Council Candidates’ Stand on Drainage

My response to the drainage question is as follows: We must first analyze and fund our drainage master plan. We need to consider on-site mitigation of all future developments so we don’t bring in large amounts of fill from elsewhere in the flood-plain and impact surrounding properties. We must budget for cleaning and maintenance of all ditches and canals, and educate and encourage the public to maintain private drainage ditches while working with FEMA to ensure new development does not impact the older developments.

Aaron McKinney
1. Complete and compile all drainage study data and recommendations.
2. Prioritize the work. – Biggest impact activities first.
3. Do the work!
Before any other project.
4. Maintain, maintain, maintain.
Continuous improvement of our drainage is what we need: Plan the work. Do the work. Check that we are doing the right things. Adjust if necessary. Success is not a game of chance, put in a process, and let it drive results.
Wayne Messina
Four important drainage issues for Central:
1. Let’s not forget Comite Diversion Canal and the snagging and dredging the Comite and Amite Rivers.
2. Beaver Bayou and Blackwater Bayou projects
3. The Elbow in Beaver Bayou
4. Culverts across Hooper
5. The on-going maintenance of road side ditches.
Finally, let’s not forget that when we became a city we inherited 30 years of maintenance needs on our rivers, bayous, canals and ditches. We must remember it is not an overnight fix but an on-going process. We will get the job done.

Ryan Meador
1. Identifying the problem – the first step in fixing any issue is identifying it first and foremost.
2. Drainage study to be conducted and shared with the public.
3. Clear plan of action – working closely with ITBS to develop a plan that immediately impacts the city’s issues.
4. Community buy-in – working as a community to do our part.

Kim Powers
1. Divert water where possible (Comite Diversion Canal)
2. Move water more quickly by increasing capacity of existing waterways (Amite, Comite, Blackwater Bayou, Beaver Bayou, canals and ditches).
3. This can be done by regularly-scheduled dredging and removal of trees, vegetation, and objects. That is key. Don’t wait until a particular obstruction is identified. Rather, dredge the Amite and Comite on a regularly-scheduled basis and clear the bayous, canals, and ditches on a regularly-scheduled basis.
4. Where necessary, increase capacity by installing larger culverts and drains.

COUNCIL DISTRICT 1

Charlie Habig
1. Continue cleaning ditches and creeks.
2. New construction should be built under current new flood plans and not the old ones
3. Make sure Central gets their portion of the 900+ million dollars approved for East Baton Rouge for this matter.
4. Make sure the Comite River Diversion Canal gets built this time and soon!

Aaron Moak
Several Issues needed to be addressed
1. Finish Comite Diversion Canal.
2. Open up waterways (rivers and canals).
3. While doing 1 and 2, continue to clean local drainage.
4. Look at new drainage pathways.
5. Work with other municipalities to improve drainage downstream.

If work can be done simultaneously, then we should move forward as money is available by local state and federal sources. ​

COUNCIL DISTRICT 2

Josh Roy
I believe the completion of a comprehensive drainage study (Master Drainage Plan) is necessary to fully understand the repairs and improvements needed to our city’s drainage system and swift action should be taken to approve and fund such necessary measures. Moreover, a maintenance schedule for clearing and maintaining drainage ways which are the responsibility of the city is imperative to reducing the risk of flooding. We should be proactive in this regard and not reactive.

John Vance
Completing the master drainage plan will give us a tool to seek outside funding to improve drainage in ways the city can never do alone. Continue with maintenance cleaning of roadside and off road drainage. Invest in our city to give us the best opportunity to attract commercial business and increase revenue without increasing taxes. This will allow more drainage improvements in our city. Drainage is not a one-time investment. We must think sustainability.

COUNCIL DISTRICT 3

Kim Fralick
Four Things:
1. Finish Central’s first-ever Master Drainage Plan.
2. Continue to seek federal and state funding.
3.️ Continue local funding of contracts to clean off road drainage.
4.️ Continue to work with IBTS who is responsible for roadside drainage.

Dave Freneaux
The Comprehensive Drainage Study, scheduled for completion this fall, should be completed before additional major expenditures are made. Drainage improvements should take priority over optional expenditures, such as City Hall. Central should seek State and Federal funding, but not rely solely on those sources. Central should prudently use its cash reserves to protect the lives and homes of Central’s citizens, which may include a bond issue, retiring those bonds over time with no additional taxes.

COUNCIL DISTRICT 4

Shane Evans
The top four things we can do to improve drainage:
1. The city government must continue to plan, fund and execute a comprehensive drainage maintenance program.
2. We must continue to seek out state and federal funds to assist us with that program.
3. We must continue to rely on citizens’ reports of debris impeding drainage and respond immediately.
4. We must continue to pressure the Corps of Engineers to clean and dredge area rivers.

Despo D’Ann Wells
Maintaining and enhancing the capacity of our drainage system should be a priority in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens even when things are going well or we are planning new multi-million dollar buildings. The following are things the city should have been doing, can, and should do: Consider the impact new developments have on existing homes, develop stricter building codes for houses in a floodplain and avoid granting waivers to appease developers; create and implement a scheduled drainage maintenance program; and repair watersheds (e.g. dredging and straightening Beaver Bayou).

COUNCIL DISTRICT 5

Charles Lee Hinton
Re-working drainage over 66 square miles is a major undertaking. At this juncture, my thoughts are:
1) Ensure identification of all problem areas. This includes talking to people affected and getting their feedback on bayous, canals, ditches, and so on, which run through their properties.
2) Have a comprehensive plan (cost and time) made by competent professionals.
3) Obtain bids and allocate funds for construction.
4) Work the plan, again with competent people.

Jeffery Meyers
It is my intention to support a drainage plan that would widen/increase the capacity of each primary drainage creek and bayou.
Secondly, I would support the design of detention areas strategically located to protect existing residences.
Third, I support improving lateral drainage from developed areas to the primary drainage.
Finally, implementation of an annual maintenance program. I will not support another sales tax to fund this but I would consider a property tax proposal.

Briton Myer
First and foremost, the city should actually recognize drainage its #1 priority.
Second, we should study the results of the Drainage Master Plan and use it to develop and implement a plan to address the major drainage repairs and upgrades identified therein.
Third, we should fund said plan using as much state and federal funding as possible.
Lastly, we should implement a routine maintenance plan to ensure Central’s drainage issues are continuously and systematically addressed.