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Town Meeting Minutes – Thursday, January 17, 2008

January 17, 2008

Town of Brusly
Special Meeting
Brusly, Louisiana

A special meeting of the Town of Brusly was held this date, January 17, 2008,
at the Brusly Town Hall at 6:00 p.m.

Council Member Perrault led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll call determined following present:

Council Member: David Rodrigue, Ronda Perrault, Joanne Bourgeois, Shane Andre’
Mayor: Joey Normand
Attorney: Thomas Acosta, Jr.
Absent: Chris Kershaw

Owen & White Engineering Firm: Roy Waggenspack, Ted Debaene, Adam Smith
Also present were numerous Town residents.
Mayor Normand opened the floor stating that the purpose of the meeting was to hear the presentation of the Owen &White Engineering Firm regarding drainage problems on Allene Street. He also had some preliminary comments. He stated that flooding in the Brusly area has increased drastically over the years and, after meeting with the parish in March 2007, a plan was formulated to target areas of the Town that have experienced flooding problems. The areas were categorized by the seriousness of the problem. Over the last ten months, some work has been done to improve the situation. The plan has worked in many areas and is in progress in other areas; some are unknown as of now, one area in particular being the west end of Allene Street. This area holds a substantial amount of water after heavy rain, causing flooding to one house amounting to $50,000.00 in damages. One action to resolve this matter involves having the Town returning all the ditches back to grade, with Allene Street being first and Live Oaks currently being done. Other areas will be prioritizing based on how much dirt has filled the ditches. He further stated that the west end of Allene Street was the area studied by Owen & White and that the meeting was to discuss and receive a report from Owen & White on their findings.

Mayor Normand introduced Mr. Roy Waggenspack; Mr. Waggenspack introduced his colleagues, Mr. Ted Debaene, Vice President of Owen& White, an expert on drainage maps and drainage impact studies, and Mr. Adam Smith, engineer with Owen & White.

Mr. Smith presented Owen & White’s finding on Allene Street drainage, based on a ten year storm in the Brusly area with a rainfall of 10 inches in a 24-hour time span. The target area of the study focused on the house damaged on Allene Street. Owen & White found that this area does not have a problem with water flow, but with water surge. He stated that the roadside centerline was higher than the finish floor of the house, which causes the water to go into the house instead of over the road. They discovered there is a problem with north rear ditch and roadside ditch. The question is how to reduce the problem without making it worse. First Scenario: go directly into Ton Ton Canal. Second Scenario: cut across and go to north ditch and divert some of the flow from roadside ditch into north rear ditch. Third Scenario: replace all culverts on south roadside ditch on Allene Street. These findings are based on clean ditches.

Mr. R.J. Andre’ addressed the Council and asked that the findings assuming that the intracoastals will not hold the water back? He further asked that before doing a major project like digging or changing culverts shouldn’t a lesser project be done first?

Mr. Smith stated that in hydraulics there are two types of systems: a head water system and tail water system. Tail water is when the downstream system has long periods of rain and the water comes back. Nothing can be done in Brusly to keep that from happening. Head water system is when short durations of high density storm happen and water rushes into the system, which is the situation they are aiming to help in Brusly. The data indicates that the intracoastals elevation should not hold back head water drainage.

Several people from the community stated their concerns and gave their input on the drainage problems with Allene Street.

Mr. Smith was asked for his opinion on the preferred scenario. He indicated the first scenario (draining directly north to the Ton Ton Canal) is the preferred scenario since it matches the natural water flow.

Adam Smith addressed many of the questions and concerns of the citizens, however further decisions on the drainage problems and its resolution will be addressed at the next Council committee meeting.

There being no further comments, Council Member Andre’ asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Council Member Rodrigue. The motion passed unanimously.

The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.

_________________________ ___________________________
/s/ Joey Normand, Mayor /s/ Debbie Berthelot, Town Clerk

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