BY JOHN H. WALKER
L’Observateur

Despite the grousing against last Saturday’s bond election, 20 percent of the registered voters decided the issue for everyone else.

I haven’t been here long enough to learn many of the ins or outs, but one thing is clear — help is needed in getting the traffic to flow more smoothly in LaPlace.

Parish officials say the bonds could be issued within the next few months and the projects under way shortly thereafter.

St. Charles voters also said “yes” to the issuance of bonds. Our neighbors downriver approved significant funding for emergency room expansion and upgrades and an even larger amount to retire existing debt at a lower money cost.

In a story this newspaper reported on last summer, there has been an increase in activity surrounding the tank farm proposed by Petroplex, which has applied for a permit from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

Petroplex wants to build an oil storage facility on River Road in Vacherie. The $600 million project would create at least 60 permanent jobs and involve the construction of dozens of storage tanks on the site. A company spokesperson said the location is crucial.

And residents agree … that the location is crucial to their being able to raise their families in a rural, non-industrial setting free from the worries of a potential hazardous spill next door.

DEQ held a public hearing last week and word on whether or not the permit is approved is expected within the month.

I grew up in Greenville, Miss. — along the Mississippi River — and worked as a deck hand on the M/V Joe Sanders to earn money for college. I’ve always been amazed that a “towboat” could shove a load of barges upstream … it’s a lot like watching a C-130 take off and then trying to get your brain to coordinate what you just saw with the laws of physics. Some things just won’t compute.

Back in those days we were hauling bargeloads of rock from a quarry in Smithland, Ky. to Port Arthur, Texas, where they were building an industrial park with rail, barge and highway access.

Another engineering feat, as far as I’m concerned, is the lock.

As I hitchhiked from Greenville to Port Arthur to sign on, my first experience with a lock — other than seeing the Panama Canal on television — was where in the Intracoastal Waterway met the Mississippi at Port Allen. But when we got to the Ohio River, I saw a couple of serious locks. Back in those days I didn’t have enough money to have a camera and if I had, I probably couldn’t have afforded to get the film processed, but those would have some nice shots to have today.

In those days, there were “mini-ships” that moved beyond the deep water of the Mississippi and upstream dodging the sandbars at Vicksburg and the sweeping curve to the left there … avoiding the narrows at Rosedale and heading as far north as St. Louis. I remember them docking in Greenville which, in those days was a decent-sized inland port and they looked just like their name — mini ships.

A lot of water has moved downstream in those 40 years.

(John H. Walker is editor and publisher of L’Observateur and can be reached at (985) 652-9545 or john.walker@wickcommunications.com.)