By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – St. John Parish Council members on Tuesday gained further insight into drainage issues around Homewood Place in Reserve following a presentation from a parish engineer.

In a review of the parish’s master drainage plan, Rick Shread of Shread-Kuyrkendall and Associates suggested the parish expand capacity or add a new pump station on the Reserve Relief Canal, construct a new pump station on the Trosclair Canal and add a second culvert under Airline Highway between Homewood Drive and East 12th Street.

Shread said the three projects, which have an estimated price tag of about $1.5 million, would go a long way in correcting decades of flooding problems in the Reserve subdivision, the most recent of which took place late last year when several inches of rain rendered Homewood impassible and flooded about a dozen homes.

“The pump station isn’t adequate, and you have flow from outside the drainage area that’s getting into the system,” Shread said. “The rainfall was so bad that most of the canals were overtopped. It didn’t matter how the bottom was sloped because the water had no place to go.”

Shread explained when the parish built the pump station at the Reserve Relief Canal it was only equipped to handle 100 cubic feet per second, which is roughly half of the rate needed to move water out of the area. Shread said at the time the parish only had enough funding for the smaller pump.

“The decision was to do the best that could be done with the funding,” Shread said.

Shread also said an additional pump at the Trosclair Canal would prevent water around Central Avenue in Reserve from flowing into the Homewood drainage basin.

Shread presented the council and administration officials with an itemized list of cost estimates surrounding the two pump projects. Acting Parish President Pat McTopy said the parish’s available funding for drainage issues is already tied up in projects promised to voters when they approved $9.7 million in bond issue money in April.

“We are going to continue to work with the council to pull money together to fund these projects,” McTopy said. “Homewood is a pressing issue that needs to be alleviated.”

St. John Acting Chief Administrative Officer Buddy Boe said the parish may look into a $1.5 million grant from FEMA to pay for the projects.