Problem solving

The historic Louisiana flood that occurred last August continues to be an unwanted gift that keeps on giving to the residents of Ville Platte’s Shady Acres neighborhood.
To address the continual flooding that these residents have been facing ever since the flood, a community meeting was held at the Ville Platte City Hall on Wednesday.
This was the second meeting that was held to discuss a plan of action to stop the flooding that seems to ensue after even the smallest amount of rain fall. In the fist meeting, a plan of action was determined but unfortunately did not solve the problem.
Faye Lemoine, a resident in the area, said, “Our problems are not fixed. There was an effort made to fix the problem but we need more. What was done is not working.”
The effort that Lemoine was referring to was made by the City of Ville Platte and the Evangeline Parish Police Jury, who attempted to correct the problem by digging ditches to help the area drain better. However, the ditches that were dug did not create a positive water flow to the canal that the water drains into.
To address this issue, Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine said, “If what the city and the police jury has done hasn’t worked then we will have to try something else. We will fix this problem.”
At the meeting the Police Juror for that ward - Bryan Vidrine - and the mayor agreed that the best way to attack this problem would be to have the police jury and the City of Ville Platte enter into a cooperative agreement to work together to fix the flooding that has occured in this area of Ville Platte for the last five months.
Public Works Director for the EPPJ Chester Granger was also present at the meeting, and took time to explain other problems that could be contributing to the regular flooding.
Granger said, “This has been a problem for 40 years and it’s going to get worse.”
Granger explained that with every house that is built, land to absorb the water is lost. He then shared that when the flood happened earlier this year it caused the Mermentau River and Bayou des Cannes become backed up, which made it difficult for anything here to drain into an already full body of water.
Other issues leading to this problem were said to be culverts that were poorly installed in previous years by homeowners themselves. This is something the City of Ville Platte no longer allows to help keep issues like this from arising. The amount of leaves and debris that builds up in the culverts also contribute to the flooding.
With a desire to be proactive so that this problem can be solved sooner rather than later, the mayor suggested that all of the key players that will work on correcting this issue meet in Shady Acres on Monday. While there, she asked that they scope out the area and determine the necessary actions that must be taken.
Once the area is examined, if they believe that changing culverts will make a difference in the flooding, then the mayor has given her word that the culverts will be done, but she asked that the residents help by doing their part as well.
Mayor Vidrine said, “If that needs to be done, then I will put changing the culverts in the budget. I give you my word on that. But, I need the residents to help keep the leaves from building up in the ditches and culverts.”
Exactly how this problem will be solved is uncertain, but the mayor and Bryan isn’t going to stop working on making this right until her constituents are no longer experiencing flooding in their yards and homes.
Mayor Vidrine said, “If Plan A didn’t work, then we have to try Plan B. We are going to get this right, but it’s just going to take time.”