Residents Upset With Flooding
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
The movement of water through an area of rural St. Landry Parish consumed most of a Parish Council Public Works Committee meetings Wednesday night, as two residents living west of Opelousas and another from the Washington area complained of flooding they say is affecting their properties.
Two of the issues involved an area of Wisdom Road, while another problem placed before council members involved Water Tower Road.
Joseph Landry and Shadrick Joseph, claimed that recent drainage improvements made by the parish on private property, is causing their land to flood, especially during heavy rains.
Joseph, who had to be restrained briefly by meeting room security and Landry both alleged that their properties never flooded until the parish approved the digging of the ditch brought water onto their portions of Wisdom Road.
Each of the men said that the redirected water flow is also beginning to erode areas along the road where they live.
“You can’t fix one area and destroy another. You take care of one property and now it’s affecting another,” said Jospeh, who claimed the parish never performed an engineering study before the ditch digging project began.
The newly-improved ditch, Landry said, is now causing water to collect in this backyard. That issue never occurred until water began traveling more effectively through the ditch.
Parish president Jessie Bellard said digging ditches on private property is something parish workers do routinely.
Bellard said the ditch digging projects are done in conjunction with input from parish engineers. Bellard added that the six inches of rain that drenched the parish over the last few days produced flooding throughout St. Landry.
Joseph said Bellard initiated the Wisdom Drive project in order to do a favor for an adjacent female resident.
Bellard told the Council that he will continue to oversee similar projects after consulting with parish engineer Williams Jarrell III and Public Works Director Barry Soileau.
“I don’t plan to do anything differentl,” Bellard noted.
Landry complained that he has tried to contact Bellard for nearly a year about water that sits on Water Tower Road.
A project performed over 20 years ago, took dirt from the road and brought it somewhere else and causing drainage problems.
The road, Landry said, was once dry, but hauling the material somewhere else constituted what Landry alleged was done to execute a political favor.
“Someone got political dirt and now that’s drowning me,” Landry added.
