Yokely drainage work becoming reality after nearly four decades

It’s a project that’s been discussed as needed for 40 years, but after groundbreaking was a held March 23 for the Yokely Bayou Basin Drainage Project, a big part of the city of Franklin’s drainage issues will be addressed with the completion of the project later this year.

Franklin Mayor Eugene Foulcard said the project has been in the works since 1984, when Foulcard’s father Carl was on the city council with Oray Rogers and Sam Jones, who was the mayor at the time.

“We’re very, very excited about moving forward on this,” Foulcard said.

“The original plans and scope of the project started in 1984, nearly 40 years ago. I was a senior in high school.

"A number of individuals that were on the council started moving forward with the Yokely drainage project, and here we are in 2023, we’ve finally broken ground on it.”

Joining the mayor in the groundbreaking were Mayor Pro Tem Lester Levine, Franklin City Councilmen Jaime Robison and Joe Garrison, St. Mary Parish Councilman Rodney Olander, St. Mary Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange, former mayor and State Rep. Sam Jones, Reed Miller of Miller Engineering, Dale Rogers of Frisco Industrial Contractors and George Tyler of Tyler Dirt Works. Baldwin Mayor Clarence Vappie also was at the groundbreaking as parts of Irish Bend near Baldwin also drain back into the Yokely Canal.

The project will be a gravity-fed drainage system that will get water to the Yokely Canal, which then moves to drainage pumps in the canal and the Franklin drainage pumps to get that water out of the city.

“It’s very critical to what we’re doing here in Franklin as relates to drainage issues in the western end of Franklin,” the mayor said.

The area of the city to the north side of Iberia Street in the city is affected by the canal, he said.

That includes the area where the Teche Action Clinic sits, as well as West Third Street, Cayce Street, Barrow Street, the subdivision along Lee Charles and Mary Lee streets, parts of Eagle Street, James Street, and even the edges of Pecan Acres subdivision, the mayor said.

“That is covering about 50% of the drainage issues in Franklin,” Foulcard said.

“When we get heavy, heavy rainfall, and that rainfall doesn’t drain off quick enough, that water backs up.

With the Yokely being dredged and re-sloped and cleared out, it’s going to make a world of difference, so we’re very excited that this project has come to fruition.”
Frisco Industrial Contractors was the low bidder on the million dollar project.

The work is projected to be done by November.

“They said it would take about nine months,” Foulcard said.