said land on higher ground in Bourg had been identified that would be suitable for the Isle de Jean Charles families. Bourg is around 15 miles north.
The community is represented in the state Legislature by Sen. Norby Chabert (D-Houma).
“The cost of infrastructure repair is $10 million – that is, until the next hurricane,” Gautreaux wrote.
“To continue to sink money into the infrastructure is sinking it into a never-bottoming hole,” he stated later.
Also in a letter, Roch Naquin, a retired priest with the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux who is from Isle de Jean Charles, said relocation would not be necessary if the community were better protected.
“In the long term, relocation would serve the better good of the people,” Naquin wrote.
Albert Naquin, chief of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe, told the council, “It is with a sad heart I tell you the time has come to make plans to relocate the tribe.”
Most island residents at the meeting had a different view.
“I don’t plan to move,” said Virgil Dardar. “My house is 10 feet off the ground. I work for myself. I’m a fisherman.”
Another resident, Jamie Dardar, said, “I can’t afford to leave the island.” Montegut resident Chris Chaisson told the council that families on the island have complete access to waterways there.
Brenda Dardar Robichaux, principal chief of the United Houma Nation, said the tribe supports the people of Isle de Jean Charles.
Several residents of Bourg’s St. Agnes subdivision, the proposed area where island residents would transfer, told the council that developing the land would add to the subdivision’s existing flooding problems.
Councilmen Kevin Voisin and Clayton Voisin both expressed opposition to rebuilding Island Road.
“We have to find a permanent solution,” Kevin Voisin said. “I will not vote for a dollar that will wash away in a week.”
“I don’t know where the money will come from to build a sustainable road,” Clayton Voisin said. “It’s difficult to put money where it will wash away again. The money’s not there to do that. The idea to move to higher ground may be inevitable.”
Councilman Alvin Tillman strongly supported rebuilding Island Road.
“We can’t shunt responsibility for the public road,” he said.
According to Parish Manager Al Levron, the parish is responsible for maintaining the highway unless the Terrebonne Parish Council declares the route serves no public purpose.
Parish President Michel Claudet said the development in Bourg for island residents still needs final approval by the Houma-Terrebonne Regional Planning Commission. In addition, the parish council must agree to maintain it.
Claudet and Clayton Voisin both said rumors about electricity to Isle de Jean Charles being cut off are false.
“We’re not relocating anybody,” Claudet said.
