By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

CONVENT – The St. James Parish council accepted a bid for construction on a multi-purpose center in St. James during its regular Wednesday evening meeting.
Lamar Contractors Inc., a general contractor from Luling, submitted the lowest bid and received the building contract. The project will be funded through $1.5 million in bond sales as well as FEMA Hazard Mitigation and capital projects money.
The motion passed unopposed and prompted many congratualtions for District V Councilman Charles Ketchens. Ketchens said he had been working to bring such a center to that area of the west bank for nearly seven years.
“It has been quite some time. Thanks to this council for standing behind on this project, too,” said Ketchens.
The council also made a resolution to request that the Louisiana U.S. Congressional Delegation and the Army Corps of Engineers expedite the funding and construction of a hurricane protection levee for the parish.
Parish President Timmy Rousel expounded on the agenda item, saying the bodies should ultimately choose the locally preferred option, Alignment D. Four alignments were displayed during the Army Corps’ May open house in Lutcher.
“If A or C is chosen as the alignment, they’re telling us that we would receive a benefit — that they would try and raise homes and put in ring levees and maybe some backflow preventers. Man, my thoughts are, if you’re going to spend that much money, all you’re looking at is eight more miles of levee. You’ll probably spend more money raising houses, putting ring levees and putting backflow preventers in our canals,” said Roussel.
In other news, the council agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with St. James Hospital. According to Roussel, the parish will receive a 50 percent discount on medical services for inmates in the parish prison. The council and hospital will also initiate a three-month trial run in which a doctor will make weekly trips to address the needs of prisoners, rather than transporting prisoners to the hospital.
The council also discussed the recent closing of the St. James Youth Detention Center. The facility closed on Friday, June 28. During the closing, two contract and three part-time employees were terminated, three employees retired and 18 employees were laid off. Eight employees were able to find jobs with St. James Parish.
Councilman Jason Amato raised the question of whether the parish would continue to need the millage they had been receiving since the facility has been turned over to Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack. According to Roussel, the millage created $400,000 of yearly revenue for the parish. The president suggested that the council wait to adjust the millage since they don’t know whether or not they will need to pay for space for juveniles at the Assumption Parish facility.