Jones pitches Baldwin water idea

Louisiana State Representative Sam Jones visited the Baldwin town meeting Thursday to speak with the mayor and board about possible arrangements for Baldwin to utilize the unused capacity of Franklin’s water plant.
According to Jones, Franklin’s water plant is capable of 3 million gallons of water output per day, but is only utilizing 1.1 million gallons of that capacity.
Having spoken with Franklin Mayor Eugene Foulcard earlier Thursday, Jones said it had been proposed to utilize a 10-inch water line running under Charenton Navigation and Drainage Canal to connect the town of Baldwin to Franklin’s water plant, thereby relieving Baldwin’s current dependence on St. Mary Parish Water and Sewer Commission 4, who has a responsibility to their district before Baldwin.
Jones said, “I highly recommend that you, (the mayor and board) the town of Baldwin and the city of Franklin collectively put in a capital outlay request to build that connection.
“The capital outlay requests are due by November 1st, so you’ve got some time to put it together. So, let’s go for it. Let’s try to solve this problem.”
Baldwin residents spent one and a half days last January without water due to District 4 cutting the town’s access, in order to serve their district customers by priority, after a night of hard freeze conditions.
Jones called the connection alleviating such hardships in the future, one “for all time to come.” However, he also said that although he was given leave by Mayor Foulcard, to speak on his behalf in support of the proposed inter-municipal connection, it had yet to go before the Franklin City Council; but added that he didn’t think council approval would be a problem.