By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LUTCHER – A pair of St. James Parish public school building projects hit unexpected snags recently.

While demolishing the fire-damaged Lutcher High School stadium last week, asbestos-laced transite was discovered at the site.

According to Superintendent Alonzo Luce, however, the problem has already been rectified, and the project is moving forward.

Luced added Ted Beaullieu, who handles asbestos abatement for the district, will conduct a study at St. James High School stadium to determine if asbestos are present at that site. Demolition of that stadium is set to begin after the upcoming football season.

At the Building Committee meeting Wednesday, architect Perry Segura showed committee members and Luce the finished plans for the stadium at Lutcher High. Bids for construction will be received on March 11. The district hopes to complete the new stadium in time for football season.

Construction also had to be abruptly halted at Paulina Elementary School, where the district recently purchased some land for expansion and to alleviate the dire parking situation at the school.

The stoppage order came from the Pontchartrain Levee Board, which discovered the presence of seven septic tanks that must be excavated on the property.

Monica Salins of the Pontchartrain Levee Board was present at the meeting to discuss the situation.

She said the proper permits for such excavation were not secured and blamed the situation on a miscommunication between the board and the levee district.

Luce said part of the problem stemmed from the fact that the contractor working on the project is not from the area and was unaware of the restrictions involved in digging in the vicinity of the levee.

Salins said permits must be secured from the levee district prior to digging holes more than 2 feet deep within a radius of 1,500 feet from the center line of the levee.

“In this case, we had to stop you,” said Salins. “I didn’t want there to be any potential issues.”

She also noted that all work must stop when the Mississippi River reaches 15 feet. It is normally around 11 feet, she said.

Although the levee board normally meets on the third Thursday of every month to take care of regular business such as granting permits, Salins said she will work to push it through earlier.

“Hopefully we can get an answer within the next week,” she said.

Segura presented the committee with a change order in the amount of $5,235, which will cover removing the tanks and filling in the holes with sand.

The committee will recommend approval of the change order to the board.

There are also two underground gas tanks on the property, but the board has yet to make a decision on how to handle the situation. The tanks should not interfere with construction, but if the board decides to remove the tanks, permits will have to be secured from the Department of Environmental Quality.

In the meantime, construction at the Paulina site has resumed, with the contractors working around the problem areas until the permits are secured.