EPPJ decides against bridge removal in Chicot Estates

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Managing Editor

Before its regular meeting began on Monday, the Evangeline Parish Police Jury heard from residents from Chicot Country Estates Subdivision during a public hearing concerning the removal of a bridge located on Chicot Drive.
Removing the bridge was first discussed by the police jury in an effort to keep the subdivision from experiencing flooding like it had during the August 2016 and April 2017 historic floods that occurred in Louisiana.
Local attorney Brent Coreil, who opposed removal of the bridge, addressed the jury on behalf of Chicot Estate residents.
Coreil said, “We are here today because in the course of eight months we had two, 100 year floods occur here in Evangeline Parish. The 100 year floods aren’t suppose to occur that often but unfortunately they did. However, none of our houses flooded.”
Coreil then continued, “The flooding that occurred in our subdivision on both occasions was not caused by the bridge. The flooding occurred because it was a 100 year flood and the fact that the water can not take it down from us.”
According to the Coreil, the water that residents did have in their yards “was not caused by any dam or barricade that was placed there.” Coreil also shared that there is a culvert in the subdivision that he said “is probably not going to accept as much water as the bridge did.”
Coreil was trying to show that the bridge did not cause the flooding, and therefore there is no need to remove it.
Another reason residents do not want the bridge to be removed is because many of them still use the bridge.
Coreil said, “Many of us here utilize that bridge for access. Your removal of the bridge is going to cause substantial inconvenience to us who live there, to buses that may have to pass and pick up children, to the garbage trucks that have to pick up the trash.”
This discussion carried over into the police jury’s regular meeting, where it was decided that the bridge would not be removed. Instead, Bryan Vidrine - police juror for the Chicot Country Estates area - said that they will “replace culverts with box culverts or rail cars.”
During their regular meeting, the police jury also discussed which bridge in the parish should be placed on the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) bridge replacement priority list.
Chester Granger, who is the Public Works Director for the EPPJ, informed the jury that they would have to choose one bridge from the three that would qualify for replacement to place on the DOTD list.
The bridges to choose from were a bridge on Buckshot Road in Sidney Fontenot’s district, bridge 617 in Kevin Veillon’s district, and two culverts on Natchitoches Road in Bryan Vidrine’s district.
The jury decided the best person to make the decision as to which would be placed on the priority list would be Granger, who determined using DOTD requirements that Natchitoches Road’s culverts should be priority.
The jury accepted Granger’s recommendation and now must provide the State with the necessary paper work for this project by June 28, 2017.
Other items approved at the meeting were:
• Appointment of the Ville Platte Gazette as the official journal effective June 1, 2017.
• Speed limit change from 45 miles per hour to 35 mph on Whispering Pine Road.
• Acceptance of a resolution asking State and Federal angencies for assistance for flood protection.
• Reappointment of Lance Chapman, Barry Bordelon and Desmond Thomas to the Recreational Board.