BOBBY ARDOIN Editor/Consulting Writer
A proposed rural subdivision near Washington, a cell phone tower project north of Opelousas and expanding parishwide Internet connectivity occupied much of the St. Landry Parish Council committee discussions Wednesday night.
Council members engaged in conversations for all three issues and later moved all three of the topics to the regular Council meeting scheduled later in May.
Subdivision Near Washington
The Administrative and Finance Committee gave preliminary site approval for seven lots that are included in a 14-acre residential project off La. 103.
Engineer Jacob Jarrell represented the Prairie Estates project during the meeting. Michael Jody Leger is identified as the owner and developer of the project.
According to a plat survey viewed by committee members, the Town of Washington has indicated that the town is prepared to serve the development.
However a letter to the parish administration from Aucoin & Associates addressed questions whether the town has a water main located along the frontage of the development.
Parish sanitarian Justin Clark in a separate letter addressed to the parish indicates that the St. Landry Parish Health Department currently has no objections to the development of the lots. There is a stipulation in the same letter which shows that each of the lots needs to contain 16,000 square feet and a frontage of 90 feet for each approved lot also required to have an individual mechanical sewerage plant.
The discharge outlets will drain into open ditches within the utility assessment, according to the letter written by Clark.
Cell Tower
Preliminary approval was also provided by the committee for a wireless communication tower scheduled to be placed off La. 182 north of Opelousas.
Laura Carisle, representing Baker Donaldson, presented the Committee with a site diagram for a 155-foot high cell phone tower scheduled to be built in the Plantation Road area.
T-Mobile will be the primary carrier occupying the tower, Carlisle said.
However Carisle also told the Committee that there is room for at least two other carriers who might want to locate their equipment on the tower.
The proposal reviewed by the Committee listed Brad Thomas Ortego as the owner of the property where the tower is scheduled to be located.
Internet Connections
Parish president Jessie Bellard told the Committee that the parish is too rural for all residents to have access to fiber optic cable connectivity.
Bellard mentioned that when a series of Internet projects are completed in St. Landry, that all residents are expected to have the ability to obtain high speed Internet.
The expanded Internet projects are expected to be hampered somewhat, Bellard said, by issues involving private roads located in some rural areas.
Bellard pointed to a private landowner in the Port Barre area who is refusing to provide unlimited access on the property for any of the connectivity projects.
The burying of fiber optic cables and other high-speed Internet projects are being provided by a number of different companies in St. Landry, said Bellard.
All of the companies need to obtain permits to proceed with projects, according to an ordinance previously approved by the Council, said Bellard.
Charter Communications still has the majority for approved permits within the parish, but other companies are now beginning to secure permits for other projects, said Bellard.
Committee member Alvin Stelly said there are still some areas between Arnaudville and Grand Coteau that are without any Internet service.
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