Berwick's flooding fix has $1.6 million price tag

BERWICK — The Town Council called a special meeting Wednesday evening to listen to a proposal for a flood reduction and drainage plan for Country Club Estates Subdivision from Miller Engineers and Associates Inc.
While the council seemed eager to move forward with improvements presented, the residents of Country Club were not as certain the options were improvements.
In the end, the council voted to move ahead with Hogan Street ditch improvements but to continue with two more extensive projects only when funding for both is available.
The town initiated a study in response to recent storms that have caused flooding of homes within Country Club Estates in Berwick. The flooding occurred in homes located along Hogan, Palmer, Hebert and Jones streets. The most recent event occurred June 7.
“My house has flooded twice in an eight-week period of time,” Kevin Lewis, a resident of Berwick who lives in Country Club Estates, said as residents in attendance began to voice their concerns to the council.
A resident said she has lived in Country Club for 40 years and never flooded until recently. Another said he has lived there for 26 years and has flooded twice, both in the last year.
Residents voiced their concern that something has changed, something is happening. “Hopefully we are going to address it now,” Mayor Duval Arthur responded.
The president of Miller Engineers and Associates Inc., Reid Miller, along with the company’s Project Engineer, Jules Darden, presented the council with three propositions for improvement.
Proposed improvement plan No. 1 is for Hogan Street ditch improvements. This improvement plan includes the removal of existing culverts within the existing ditch section and excavating a new open channel. The estimated cost for this plan is $110,806.
Proposed improvement plan No. 2 is for drainage improvements along Patti Drive. This improvement includes the removal of existing dual 48-inch CMP culverts parallel to Patti Drive and between the intersections with Hebert and Hogan streets. Some of the removed pipe would be reused to add a third 48-inch CMP culvert beneath the crossings of Hebert and Hogan streets and an open channel would be constructed. The estimated cost for this plan is $315,768.50.
Plan No. 2 lowers water stage elevations within the Hogan Street and Palmer Street areas, but it provides a rise in water surface elevation along Hebert Street due to the increase in flows. This fact was not overlooked by residents of Hebert Street.
Proposed improvement plan No. 3 is for storm sewer improvements. This improvement provides additional water conveyance along Hogan, Palmer, Hebert and Jones streets.
It requires the installation of a subsurface drainage system on the opposite side of the streets where storm drains already exist. This plan will reduce water levels significantly along all streets affected. The estimated cost for this plan is $1,192,597.90.
The total cost of implementing all three plans is approximately $1.6 million.
Mayor Pro Tem Lud Henry addressed Miller while looking at provided charts displaying water stage elevations before and after each proposed plan.
“After doing all three of the improvements you see a significant decrease, so I guess what you are telling us is that pretty much you have to do all three or we aren’t going to see much improvement on Hebert and Jones,” Henry said.
“I am in favor of doing all three,” Arthur said. “We need to go ahead if we are going to get in the middle of it. Might as well jump in with both feet.”
Berwick resident Randal Monceaux asked Arthur, “So what’s our game plan?”
Arthur replied, “One, two, three.”
“What kind of time frame are we talking about for starting this? A day, a month?” Monceaux asked.
“Definitely less than a month,” Arthur said. “I would like to start tomorrow.”
Henry made a motion to “proceed with proposal one and two and look into the finances for proposal three as soon as we can.” Councilman Raymond Price seconded the motion.
Resident Stan Beaubouef expressed his concern before the mayor could complete a roll call vote.
“My only question on that though is if we go ahead and approve one and two to get completed,” Beaubouef said, “then we have no guarantee of the funding for plan three yet, then at Hebert Street we are in worse shape than we are now. The plans would almost all have to flow together where everyone could benefit from them.”
“I think that is all of our intentions,” Henry said. “One way or another, we are going to find that money somewhere so we can proceed.”
“We are going to do No. three,” Arthur said, “but right now we don’t have the money to do it. We are seeking it. We have an avenue right now. I’m not going to really go into a lot of detail right now but I feel really confident that we are going to be able to do this.”
“But it makes it worse for us,” Beaubouef said. “That’s the reality of it. It doesn’t get better for us. It gets worse for us. What I’m saying is waiting until you find out if you get the money instead of just starting to do it.
“It doesn’t make any sense to say, ‘Well God bless you guys on Hebert Street,’ and that’s what we’re doing. If the funding doesn’t come through to do them all, if you do one and two, then things are worse on Hebert Street than they are now.”
Councilwoman Colleen Askew asked Beaubouef what he would like to see happen.
“Do one because that doesn’t make us worse,” Beaubouef said. “Don’t go do the second one while we are finding out if we have the money. If we find out we have the money, then fire away.”
Henry made a new motion to proceed with proposal one and move forward with two and three when funds are available. Price seconded the motion. Henry, Price, Askew and Councilman Kevin Hebert voted yes.