LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / September 13, 1999

HAHNVILLE – St. Charles Parish President Chris Tregre took the newsquietly as his nine-year battle for the parish’s alignment ended Tuesday when his council support dissolved.

The Parish Council approved an ordinance which mandated Tregre to accept an alignment selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rather than theparish-approved alignment.

The ending was almost anti-climactic, as Councilman Barry Minnich urged the vote saying, “We’ve all said what we’re going to say.” The council voted6-3 against the parish president.

Tregre, who read aloud his Aug. 9 veto message, added, “I continue to standfor what is right and what will work.”Councilman Brian Champagne, who joined Minnich and Dickie Duhe in supporting Tregre, urged more discussion, but Minnich’s point of view won out.

In his veto message, Tregre repeated his continued objections to the corps plan, which follows what was termed the “wetland-nonwetland interface.”He added concessions had been made to demands for more acreage to remain wet and that construction costs would be held down as right of way donations had already been made.

Now, he said, the parish will run up expenses in having to buy up new rights of way. Tregre’s other objections included liability issues, as heclaimed the corps levee would trap stormwater and cause flooding, especially in the Willowridge area of Luling.

His argument was to demand a corps decision on the parish’s wetlands use permit. Instead, Councilman G. “Ram” Ramchandran’s ordinance brought ahalt to the application and bowed to the corps’ position.

Ramchandran’s ordinance declared that by accepting the corps alignment, the project would move along faster, as the corps would almost immediately grant the necessary wetlands use permit. Further delay, heargued, would only endanger the lives and property of the people.

Following the meeting, Tregre said he will now work “210 percent for what the council and corps wants,” but he said his opinion of the project hasn’t changed and he feels the council was irresponsible to act as it did.

He added he is attempting to set up a meeting with the corps next week to speed the process, even though, as he put it, “I still think the majority of the public agrees with the old alignment.”And if the levee project doesn’t work the way Ramchandran predicts, Tregre added he will have a clear conscience.

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