By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

VACHERIE – The St. James Parish Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a measure to set sewage user fees for a subdivision in Welcome that is getting assistance from the city of Donaldsonville for its wastewater treatment.

The ordinance creates a $5 monthly fee paid to Donaldsonville for every 1,000 gallons of water treated per unit within the recently completed Sugar Hill Crossing Subdivision. It also creates an $8 per month per unit administration fee paid to St. James Parish for maintenance of the sewer system within the subdivision.

Parish President Timmy Roussel said the parish will collect all of the treatment costs from the subdivision’s developer and residents and forward the fees to Donaldsonville.

The council approved an agreement last month that allows Donaldsonville, in Ascension Parish, to process sewage coming from the Sugar Hill Crossing Subdivision, a community of 150 units. Roussel said the subdivision was developed with sewer facilities and a pumping station that can utilize an existing oxidation pond in Donaldsonville that has the capacity to handle the subdivision’s wastewater needs.

Councilmen Alvin “Shark” St. Pierre, Jason Amato, Terry McCreary, James Brazan, Charles Ketchens, Ken Brass and Ralph Patin voted to approve the ordinance.

In other action, the council approved a resolution committing local funds from the parish’s Community Development Block Grant for disaster recovery to further improvements at the Lutcher wastewater treatment plant. Any additional funding needed for improvements to the plant will be taken from the town’s allocation of the grant.

The council also authorized the parish to seek bids for two new transit vehicles for the St. James Department of Human Resources. Roussel said the department uses two large GMC transit vehicles that need to be replaced. He said one was involved in an accident and declared a total loss. The other has logged more than 220,000 miles and maintenance costs would be more than the value of the vehicle.

Finally, several council members and Roussel praised the efforts of local and out-of-parish firefighters for their efforts to extinguish the June 6 fire at the Rain CII plant in Gramercy. The fire was confined to the plant and extinguished without injury.

“There was a lot of cooperation between the fire units, and all of them deserve commendation,” said Council Chairman James Brazan.