Cormier: "Starting in, I guess, 1990, the parish Police Jury had tried in three attempts to at least bring it to a study. His statement reads, In order to successfully sue for damages in a plaintiffs case, you must show that there was harm created. Our parish extends a very cordial invitation to visit us. Lafayette-based Rigid Constructors has been paid handsomely for its role in the blitz of detention projects. and last updated 8:09 PM, Feb 27, 2023. Why would you do that? ST. MARTINVILLE, L.a. Aging water systems are causing issues for small municipalities across the country, state, and even here in Acadiana. Get the Android Weather app from Google Play, Workday sued on suspicion of discriminatory hiring, 86-year-old woman honored for years of community, Attic Trash and Treasure organization hosts three-day, Scary video: North Carolina kids nearly hit at bus, Southern University experiences power outage across, No. Login & subscribe to unlock. 0:36. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. Wanda B. Corps of Engineers, LCG quietly purchased an undivided interest in a 41-acre tract from both the Guilliot family and Blanchet Land Company for $42,000 each (leaving a third owner out of the transaction), and it had to be only hours before Rigid was working the site (the sale was not recorded with the St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court until March 9). Rather, it seems we are more interested in protecting and advocating our individual ideologue rather than adhering to the advice of medical science and thus protecting our fellow citizens, our businesses, our employers/employees, our healthcare system, and our children.. The idea was proposed, however, long before. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Acadiana Advocate, The Daily Advertiser, Baton Rouge Business Report, Louisiana Illuminator and Gambit. Waste Connections is taking over trash pickup in St. Martin Parish. Corps of Engineers, leaving a third owner out of the transaction, On Feb. 23 Rigid invoiced LCGs Public Works Department $3.7 million for the work. 'I guess I should have,' he said to me.. You have permission to edit this article. The "surreptitious" move enraged St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars, and led the St. Martin Parish Council to unanimously back Cedars' request to sue LCG over the removal this week.. Something that is now possible thanks to a $14.3 million grant. district5@intmartinschools.org, District VI According to Cedars, LCG had initiated a study for a potential project that entailed the removal of the spoil banks in April 2021. How a civil rights investigation could alter the I-49 Connector, LCG settles federal panhandling suit for $42,000, Here are the 2023 Current In Design winners, Rigid has been paid a total of $37 million from LCG for various projects, $1.6 million in all of the previous fiscal year, 2021 LCG as-needed excavation and disposal contract. TOLL-FREE,24 HOURS A DAY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK Lafayette Consolidated Government removed spoil banks along the Vermilion River last week. 1844-1852: Principal, Adelphian Academy, North Bridgewater, MA: 1854-1855: Teacher, Dunbarton Academy, Washington, DC: 1855-1859: Principal, Western Academy . The property around the lake is privately owned. :And why are Lafayette and St. Martin Parish fighting over them? As the spoil banks are already gone, Cedars says theyre trying to fix this. Tel: 337.441.0393, District IV The operation was done just weeks after Lafayette's City Council voted on Feb. 2 to offer $500,000 as a match to $1.5 million in state funds to get the spoil banks removed. St. Martin Parish is a parish in Louisiana.The parish population is 51,767, according to the United States Census Bureau. St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars listens to a discussion at Tuesday's parish council meeting. That's your idea of heroes? ST. MARTIN PARISH, La. Fifteenth Judicial District Judge Valerie Gotch-Garrett is presiding over the case and St. Martin Parish's request to have it dismissed on the grounds that it should have been filed in the 16th Judicial District, which covers . "We will review the allegations and respond accordingly," Logan wrote in a message to the Daily Advertiser. "I want to give a full report to the council to the public at one time," he said. Flooding:Five years later, Lafayette is still defined by the catastrophic 2016 flood, "We bought the property, took the dirt off the spoil banks and put it on the Chappuis (Dentention Pond project) side," he said. Dwayne Fatherree / The Daily Iberian Buy Now Bruce Emley, division vice president for Waste Connections Bayou LLC, speaks at Tuesday's St. Martin Parish Council meeting. Neither Rigids Fortier nor LCG Public Works Director Chad Nepveaux responded to requests for comment. The three measures were approved by all nine council members. The makeshift levees isolate the river from low-lying land east of the Lafayette Regional Airport and rise several feet over the river in most areas, preventing the rivers flood waters from flowing into the low-lying land and out of the riverand adjoining coulees, during storms. Do I look like an idiot? Yvonne Romero said. Should the Louisiana legislative auditor look into a municipalitys contracting practices, its role would only be to flag potential problems with contracts in an audit report, says Jenifer Schaye, general counsel for the legislative auditors office; violations can lead to restitution or, more