Mansura creates committee to study drainage problems

A special committee of town officials and citizens will gather information to find possible solutions to Mansura’s drainage issues.

A roomful of irate citizens attended the Mansura Town Council meeting on May 8, complaining of frequent flooding and sewage backing up into yards and homes. While drainage and flooding were top concerns, complaints soon turned to deplorable street conditions as well.

Resident Merrill Rush said the worst part of the recent flooding was that raw sewage was pouring out of manholes, not only running in ditches but backing up into people’s yards and homes.

Mayor Kenneth Pickett told the crowd that the town has completed three major projects in the past several years, so town officials have not ignored citizens’ problems. He said the town lost electrical service during the April 30 storm and all of the sewer pumps were down, which added to an already bad situation caused by the torrential downpour.

DOING 'BEST WE CAN'

Pickett said he did not want “to give people a false hope” that a solution to the problem will be found.

“We are doing the best we can,” Pickett said. “Even if we can get the water to the city limits, it has nowhere to go. You can’t even see the drainage canal, it’s so overgrown.”

Shelia Blackman-Dupas, an Avoyelles School Board member attending the meeting as just one more flood-weary Mansura resident, asked town officials to determine what needs to be done to improve drainage to give citizens relief.

A resident of Large Road then told the council that the road was almost impassable due to potholes and was in dire need of attention.

Council member Gaon Escude made a motion to get an estimate on the cost of temporary pothole repairs on Large Road.

“If you fix one road, you have to fix all of them,” Pickett said.

Escude said he only wanted an estimate to determine what it would cost to alleviate the major issues on the road until a more permanent solution could be funded. However, he did not get a second to his motion.

Pickett told the crowd that the town has numerous street and drainage issues. In addition, costs are rising and revenue is falling. He said the town has some certificates of deposit as an emergency reserve, “but that is only for drastic situations.”

“What’s more drastic than raw sewage in people’s homes,” Rush demanded.

“What I am hearing is that nothing will be done because there’s so much that needs to be done,” Blackman-Dupas remarked.

At that point, a suggestion was made to create the special committee of a couple of council members, Town Engineer Ron Bordelon and at least one town resident. Stanley Poret volunteered to be the citizen representative on the committee.

Pickett said the committee will look at the town’s street and drainage needs and consider whether the town should use one of its reserve deposits “to invest in improvements for the town.”

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