Addressing Drainage
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Tackling drainage problems requires funding, says St. Landry Parish president Jessie Bellard, who thinks his administration has a chance to obtain more revenue to continue cleaning waterways.
Bellard has told the Parish Council his administration applied last month for $3 million in federal funding to continue cleaning bayous Mallet and Carron.
Clearing bayous, laterals and ditches are a continuous problem, Bellard said, as he discussed with council members a myriad of water-related issues that have required parish attention.
Council members on Wednesday night are expected to approve the drainage problems and funding possibilities presented by Bellard during a series of committee meetings held earlier this month.
Mallet And Carron
Bellard said the funding request for both bayous was made in February when he and a contingent of parish representatives and an annual visit to Washington, D.C. where they met with staffers of federal lawmakers who represent Louisiana.
The parish Bellard said, has already spent $1 million in state appropriations to perform work on Mallet and Carron.
“We are not going to stop working. We have done a lot of work working from the mouths of both bayous. The (Corps of Engineers) won’t let you dig, so there are areas that you just have to clean,” Bellard added.
The $3 million application was submitted through the offices of the U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy and U.S. Representative Cleo Fields, said Bellard.
“We feel that our request is moving forward,” Bellard said.
Other Funding
Bellard said $5.5 million in state and federal money will be used to create a retention pond located off Country Ridge Road in District 9.
The proposed project was included in a series of 2025 discussions which indicated the pond would help as subdivisions are built.
However Bellard told an Administrative Committee that the parish still needs to purchase the property where the pond will be located.
In the Eunice area Bellard noted that $300,000 has been received from the state in order to improve water movement on laterals that feed into Bayou Des Cannes, Bellard added.
Drainage Problems
Public Works Director Barry Soileau said that in February, workers from his department removed 250 tires from bayous and canals in St. Landry.
Soileau said the debris tossed into the bayous also included stoves, refrigerators and “pieces of cars.”
Bellard said he plans to contact a concrete company in the Opelousas area, whose concrete remnants are apparently being dislodged from their trucks and the runoffs are contributing to blockages in canals.
“I don’t know why they have that, but those pipes are sewer lines and water lines that cross canals and there are so many feet about the top and it is blocked, so we are having issues with that but we are going to clean it up. It will be an ongoing project with that one,” said Bellard.
