By VICKIE JAMBON – Staff Reporter

HAHNVILLE – “Minor hurricanes have a higher impact on us because water levels are rising and our parish is sinking. We need to raise homes with parish money instead of just adding pump stations,” said Tab Troxler, Director of Emergency Preparedness, at the Monday night parish council meeting.

Troxler said surveys of home and road levels are off significantly. He said a level surveyed at 4.65 feet is really 1.95 feet.

Councilman Ganesier “Ram” Ramchandran conceded the area was sinking, but he told Troxler that there was no reason for the people to panic.

“This is the way it is. We need to know and understand the threats and our vulnerabilities. We are very, very vulnerable,” Troxler said.

Councilman Richard “Dickie” Duhe asked Troxler what criteria was necessary for raising home owners’ homes. He also asked if residents could be paid to tear down their home in a flood district.

Troxler answered Duhe by saying money would go to areas with repetitive loses and that home buy-outs did not work well for the parish. He added that FEMA would be the one to prioritize a home for being raised.

When Councilman Lance Marino asked the Director how they could get started. Troxler said, “The ball is rolling.”

Duhe asked the Council to take $5,000 from the General Fund to pay for installing large green indicator lights with signs for the Norco Pump Station. He said the lights would put people’s minds at ease and would stop them from thinking the pumps are not running when they are running.

Councilwoman April Black told Public works director, Greg Bush that she felt all the stations needed lights. Bush told Black that lighting would not cost more than $2,000 per station but that only one station had lights.

Ramchandran thought the lighting solution was too simplistic. He wants pump information displayed on an internet website.

Ramchandran said, “People do not trust us. People don’t think the pumps are running. Put the pumps on the internet so people can see if pumps are running.”

In the end, Marino said he agreed with putting lights at all the stations. However, lights will only be placed at the Norco Pump Station for now.

Another issue raised by Duhe sought to place cameras at each pump station. The cameras would televise pump operations on the parish’s television channel and at the Emergency Operations Center. Duhe said people would have visible means of seeing the pumps working. It was decided that this matter should be taken up at a future committee meeting.

The Board allowed a deviation from the nightly agenda so Duhe could ask Bush about improvements made to the call-out system.

Bush said starting Monday, his department will be more proactive. There will be 24-hour supervision provided for monitoring telemetry and weather. Storm workers will be contacted by beepers instead of by telephones. When workers report in, they will scan a card which will record their response time.

“If a worker doesn’t show up at call-out, action against that employee will be taken,” said Bush.