After Riverbend Corporation and Robert Wiegand decided to donate three acres of land on Mud Lake to the parish for the construction of a boat launch near Down the Bayou Road, Councilman Paul Hogan said it’s imperative that the parish find the money to build it within the specified time limit.
“We need to jump on this, because it is something that has been sorely needed in the Des Allemands area for years,” Hogan said. “We have three years to come up with the funding as part of the donation, and we need to do everything we can to make sure we secure that funding while we have the land available.”
After securing all the necessary funding, the parish then has three more years to finish construction.
There already is a boat launch is Des Allemands under the Highway 90 bridge, but Hogan said that area has been plagued with problems for years.
“It’s the only one we have in Des Allemands, and it’s a hassle to use and is very dangerous,” he said. “To back a boat in, you have to back across a street and we’ve had a lot of public urination and trash complaints, along with other problems.”
But finding the money for a new launch is going to be a daunting task. Hogan said that a road will have to be built to a new launch, and that alone will cost around $800,000.
“And I can’t even give an estimate on how much the boat launch itself will cost, but it’s not going to be cheap,” he said.
The parish would also have to either shift the Mud Lake levee or fill in part of Mud Lake for the launch’s construction, Hogan said.
However, Hogan feels like the cost would be well worth it in the long run.
“Building a new boat launch in Des Allemands won’t only benefit people in our parish, but it will bring in people from other parishes as well,” he said. “That’s going to be a huge economic generator for St. Charles because you will have people coming here and making purchases.”
Hogan said the parish will try many different sources for funding, including state funds, grants and possibly going to industry.
“This area here is a sportsman’s paradise,” he said. “We are going to beat down every door we can to look for funding.”
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