By LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / March 10, 1999

HAHNVILLE – Sen. John Hainkel Jr. has once again filed legislation seekinga wider distribution of ad valorem taxes from Waterford 3 nuclear power plant beyond St. Charles Parish.Senate Bill 33 is aimed at stripping St. Charles Parish of most of the taxrevenue, spreading it among parishes served by Entergy’s Waterford power grid.

Hainkel (R-New Orleans), who filed the bill for the third year in a row, is opposed by St. Charles Parish President Chris Tregre, who rallied supportfrom the Parish Council Monday night.

In the past two years, Tregre and the council teamed with legislators across the state to successfully block Hainkel’s bill.

“If we sit back one year, that’s the year it’ll pass,” Tregre said.

Tregre’s argument is that the bill seeks to tax one sector of private industry differently from others. He pointed out that Waterford isdomiciled in St. Charles Parish and the parish had to deal with the strainof the plant’s construction and development, while Entergy enjoyed a 10- year industrial tax exemption.

However, when the exemption expired and the millions of dollars in tax revenues began to roll in, Hainkel wanted to slice into that revenue for other parishes.

“This is the most detrimental piece of legislation ever proposed against St. Charles Parish,” Tregre declared in his resolution.The spring Legislative session begins March 29.

In other activity, the Parish Council approved a resolution asking the state Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to purchase Home Place Plantation, Hahnville, and add the site to the state’s park system.

The house, also known as Keller Home Place, is partially owned by former St. Charles Parish School Board member Richard Keller Sr., and is onlyshown to visitors by private tour. It is not open to the general public.Home Place is a French-Colonial raised cottage house of West Indian bousillage construction, believed to have been built in the 1790s. One rarearchitectural oddity is that the house has an interior staircase, still with its original wallpaper.

It still retains a carriage house, pigeonnier and its 1806 plantation bell, as well. It is the only remaining plantation house on the west bank of St.Charles Parish.

In other matters, the Parish Council: Recognized three Tulane University football players who are residents of St. Charles Parish. Tony Cunningham of Norco, Stephen Parrish ofDestrehan and Chris Bullock of Destrehan accepted the awards. They wereaccompanied by defensive backs coach Darren Barbier, a former Hahnville High football coach who coached the 1992 state championship team before moving to Nicholls State, then Tulane.

“That product started here in St. Charles Parish,” Barbier pointed out, ashe reviewed the players’ careers in parish recreation programs.

Heard a report from Gary Karr of Orion Refining Co., formerlyTransAmerican Refining Co., Norco.Karr reported the first phase of the old Good Hope Refinery’s rehabilitation and modernization went online in fall 1998 and now produces 100,000 barrels per day. A second phase, due to be completed inseven or eight months, is a $110 million investment.

The plant employs 1,700 persons, 1,000 of them on construction jobs.

Orion is constructing a second sulfur plant, due to be online later this month, and is also developing a Community Advisory Board.

Approved a change order on the Bayou Gauche sewerage installation to decrease the contract by $13,287.87 and increase the contract time by 10days. Public Works Director Richard Wright said this effectivelycompletes the project of linking the remote island community to the parish’s sewer system.

Heard a report from Community Services Director Henry Wolfe, who said the department received more than half a million dollars in grants during 1998. The department renovated 17 homes, served more than 16,700 mealsin the summer meals program, assisted 338 households with utility assistance valued at $110,000 and assisted 523 cases of Medicaid applications.

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