By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – After scrapping the original bids because of a disqualification by the lowest bidder, the St. John the Baptist Parish Council on Tuesday was presented with new bids for the Homewood Place drainage project.

The council also received bids for construction of an elevated walkway for the raw water intake structure at the Edgard water treatment plant.

The lowest bid for the Homewood project came from Civil Construction, which submitted a $1.074 million price tag for the work. The bid is roughly $76,000 short of the estimated $1.15 million budget for the project.

The project involves installing a second drainage pipe and culvert under Airline Highway near Homewood Place, installing two flap gates to protect neighborhoods south of Airline Highway from tidal flooding, moving an existing drainage pump on the Reserve Relief Canal farther north and adding a second pump next to the existing pump. The project is expected to correct drainage problems around Homewood Place and Central Avenue in Reserve, which is flood-prone and typically gets inundated after heavy rainfall.

The lowest bid for the elevated walkway project came from Cecil D. Gassiot LLC, which submitted a bid of roughly $103,000. The estimated budget for the project is $180,000.

The walkway to the recently reconstructed raw water well in Edgard is necessary to allow plant employees to access the well safely during periods of high water in the Mississippi River. In the past, workers were forced to use a boat to get from the levee to the well. Parish President Natalie Robottom said no work can be done on the walkway until the river has subsided from the high water levels that have been present since early May.

In other action Tuesday, Robottom told the council and others present the Reserve-Edgard ferry should reopen by the end of June after being closed for nearly two months because of the elevated river level. She said the work is being done by the state Department of Transportation to raise the docks so the issue does not occur again in the future.

The council also voted to withdraw authorization for the parish to go out for bids on an expansion project at Fire Station No. 72 in Mt. Airy. St. John Director of Purchasing Brenda Labat said the design and scope of the work, which was funded and completed by the Nalco Co., produced an estimated cost less than $100,000, which is the minimum amount required for the bidding process.

Labat said the parish will instead do a request for qualifications to determine a contractor. The project calls for extending the rear of the fire station by 25 feet to allow adequate storage for equipment and supplies at the fire station.

The council was also formally introduced to new St. John Parish Chief Administrative Officer Theresa Rodgers. Rodgers sat in on the meeting but does not officially assume the position until July 2.