Lower SMP returns to normal after high water recedes

The rain water has receded in Lower St. Martin Parish. Work crews that worked to help protect houses with sand bags and other measures are returning to other tasks.
Those crews are beginning the drainage improvement work outlined in Phase 1 of the drainage plan described by Parish President Guy Cormier last month. Equipment and operators can now be seen working along the Joe Daigre canal off Capritto Forty Arpent road. Cormier said work on the Cypress Island/Joe Daigre Canal area would probably be in progress for at least two years.
In other business, the council postponed the scheduled public hearing about a proposed ordinance regulating the location, construction, operation and maintenance of borrow pits in the parish. These are properties where dirt is removed to be sold as fill.
Legal Advisor Chester Cedars recommended the move to allow him time to remedy shortcomings in the proposal. Cedars recommended that a requirement for the posting of a bond be added to the ordinance, as well as fees to pay for engineering studies. Such studies are needed for necessary evaluation of proposed sites, he said.
Requirements for site restoration should also be included in the text, he added. These measures will keep the ordinance from resulting in what he called a “hollow proposal.”
Problems being experienced as a result of unregulated pits include erosion into nearby properties, dangerous conditions, adverse effects on nearby property values and road damage from heavy trucks. Most parishes in the area have placed controls on borrow pits.
Finally, Dist. 8 representative Dean LeBlanc reminded Henderson residents to observe speed limits on roads that are part of the detour route around the LA 352 closure at LA 347 near the I-10 Henderson exit.