ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 15, 2000

LAPLACE – A request by the St. John the Baptist administration forauthorization and funds to finish an parish mapping project turned into an argument on how the parish does business with outside contractors.

Parish President Nickie Monica asked the council last week to authorize him to sign a contract with Geographic Computer Technologies so the Geographic Information System mapping of the parish can be completed. The cost tocomplete the mapping would be $100,000.

The G.I.S. is a mapping system that uses high-altitude photographs andcomputer technology to map out all roads, canals, building, sewer and water systems into one digital map that can be stored on computer.

So far the system has cost the parish $177,000 and involved three different phases. First were the streets, then the buildings, and now Monica wants tofinish the G.I. S. with the sewer and water systems.The council voted for the G.I.S. back in 1997 and the first two phases weredone by GCT.

“I’m asking for the last phase to be completed,” Monica told the council. “Ifwe don’t finish this it will be a waste of money. Civil Defense needs the G.I.S.The cost will not exceed $100,000.”Job Boucvalt was not happy with the extra funding.

“First you asked us for $200,000 and now you want another $100,000?” asked Boucvalt.

Monica said,”We signed a contract for three phases, and we need the money for the final phase.”Boucvalt then made a motion to advertise for bids on the project and get at least three proposals.

Ranney Wilson, who was on the council that approved the G.I.S. contract in1997, responded to the motion by saying, “We tried that before. We hadthree proposals all with different equipment. We set it up in phases to thatwe could get the money as we went along. Stopping this now would put a stopto the G.I.S. We have to stop this stopping contracts. We might as well tryand stop everything in government.”Bertram Madere, director of Civil Defense, also objected to the motion.

“This is a carry-over from the last administration. In 1997 we would havepaid over $1 million for this system. Now we are 75 percent finished with theproject, and we should go with the same contractor. We need this. It will tellus where everything is.”Several months ago an optic fiber company accidentally cut a water main on Airline Highway. Because the parish did not have up-to-date information onwhere cut-off valves were it took several hours before parish workers could finally turn off the water to the break. As a result, part of Airline Highwaywas flooded and the eastern part of the parish went without water for several hours. Parish officials said that if the G.I.S. had been finished theywould have been able to shut off the water immediately and re-route it to other pipes.

Lester Rainey, though, was willing to go along with Boucvalt’s motion.

“Mr. Wilson, you may be comfortable with this, but I am not, ” Rainey said.”I’m ready to stop the whole thing and look at every parish contract.””You can’t stop government,” Wilson shot back. “We have been here forseven months and nothing has been done.”Rainey replied, “Let’s question everything to see what is the best deal for the parish.”Wilson said, “I keep hearing of a big conspiracy. Well, I wish the new memberswould bring this up. The G.I.S. was a big argument back then, too, but weneed to move one. We can’t stop everything and go backward. If someone hasa theory or documentation, bring it up and let us discuss it.”Allen St. Pierre countered, “We want to make this a new St. John Parish.We’re not stopping anything, just slowing it down to make sure everything is above board.”Rainey added, “I don’t want people to think there is a conspiracy when we question things. All I want is to get the best deal for the parish and explain itto citizens without stuttering. We should have a workshop on this issue.”Duaine Duffy said, “We had a workshop on this during our first month in office.”Steve Lee said, “I will be voting with the administration because it is the proper business move.”The vote for Boucvalt’s motion for three proposals before continuing the G.I.S. passed by a vote of 6-3 with Lee, Duffy and Wilson voting against it.5.

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