By ROBIN SHANNON
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Residents in all three River Parishes will go to the polls today to cast their ballots on an assortment of bond propositions and one Louisiana court of appeals judge.

In the race for 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Div. A, which only residents living in St. James and St. John Parishes can vote on, St. James area attorney Jude Gravois faces off against St. John District Court Judge Mary Hotard Becnel. Both candidates boast lengthy courtroom careers and both are life-long residents of the River Parishes. For more information on each candidate, check out L’Observateur’s “Candidate Profiles,” which appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the newspaper. The profiles can be found at our website, www.lobservateur.com, under the news tab.

St. John voters will also decide whether or not to approve $29 million worth of bonds for a variety of parish infrastructure projects. The bonds are spread across five propositions, which voters can approve of decline at will. The propositions are broken down as follows:

– Proposition 1: $8 million for water system improvements.

– Proposition 2: $7 million for improvements to the West Bank Courthouse and construction of a government building on the East Bank.

– Proposition 3: $9.7 million for drainage improvements and construction of a Lake Pontchartrain levee system.

– Proposition 4: $2 million for improvements to three intersections of Airline Highway in LaPlace.

– Proposition 5: $2.8 million for recreation enhancements on the West Bank and East Bank. This includes construction of a gymnasium on land on the East Bank.

More information on each proposition can be found at the St. John Parish Website, www.sjbparish.com.

In St. Charles Parish, residents will vote on the issue of $11.5 million in bonds to develop and construct a new emergency department ($5.2 million) at St. Charles Parish Hospital and the remaining $6.3 million to refinance existing debt.

Polls in all three parishes open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.