Parish on top of things in 2008

The year 2008 was a very interesting one. From a pair of hurricanes, to snow, to the Destrehan Wildcats winning their second straight state championship, a lot went on last year in St. Charles Parish.

And a lot of progress was made by V.J. St. Pierre's administration and the Parish Council.

St. Charles Parish took on a lot of infrastructure projects this year, with the purpose of several of them to keep water out of the homes, yards and streets of the area. The Public Works Department led the charge, coming up with a priority list of important parish projects and then tackling them one by one.

Public works, with the help of grants, was instrumental in attaining funding that was used to purchase new bar screen cleaning equipment on drainage pumps all across the parish. The department also got their hands dirty by cleaning miles of drainage canals - something that hasn't been focused on too much in the past.

While making it a focus to keep water out of our homes, the parish also took some important steps to make sure water got to them as well.

One of those steps was making repairs at the east bank water treatment plant to keep equipment from being corroded. The council also decided to allocate $8 million of the general fund so that a new $26 million water treatment plant could be built in New Sarpy.

The first under-river waterline crossing was also completed last year, with the second crossing on schedule to open up this year.

The two under-river pipelines will help ensure that both the east bank and west bank sides of the parish has enough water at all times.

But even with all that was accomplished, St. Pierre says that one of the more important accomplishments was establishing a working relationship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. St. Pierre hopes that relationship will help speed up construction of the West Bank Hurricane Protection Levee.

We can’t wait to see what 2009 brings.