rarely, criminal prosecution. Vicknair also notes the original December bidders could go to court to enjoin the remainder of the as-needed contract, which has options to be extended another two years, if any of that work is out of scope of the original bid work. What are spoil banks? I know it took a month, and equipment came from all over the country. St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars said the parish is expecting an appeal courts ruling on a lawsuit regarding the zoning enforcement in the Lake Martin area. St. Martin Parish President brushes off 30-year-old lifeguarding skills during NACo Annual Conference Like any good executive, Parish President Guy Cormier has to delegate to get things done, day in and day out, in St. Martin's Parish, La. There was a problem saving your notification. Lafayette Parish residents deserve to know and understand this issue. Vice President Lorem ipsum dolor consecteture adiciping. Martin Parish line. Logan confirmed that it was his idea for LCG to do more as-needed contracts, which arent that unusual in public works departments. In our last feature, we exposed the fact that St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars barely let the ink get dry from him going on a 19-minute masterful performance to convince the St. Martin Parish Council (SMPC) to approve an ordinance to ban the importing of vegetative debris from other parishes into St. Martin Parish before he sued . Vicknair, who says by law the project should have been re-bid, believes the losing bidders could have standing for damages if they sued, with the runner-up bidder in the best position to succeed. We have one of the best procurement lawyers in the state that works for us out of New Orleans, attorney Logan says. LCG officials have said they believe removal of the banks, which risse several feet above the river, will lower river levels in Lafayette Parish. Apply for the Job in Project Coordinator at Saint Martinville, LA. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. President Russel C. Foti ; Vice President Mark Hebert ; District I Steve Fuselier 1059 Sonny Dr. St. Martinville, LA 70582 Tel: 337.394.4436. St. Martin Parish President has posted updates about the expected impacts for the parish from Hurricane Ida. District II Wanda B. firefighter Brent Haynes recovering, Best athletic wear for kids joining baseball and, How to watch all the Oscar-nominated movies in style, Best smart home devices for older users, according, First look at new 13,000 sq. St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars says St. Martin Parish is no longer going to be one of them. At issue is the removal of half of a 12-feet levee structure left behind from the last time the Vermilion was dredged that has for decades protected St. Martinville from flooding. As for rural communities dealing with water issues in the rest of the parish, there is no word from the parish government yet as to when improvement efforts will be underway. Make a Donation . "Not . Your e-mail address will be used to confirm your account. It's whether the law was broken (and, I THINK we can all agree, millions more spent than necessary) in doing so. Im not frustrated as much as Im disappointed. 500 Henry C. 'Bo' LaGrange Chief Administrative Officer Henry C. 'Bo' LaGrange, is currently the Chief Administrative Officer of St. Mary Parish Government, a position he has held since 1996. His reasoning for writing to the community about his concerns for the parish during this COVID surge sparked after reading a local newspaper article online describing the pressure local hospitals are feeling at this time. It was a very short call, Cedars said. St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars said, however, it will not help their region and called it an act of misconduct.. St. Martin Parish Government (SMPG) District 6 Councilman Brook Champagne, speaking at the August 3, 2021, SMPG Council meeting, makes the emphatic statement that farmer and constituent Billy Broussard is "violating the zoning ordinance, and there's no doubt about it!" Open Books 10-digit check numbers, which seem to indicate wire transfers, show Rigid as the sole contractor paid by wire transfer this fiscal year, with LCG paying via wire transfer only 11 times out of 35,000 payments made so far this year. four other contractors sent bids that ranged from $568,000 to $1.1 million. He makes it clear that hes always promoted the use of masks while indoors and touches on the subject of the lack of vaccinations among adults. With multiple boil advisories in the recent past, Cedars says it's no secret the parish and others with outdated equipment and infrastructure like it have issues with the systems, especially in rural areas. He has been Departments Read More The suit aimed to stop LCGs clampdown on panhandling which district and appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have repeatedly found to be protected speech under the First Amendment. But even against that backdrop, the spoil banks project stands out. A combination of state dollars and ARPA funds, Cedars says even with the funding, it will take two to three months to get these consolidation efforts off the ground for three water systems in the parish so far: One in Catahoula, one in St. Martinville, and the St. Martin Parish water system. Chester Cedars, the St. Martin Parish President, speaks at a Parish Council meeting, at which the council voted to pursue litigation against Lafayette Parish for the removal of a spoil bank along the Vermilion River in St. Martin Parish. 