By Katina A. Gaudet
South Lafourche Bureau
A local water district plans
to spend $1.11 million in the coming year.
Officials with the Bayou
Lafourche Fresh Water District will hold a public hearing on
the proposed 2004 budget at the district’s October
meeting. After the meeting, the members will vote on the
proposed budget.
Officials expect the district
to have a fund balance of $500,000 from the previous year.
Combined with revenue of around $1.24 million and expenditures
of $1.11 million, they anticipate a fund balance of just more
than $630,000 at year’s end.
District officials, however,
have not planned any large-scale projects, so they have not
budgeted for capital expenditures.
But they do have some idea of
what they might pursue next year.
Archie Chaisson, director of
the district, said he is contemplating obtaining more office
and storage space, as well as the purchase of an excavator for
bayou work.
Many agree that Bayou
Lafourche, the conduit for fresh water from the Mississippi
River to local residents in four parishes, has silted up
through the years, the result of decreased water flow down the
channel.
The increased sedimentation
provides problems for the district, hindering the amount of
water it can pump downstream from its station in
Donaldsonville.
A federal-state restoration
task force and the state itself are funding engineering and
design work on a project slated to provide an additional 1,000
cubic feet per second of river water down the bayou.
Should that project see
construction, some anticipate that dredging the bayou would be
one component to reduce flooding risks.
District officials, who note
the need for some measure of bayou dredging, say they will
likely hold off on the purchase of an excavator for a year.
District officials are more
apt to pursue renovation plans to the existing office building
on St. Mary Street in Thibodaux.
At the beginning of the year,
they plan to ask Arthur DeFraites of GSE Associates Inc., the
district’s consulting engineering firm, to compile a
comparison of the district’s options.
Those include refurbishing
the district’s current building and providing for more
storage for district vehicles and boats on its nearby lot or
constructing a new office building on that lot and using the
current facility for storage space.
Chaisson said the
district’s equipment would be best stored indoors, if
possible, to prevent weather damage. Also, the district has
been the victim of two thefts recently, losing an outboard
motor from a district boat.
On another occasion, a small
aluminum boat stored on the bayou side behind the district
building was stolen.
After the beginning of the
year, district officials will consider their options, as well
as the price comparison for each.
DeFraites said the evaluation
itself could likely be conducted for $3,000 to $4,000.
Chaisson noted the district
could use its fund reserves to pay for the building
improvements, but would prefer to take out a loan to pay for
the capital project.
“As low as the interest
rates are right now, I’d rather borrow $200,000 or
$250,000,” said Chaisson, adding that the district could
repay the loans using the additional $200,000 the district is
expected to receive from its yearly ad valorem taxes.
District officials will
consider the building proposal after the district’s
upcoming fiscal year begins on Jan. 1.
