LEONARD GRAY

HAHNVILLE – Wastewater treatment will hit St. Charles Parish residents hard in the pocketbook in coming weeks, with the failure of a one-cent sales tax proposition Saturday. Parish President Albert Laque said the expected $4.05 per 1,000 gallons wastewater treatment rate, bumping up from the current $1.80 rate, will go higher still. “I think it will be higher than $4.05,” Laque said. At the same time, long-discussed hurricane protection projects for both the east and west banks will go begging for money. “Maybe they didn’t understand it,” parish finance director Lorrie Toups said of the tax proposition, which failed 52.8 to 47.2 percent, or 2,930 to 2,619 votes. “We’re going to have to get together and aggressively look at another rate increase,” Toups continued, adding, “Conserving water is not going to affect the daily operations and expenditures at the sewer plants.” She commented, “I don’t think they can reduce expenses any more.” District-by-district, St. Charles Parish voted: District One, 468 for and 420 against; District Two, 441 for and 629 against; District Three, 264 for and 557 against; District Four, 380 for and 301 against; District Five, 304 four and 155 against; District Six, 412 for and 328 against; District Seven, 338 for and 504 against; and absentee voting went 12 for and 36 against. Steven Fall, director of public works and wastewater, said the parish needed $20 million for the pump station needed on the east bank hurricane protection levee, $25 million toward construction of the west bank hurricane protection levee and another $50 million in drainage improvements identified in the master drainage plan. Fall said of the election returns, “That was pretty disappointing,” and added, “These projects aren’t going to engineer themselves or fund themselves.” Laque expressed his thanks to the people who came out to vote on the proposition, but added, “The problem isn’t going to go away.” He reviewed the precinct-by-precinct returns and observed, “The people who voted against it needed it most.” In addressing claims the parish government is wasteful and over-funded, Laque commented, “We don’t have enough people working in wastewater now.”