Water issues all dried up at Industrial Park

A pair of agreements — one with the city of Rayne and one with the South Rayne Water District — will finally dissolve water issues at the Crowley-Rayne Industrial Park.
“We’re really just ratifying stuff we’ve been talking about for a coupla months now,” Brett Bayard, engineer with Mader Engineering, told jurors during their January meeting.
The issues with the water system first rose to the surface in September, 2020, when Bayard told jurors that a sanitary survey inspection conducted by the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Public Safety, found the system non-compliant.
Bayard explained at the time that the system had not been inspected “in years,” adding, “It kind of fell through the cracks and was forgotten about.”
But the inspectors in 2020 determined that the system, which uses the same lines for potable water and for fire protection, does not comply with current health standards.
Various scenarios were explored by the police jury, which owns the property (roads) and infrastructure in the park located along U.S. Highway 90 between Crowley and Rayne.
For years, Rayne had provided the potable water and water for the park’s 500,000-gallon water storage tank for fire protection.
The city also pumped sewerage from the park to its wastewater plant, billing the individual park businesses for water and sewerage services.
The end result of the project is that the South Rayne Water District has taken over as the provider of potable water for the businesses. New lines were laid and the company tapped in from a main line located across U.S. 90.
However, the district could not provide water for fire protection.
“The police jury still owns the fire protection system — lines, pumps and hydrants — with water provided by the city of Rayne,” Bayard explained, adding that the Rayne City Council had approved the agreement at their January meeting held the night prior to the jury’s.
“All previous agreements will go away,” the engineer said, referring to the previous deals for water and sewerage.
“The sewer system has been abandoned and each business will have to get its own plant,” Bayard said. “They’ve all been informed.”
The SRWD will bill the individual businesses for potable water and the city of Rayne will bill the police jury for water for fire protection under the two agreements.
Also concerning the project, jurors approved a pair of change orders adding $9,156 to the contract cost, which totaled out at $145,803, according to Bayard.
In other business during the monthly meeting, jurors approved a resolution canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the special election held Dec. 11 when voters approved renewal of a 3.18-mill tax for roads and bridges.
The tax, which passed by a final vote of 952-425, generates about $1.4 million annually.
Jurors also approved:
• the reappointment of Paul Miller Sr. to the Egan Fire District No. 2;
• the reappointment of Steve Hooper, Steve Daigle and Shannon Richard to the Mire Fire District No. 7;
• the reappointment of Jody Viator and the appointment of Roland Leleux to the Lyons Point Fire District No. 8;
• the reappointment of Alton Thibodeaux to the Rayne Fire District No. 9;
• the reappointment of Glenn Hebert to the Crowley-Eunice Fire District No. 11;
• the reappointment of Darrell Fruge and Eddie Ortego to the Acadia Evangeline Fire District; and
• the appointment of Megan Duhon, interim CEO of the Acadia Parish Chamber of Commerce, as a board member of the Acadia Parish Tourist Commission.