Months of delay end in ‘monumental decision’

By KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

LAPLACE – Bring on the homes!

That might have been the cry from the St. John Parish Council on Tuesday night, as they made what Councilman Steve Lee called a &#8220monumental” decision, approving a site for the new sewer treatment plant.

With recent news reports in L’Observateur about thousands of new homes planned for St. John Parish, pressure began to increase for the parish leaders to get moving on a long-stagnant issue of where to put the new sewer plant.

But all that ended on Tuesday night as an 8-1 vote to build the plant on the old oxidation pond site in Reserve was passed.

It was over a year ago that URS Engineers, the parish-hired firm to oversee the project, recommended three sites as possible locations for the plant. But during the past year as a possible site on the Dupont Chemical Plant land was dismissed, little happened for months after that to move the much-needed sewer plant along.

However news of the new homes coming to St. John, numbered as many as 4,000 in the next four years, seemed to be the impetus for the council to get going.

On Tuesday, Council Members Cleveland Farlough, Lee, Jimmy Hymel, Lester Rainey Jr., Allen St. Pierre, Jaclyn Hotard, Ronnie Smith and Sean Roussel all backed the oxidation pond site, with Dale Wolfe the only council member voting against it.

Wolfe said he opposed it since the pond is in his district, and his constituents didn’t want it there.

&#8220I think sewage should be apart from a community, so I was against it going there, even though I know it has to go somewhere,” he said.

The vote now gets the sewage treatment plant project underway, with current engineering expected to take up to six months, before construction can begin. The plant could be operational as early as 18 months from now, but most council members say it will likely be closer to two years.

Original plans called for a plant to handle two millions gallons of sewage a day, but due to the expected growth here, the new plant will be built to handle three million gallons a day.

Additionally, St. John Chief Administrator Natalie Robottom said two new package plants, temporary facilities to handle 100,000 gallons of sewage a day, will go out for bids in two weeks.

&#8220The package plants, along with other improvements we’ve made to our system, were good enough for DHH to approve three new subdivisions to proceed, which were already on line, so we’ve obviously satisfied their concerns,” she said. &#8220As for the permanent plant, we’re excited to finally move forward and feel like we are ready to handle the growth coming here.”

The action does appear to be in time to accommodate the growth that will slowly begin to come here.

&#8220This solution takes care of our medium and long range problems,” said Lee, who made the motion for the vote. &#8220And I believe we have gotten it moving in time to handle the growth that we think is coming.”

While most council members still believed the Dupont site would have been the best place for the plant, the fact that there is currently some infrastructure out to the pond, and the fact that the parish already owns the land, made it attractive.

&#8220Everyone knows Dupont was still a better site, but this is finally a step in the right direction and gets the ball rolling,” Roussel said.

&#8220We have already studied the site and hope for construction no later than six months. The only obstacle that makes this more difficult is the cost, which will be $2 million to $3 million more due to the need for power, soil upgrades and infrastructure work.”