1005 Judy Street Second, a public investigation on the regulations allegedly violated during the removal, including those ruled by FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency. I look forward to continuing our work with all of our neighbors, including St. Martin Parish, to combat flooding on a regional scale. The removal will allow the river to flow into the swamp during storms. St. Martin Parish turned the tables on Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory's administration Wednesday with a new lawsuit asking a local judge to order Lafayette to rebuild the Cypress Island Swamp spoil banks. When you did not have a permit, Romero added. What is clear is that advertising the operation would have put LCGs furtive plans in the public eye, something it had an interest in avoiding. The losses could substantially burden both city and parish finances. Spoil banks:St. Martin Parish wants Lafayettes lawsuit thrown out for being in Lafayette. Parish Council Meetings held @ 5:00 on the 1st Tuesday of each month. Stay up to date with the latest news by downloading the BRProud App from the App Store or Google Play. St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars, who has disputed the merits and risks of removing the spoil banks, said Thursday he was given no advance notice of LCG's plans to "surreptitiously" remove the spoil banks. As for the spoil banks, theyve stood by the merits of the project and accused St. Martin Parish of trying to obstruct it. Nobody is going to block Rookery Road without a visit to the courthouse, Cedars said. "We tried to be civil, we did, we tried to go over there and ask them good questions to try to get the solutions rolling voluntarily, but they didn't listen, so what's the next step?". Their clandestine removal has led to a firestorm of accusations between Lafayette and St. Martin parishes. D. Kaplovitz Louisiana Parish Attorneys Association ("LPAA"): Group Parish Attorneys Association ("LPAA") j. touzet; This parish is not afraid to fight in the courts to protect the publics rights.. The high water mark is at Rookery Road, where the levee used to be, Cedars said. Steve Fuselier STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK Let us know what's going on! . One contractor interviewed by The Current defended the pricing in the contract, noting its what he would charge for the work. Removing the spoil banks could help drainage throughout Lafayette by lowering water levels on the Vermilion by almost 8 inches in a 2- to 10-year storm, similar to the one in May 2014, and by a little over 2 inches in a storm similar to the August 2016 floods, according to a study by the University of Louisiana at Lafayettes Watershed Flood Center. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Corps added it would determine whether a permit for this work was required or not. "Let me just say this, St. Martin Parish is not gonna sit on their ass and allow this to go unremediated.". 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"We were told that additional modeling had been done and that we would get a chance to review it. On Friday, St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars levied the allegations against LCG. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The St. Martin Parish Council is the legislative and policy making body of the Parish. In February it was chosen over The Lemoine Company to negotiate pricing with LCG on the $60 million Homewood Detention Ponds project, the largest drainage undertaking in the parishs history. Create a password that only you will remember. Why? St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars said it seems to him that "There is a large number of our citizens who are not participating in the mandatory waste program." Lafayette organization. St. Martin Parish Government. Frustrated with spending excessive time and money buying and installing water filters only for them to get clogged or stop working, he tells KATC he and his neighbors have filed a class-action lawsuit against United Water in a last-ditch effort to get assistance. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This story has been edited to include Fortier's $10,000 in donations to Mayor-President Josh Guillory's campaign and to note that the original as-needed contract was limited to work "throughout the Lafayette City-Parish." "We believe that we need to proceed as quickly as possible to protect the citizens from being harmed. In the days and weeks before the contract was signed, Rigid CEO Cody Fortier, Rigid itself and Fortiers CF LLC each made $2,500 donations to the mayor-presidents campaign, as did another company associated with Fortier, Sunshine Homes LLC, for a total of $10,000, according to campaign finance records. "Not . Though LCG initially sued St. Martin Parish in Lafayette over the dispute, Wednesday's filing will put the case before 16th Judicial District Court Judge Tony Saleme, of Franklin, unless LCG tries to move the case. "When I learned about this late Tuesday afternoon, we did certain things and had certain meetings, and we're developing what our course of action will be from this point forward," he said. Lafayette Consolidated Government may be drawing itself into a lawsuit with St. Martin Parish after quietly removingspoil banks, or makeshift levees,along the Vermilion River without St. Martin Parish's approval. The $3.7 million project, now the subject of a barbed lawsuit with St. Martin Parish in federal court, was top secret and never competitively bid. Flood fight:Lafayette, St. Martin parishes are arguing about a strip of dirt by the river. The attorney general can pursue that violation. Delivered right as the newspaper goes to print on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. That would mean the public would have a right to access the lake even with the typical shoreline under private ownership. And its connected to all three stormwater projects mired in lawsuits. Aside from the limestone used for a parking lot at the lake, which is viewed as an extension of Rookery Road, the parish cannot use resources to repair or expand improvements on private property. Receive the digital, interactive PDF of the newspaper in your inbox. Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. It is also my understanding that the USCOE recommended removing the spoil banks, back in 1994?, after the 1993 flood. Its unclear how much information the bidders were given about potential projects to come and whether they knew of LCGs plans for St. Martin Parish. var year = today.getFullYear() 2023 St. Martin Parish Government. Call 337-828-4100 ext. 314 Elmer St St. Martin Parish Government officials and community members are now angry, as they say LCG removed the spoil banks without any warning and without permits. Moreover, I believe that under the current circumstances, there is no reason why adults should not take the vaccine except for those with medical issues which prevent them from doing so, said Cedars. Coupons are available only to seniors who reside in St. Martin Parish. St. Martin Parish Federal Programs &Technology Annex, St. Martin Parish Operations,Maintenance &Transportation. First, to authorize Cedars to "pursue litigation against every single person, farm and entity that may be complicit in the removal of the banks," including LCG officials. LCG did not turn over any construction plans for the project, saying it had no known documents responsive to our request for them. Senator (Class II) U.S. Representative (District 3) 15TH JDC District ATTORNEY; 15th JDC Judge (Div. It is also is my understanding that the USCOE 50+ years ago, by putting spoils on the St Martin banks of the Vermilion, inadvertently obstructed that natural flow to Cypress island swamp. Invalid password or account does not exist. About Us. On Feb. 18 LCG filed with the Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court Amendment #1 to the as-needed contract, saying the parties desire to amend the agreement to add line items for additional services. The amendment was signed by Mayor-President Josh Guillory and Rigids Fortier. Since November, Rigid has been paid a total of $37 million from LCG for various projects, $3.7 million of that coming for the spoil banks project that took less than two days to complete. Jimmy "Coach" Durio " Cedars said he asked. Local experts say they are, however, typically for more focused projects, like ditch cleaning, small drainage projects, water line maintenance, asphalt overlays those with set costs and typically make changes in the thousands of dollars, not millions. document.write(year) Those spoils banks were keeping areas in St. Martin Parish from flooding, parish leaders say. And the peculiar vehicle for awarding such a large contract, in effect side-stepping the transparency and cost controls required of public contracting, may itself have violated public bid law, according to interviews with a dozen contractors, engineers, lawyers and former LCG employees. The St. Martin Parish facility will employ 976 direct employees with an annual salary of $38,000, plus benefits, and will result in 793 new indirect jobs. Guy Cormier is the president of St. Martin Parish, and was a Police Juror back in 1999 when the change was adopted for good. Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in. He can be reached at dwayne.fatherree@daily-iberian.com. ST. MARTINVILLE St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars said that efforts to negotiate a deal with landowners to allow public access to a. There are about two dozen of these properties, and they are causing an expense to the city because they have to keep them up.. St Martin Parish Government is part of the Government industry, and located in Louisiana, United States. Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. When asked if the project would harm residents of St. Martin Parish, Guillory said, We surely wouldnt bless off on a project that would hurt anybody, but the science is clear. (BRPROUD) St. Martin Parish President Chester R. Cedars wrote a message addressing the community on the stark reality of this fourth surge of COVID-19. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. Public Works Director Chad Nepveaux said Thursday that LCG bought part of the land where the banks are located and removed the dirt over the course of a couple of days in February. . You have permission to edit this article. DENHAM SPRINGS, La. Over the last 25+ years various government agencies have spent many hundreds of millions of dollars on flooded homes, many of which could have been avoided by simply restoring the spoil banks to its original level, along with spot dredging and maintaining the required natural depth of the river. St. Martin Parish turned the tables on Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory 's administration Wednesday with a new lawsuit asking a local judge to order Lafayette to rebuild the Cypress.
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