The owners of a Killona landfill will be in violation of a parish ordinance if they begin accepting New Orleans trash debris from storm damaged homes that contains asbestos material.
Councilman Brian Fabre introduced a resolution at the Nov. 5 council meeting asking for the council’s support to seek the help of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in removing Transload America, the new owners of the Killona Ventures Landfill LLC., from its list of eligible waste sites to accept RACM and ACWM (Asbestos Containing Waste Materials).
In July 2007, Killona Ventures was denied permission to expand its landfill site.
“The owners sold the company to Transload America, and they want to bring all of the broken houses and Hurricane Katrina debris, which contains RACM and ACWM, and they’re not permitted for that,” Fabre said. “Mr. Laque is preparing a letter to be sent to Mayor Ray Nagin to request his assistance.”
Killona Ventures LLC., formerly owned by Wade Scott, was sold on Sept. 21, to TLA.
Fabre says if the company allows the dumping of hazardous materials, they will be in direct violation of the special use permit issued to them by the parish.
“We just want to be proactive before they begin to try to dump that stuff over there,” he said.
A request to expand the Killona construction debris landfill was voted down by the council in July after a group of angry residents opposed the plan.
Killona Ventures LLC, which owned the landfill, had sought a special use permit to double the size of the 70-acre site, which opened in 2001.
Video Bingo Outlawed
The St. Charles Parish council vetoed video bingo machines at the Nov. 5 council meeting, forcing the owners of the Luling Video Bingo Palace, a hall that’s been open for less than two weeks, to remove the money making slot-like machines from their location and shut-down.
But parish officials can’t say for certain when the machines will be removed, or if the location will be shutdown permanently.
“We don’t know at this point how to enforce this ordinance,” Earl Matherne, a planning and zoning spokesman said. “We’ll have to meet about it with our director before anything is done.”
Mike Henderson, director of planning and zoning says that the parish president has 10 days to veto the ordinance and if he doesn’t, the legal department takes over.
“At that point, the parish attorney will decide if the ordinance is enforceable or not and then he’ll submit a letter to the owners to enforce it,” he said.
Bobby Raymond, a parish attorney, says that although Councilman Desmond Hilarie’s ordinance prohibits the use of electronic video bingo, the definition of what that means isn’t clear.
“We have to be more specific with the wording in this ordinance to prevent a potential lawsuit,” he said.
The council agreed to re-vote on an amendment to the ordinance that would include the various definitions of the use of “electronic video bingo machines.”
“Someone could challenge the ordinance as it is written by saying the board that lights up and flashes the numbers electronically in a bingo hall falls under this ordinance,” Raymond said. “We have to make sure the meaning of the ordinance, and what the council wants the ordinance to do, is clearly defined.”
After several rounds of back and forth between the council, parish attorney, residents, the owners of the video bingo hall, and charity groups – the ordinance passed by a vote of 7-2 – forcing the video bingo machines out of the parish.
“We’re not trying to stop these charities from getting funding,” Hilaire said. “But we are trying to keep video bingo halls from popping up all over the parish. It’s just another form of gambling and we don’t need that in our parish.”
Brett Sulzer, co-owner of the Luling Video Bingo Palace, pleaded with the council to allow the location to remain open.
“We followed the proper zoning requirements and got all of the proper licenses,” Sulzer said. “By shutting us down, we’re losing our multi-million dollar investment and the charities will be the one to suffer the most.”
Councilman Barry Minnich added an amendment to the parish code on Oct.15, asking the parish council to individually consider Bingo Halls, Video Bingo Parlors, and Off-Track betting establishments.
Henderson said the off track betting business located in Luling will be allowed to open because the permit was issued before his ordinance passed and the owners didn’t have to come before the council for a public hearing.
“Now, anyone who wants to open anything like this will have to come before the council to get a special-use permit and there will be a public hearing,” Henderson said.
Bond Passed
St. Charles Parish Council members also approved a proposal authorizing the advertising for bids for the purchase of $27.4 million in improvement bonds. The purpose of the bonds will be to construct drains, drainage canals, pumps and pumping plants, levees, dykes and related machinery and equipment for the West Bank Hurricane Protection levee system.
This passed despite concerns from some newly appointed elected officials that the incoming administration should be allowed to examine the proposal.
Parish President-elect, V.J. St. Pierre, councilman-elect Terry Authement, and Carolyn Schexynadre, asked the council to table the ordinance until next year, which would allow them to look at the financial ramifications of incurring the debt for parish residents. Councilman Ram Ramachandran strongly opposed the proposal because he said residents are going to be given the shaft.
“The residents will be locked into repaying this debt for the next 25 years,” he said. “We need to let the next administration look at the numbers before we commit ourselves to this thing.”
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