Lower St. Martin –When Chester Cedars became president of St. Martin Parish, he told the citizens of Lower St. Martin – Belle River, Stephensville and Four-mile Bayou – that he would be more attentive to their communities and their needs.
In keeping with that promise, the parish council met in the Belle River Community Center on May 21 for what turned out to be a regular council meeting.
Knowing the dire flooding situation of the three communities, Cedars spent much of the meeting explaining what he and the council were doing to deal with the situation. Back in January, Cedars, Public Works Director Martin Poirrier and Lt. Col. Terry Guidry with the Sheriff’s Office, began preparing for high water by distributing thousands of sandbags and depositing piles of sand at critical points, sending public workers to help fill the bags. When things became critical – Stephensville was mostly flooded, Stephensville Elementary School was closed, Four-mile Bayou and Belle River were equally under water – parish efforts to help were stepped up. Most recently, a voluntary evacuation order has been issued for the communities.
Cedars was effusive in his praise for the public works crew but most of the audience had hoped for some solution to their current miseries which wasn’t forthcoming.
When the problem of the water on Hwy. 70 between Belle River and Morgan City was brought up, Cedars said the state DOTD was in charge of flooded highways, not the parish.
Cedars did say that he was aware of Belle River boat traffic which was sometimes making waves over seawalls and under homes and would see that something was done to stop that problem.
One suggestion from a resident was to put Hesko Baskets (large fiber bags of sand) along Hwy 70. Others said there was not enough pumping being done. Some people said they were having sewage problems and worried about an epidemic of mosquito borne diseases.
Trash Pickup
When the regular council meeting continued, it was announced that the trash pickup would now be done by Pelican Waste & Debris and that a meeting to sign up would take place in the Belle River Community Center on Friday, June 7 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
When the meeting adjourned a somber crowd dispersed, clustering in small groups outside the building. Nobody was happy with the results but there was no denying that the parish has apparently been doing what it could to help the residents.
