By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – After a little confusion Thursday morning, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development announced it had received a commitment from St. John the Baptist Parish officials to transfer Edgard/Reserve ferry operations to the parish. To assist in the transfer, the DOTD agreed to extend ferry service at the Edgard/Reserve landing approximately two to four weeks, utilizing road transfer funds provided by the parish.
St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom and Sherri LeBas, secretary for the DOTD, worked out a late-night, verbal agreement to extend Reserve/Edgard ferry services at least two more weeks on Wednesday night, allowing the parish more time to work on an operations and maintenance plan for the ferry.
After the parish released the story Thursday morning, however, DOTD representatives said no agreement had yet been reached. But shortly afterward the state agency said it received a commitment from the parish to take over ferry operations.
Jodi Conachen, the director of communications for the DOTD, reached out to media outlets on Wednesday morning  and said the agency had repeatedly clarified that any continuation of ferry service would include a transfer of operations to a local entity. Conachen said the agency began discussing the transfer back in January, when the parish received the original extension of services.
“This was clarified yet again at a June 4 meeting with the parish president and her staff, as well as stated in the cooperative endeavor agreement that DOTD’s attorney provided to the parish president on June 5 as follow-up in writing as to what the state’s expectations were. We sent those CEAs over to them so they could see exactly how we thought the transfer would go in the future,” she said.
Robottom said the misunderstanding was not an issue of the parish not knowing about the transfer agreement.
“It was very clear. The timing is the issue. The reason for the extension was to give us time to work out the details for us to take it over. Yeah, we knew that by Sept. 1 we needed to have a plan in place to operate the ferry. That wasn’t the question. We’re not ready to put that in writing today,” said Robottom Wednesday afternoon.
“Our road swap was done to give us the additional two months to work out an agreement. Will it be ready by tomorrow? Of course not! By Friday? No. To do it prior to having the funding for an operator in place would be irresponsible,” she said.
The newest agreement came just days after the parish reported the DOTD has backtracked on an earlier deal and that the ferry would possibly close for good on June 28.
Through the most recent deal, St. John Parish officials committed to taking over future ferry operations. Additionally, the parish will assume responsibility for portions of state-owned highways in exchange for extending service during the transition. The highways the parish will take responsibility of include Louisiana Highway 3223 from U.S. Highway 61 to Louisiana Highway 44 and Louisiana Highway 3224 from U.S. 61 to Highway 44.
The DOTD will operate the ferry for approximately two to four weeks, pending staff availability. Because of the late nature of the agreement and the existing layoff plan in place for state ferry employees, staff resources are limited. Edgard/Reserve ferry service hours have already begun to be adjusted based on staffing constraints. The current hours, which are subject to change, are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
In the past few years, the DOTD has begun to implement the Streamlining Commission’s recommendations to close specific ferries that do not provide state or regional transportation connectivity and are primarily local transit services. The state closed the St. Francisville and Melville ferries, saving Louisiana taxpayers approximately $2.7 million. In addition to the Edgard/Reserve ferry, the White Castle ferry was scheduled for closure in 2013.
Approximately 193,000 drivers and 5,900 pedestrians used the Edgard/Reserve ferry last fiscal year, which translates to fewer than 750 individual daily users.