LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / June 21, 2000

HAHNVILLE – Who do you trust? That’s the situation in St. Charles Parish, where Parish President AlbertLaque has accused his predecessor, Chris Tregre, of glossing over and misrepresenting the facts regarding the ongoing servitude and permits situation in public works and wastewater.

“That’s a bunch of bull!” Tregre responded to Laque. “I think I answered allhis questions, and I think the public can either take my word or his word.”Laque said Tregre failed to exercise good politics and good management, leading to the present situation which, he added, “can be quite costly to correct.”Laque continued, “We are, however, committed to correcting these problems as quickly as possible and look forward to the day when we can put these troublesome issues behind us.”Since Laque took office in January several council meetings have been taken up with sorting out inherited problems, as dozens of servitudes needed for public works and wastewater projects were neglected while the construction continued.

Laque pointed out, for example, that Tregre paid Camp, Dresser & McKee, the consulting engineer for the sewer program, almost $300,000 in three years.

CDM signed its contract in December 1996, estimating at that time $75,000 for servitude acquisition. Supplemental agreements raised thedollar amount for this purpose to $194,390, and the actual amount paid through Nov. 15, 1999, was $281,082.98, or $85,692.98 more than theoriginal estimate.

The result of all this servitude acquisition work, with 83 servitudes required, was a total of 14, or 69 less than needed. Tregre asserted that28 had been acquired, twice that of what was actually received, Laque asserted.

Laque commented, “The parish is now in a situation where we have several projects under construction where all servitudes have not yet been obtained. This has necessitated that the contractors ‘jump around’ to findareas to work, which will undoubtedly lead to extra cost to the parish.”Two engineering firms, Shread-Kurykendall and Hartman Engineers, have been hired by Laque as project supervisors in public works and wastewater, assisting Steven Fall, director of that department.

Tregre said he, his administration and the incoming administration met several times during the transition period, and Laque was well aware of the situation on the servitudes.

He added his secretary was even drafted to help type necessary paperwork on servitude agreements in the closing weeks of his administration.

“It was just a matter of sending them off to various corporate headquarters,” Tregre said.

The new Destrehan wastewater treatment plant is built on land the parish does not own. Tregre claimed the agreement was virtually a done dealwhen he left office. Laque, on the other hand, commented, “While thissounds good, the fact is that portions of the agreement are so vaguely written that no agreement has yet been reached with the property owners, and the possibility of a lawsuit is very real.”Laque added, “The parish is now in a position of owning a $16 million treatment plant on property we don’t own. This certainly does not put usin a very good bargaining position.”Tregre said very clear agreements were approved, granting the parish right of entry to commence construction on the plants. “They are to thepoint, and not vaguely written,” he said.

Much of the work on the appraisals of the property for the property in question was performed by local appraiser Bradley Oubre. “What’s takingMr. Oubre so long, I can’t say.”Laque has also said that Tregre did not budget operating funds or provide for staffing of the new wastewater plants.

Tregre asserted, “We didn’t put it in the budget until it was decided exactly what was needed. Rick Wright (then sewer director) submitted alist of job descriptions to personnel for civil service board approval. Thenwe’d make the budget amendment. They didn’t know because they didn’task.”On the other hand, Laque insists the prior administration “had made no provisions to determine how to staff these facilities, nor had they budgeted the costs to operate and maintain these facilities.”Laque maintains that CDM indicated an additional 11 employees would be needed as well as an annual cost of $2 million for operations and maintenance, none of which was budgeted though both plants were due to go on line this summer.

Tregre responded that the parish will be taking out of operation six sewer plants now in use when the new ones go on line, and those operating expenses, joined with the $1 million already set aside for it, provides plenty to operate the plant.

Laque also asked why Tregre allowed the Waterworks Enterprise Fund and the Wastewater Enterprise Fund to operate at a loss for up to five years.

Laque added, “If our sewer and water departments were businesses, they would be bankrupt by now.”Tregre said last year he offered an ordinance to dedicate $450-500,000 of sales tax revenues generated from the airport (part of the agreement to allow the runway extension into St. Charles Parish) toward this purposeuntil user rates could be implemented.

The council, he added, refused to consider a rate hike in the last few years of its last term in office.

Meanwhile, the council did approve Tregre’s suggested ordinance, but limited it to a one-time thing with a $400,000 cap.

Tregre added that when he left office the parish had more than $2 million surplus in the public works funds and $6-7 million in the general fund.

On the Paul Maillard Road sidewalk project, where the parish is building a sidewalk along the road which connects Boutte and Luling without funding in place, Laque said, “The net result of this series of errors is that the parish has now spent almost $300,000 on a sidewalk contract with no opportunity to recoup the $165,000 in federal grant dollars that could have been utilized for this work.”Laque added, the state highway department was “quite surprised” that the parish bid out the project, where that responsibility was the state’s.

Furthermore, the plans for the project, which were to have been approved by the highway department, weren’t even received for review.

Tregre said, “I know DOTD knew about it, they had us change the plans two or three times.” He added, though, that the contract problems had to dowith the project’s engineering firm, not his administration.

Laque continued he has been dealing with a variety of inherited problems, such as the necessity for a $145,000 change order on the Ormond Road Raising project.

Tregre said of that project that it was “a nightmare from day one.” Headded, though, that with sufficient pumping capacity there, road raising was unnecessary and that the decision to proceed was a purely political decision.

Laque concluded, “The St. Charles Parish Council will be faced with sometough decisions, and it is important that the council members and the citizens they represent fully understand the events which led to the current situation.”Tregre concluded, “Toward the end of the year when he runs out of money, he’ll try and blame me for that, too. All I’m hearing out there, though, iswhen am I running again?”

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