By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – The St. John the Baptist Parish Council on Tuesday signed off on an agreement with a Baton Rouge engineering firm to begin work on a series of projects to help improve long-standing drainage issues in two Reserve neighborhoods.

At a finance committee meeting Tuesday, the council approved a contract with Shread-Kuyrkendall and Associates for design and engineering work on improvements to drainage in the Homewood Place and Central Avenue neighborhoods of Reserve. Parish administrators said the projects, which will cost about $1.3 million, would go a long way in correcting the Reserve subdivision’s decades of flooding problems, the most recent of which took place last December when several inches of rain rendered Central Avenue impassible and flooded about a dozen homes.

St. John Acting Chief Administrative Officer Buddy Boe said funding for the projects, including a $162,000 engineering fee, would come from the parish’s 2009 bond issue, approved by St. John voters last April.

The projects involved in the agreement include doubling the size of a pump station north of Airline Highway at the Reserve Relief Canal and adding a second culvert under Airline Highway between Homewood Drive and East 12th Street. The parish is also adding a 16-inch pump at the Trosclair Canal and building a small dike to keep water from flowing into the Homewood drainage basin.

Boe said the projects were determined following a review of the parish’s master plan conducted by Shread-Kuyrkendall last month. He said they are part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing Reserve.

“As far as short term solutions, we are continuing to clear out ditches and are hoping to get the Department of Transportation to sign off on a project that will blow out culverts under Airline,” Boe said. “We are also working with the railroad companies to get authorization to complete work on their right-of-ways.”

Prior to approving the contract, some council members questioned parish administrators regarding Shread-Kuyrkendall’s work in the parish. The firm has had an exclusive drainage work contract with St. John since early 2008.

Council members Ronnie Smith of LaPlace and Charles Julien of Reserve were interested in seeing if other firms could get in on some of the work being performed by Shread-Kuyrkendall.

“I don’t have a problem with the work they’re doing,” Smith said during the meeting. “My concern is more of an effort to spread the wealth to others who can do the job.”

Julien, who has been very outspoken about drainage concerns since the December rain event, stressed the need for “checks and balances” when it comes to handing out money for parish work.

“They have been the firm of record for more than 14 years,” he said. “I would much rather have some fresh eyes looking at these projects.”

Parish attorney Kerry Brown said in 2008 the current council signed a four-year agreement with the firm to do all drainage work in the parish. He said the contract also did not include a customary 30-day cancellation clause that allows each side to void the agreement. Brown said the council could not get out of the existing Shread-Kuykendall contract and would have to stick with the firm.

The council voted 5-1 in favor of approving the contract, with Julien casting the lone dissenting vote.

Council members Steve Lee, Jaclyn Hotard and Dale Wolfe were absent from the meeting.

In other action from Tuesday’s meeting, the council voted to apply for funding from the state’s Safe Routes for Schools program to improve sidewalks along East and West Fifth Street in LaPlace. The project would improve sidewalks in front of St. Joan of Arc School, John L. Ory Communications Magnet School and Emily C. Watkins Elementary School.