Tagged: terrebonne parish

Terrebonne Parish voters will decide May 4 whether to approve a property tax to pay for water service or risk higher water costs under a new contract.

The Parish Council voted unanimously Wednesday to put a 2.11-mill property tax on the ballot.

The tax is a requirement for Terrebonne to join the Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District, which supplies the parish with 80 percent of its drinking water.

The next Terrebonne council and parish president would receive pay raises under proposals up for consideration today.

Parish President Michel Claudet tells the Houma Courier he will introduce the measures to attract quality candidates.

The raises would take begin in 2016 after the next elections.

Terrebonne Parish Council members' annual salaries would rise from $12,660 to $17,064. The council chairperson's paywould rise from $14,244 to $19,200.

It would be members' first raise since 1998.

The Army Corps of Engineers says a federal levee designed to protect Terrebonne Parish and parts of Lafourche Parish from storm flooding will cost $12.9 billion. State and local officials would have to come up with 35 percent, or up to $4.5 billion.

The plan released Friday includes 36 additional miles of levee, extending the Morganza project from U.S. 90 in Gibson to Louisiana Highway 1 in Lockport.

The corps plans a meeting about it Jan. 31 at the Houma Municipal Auditorium.

Construction on a new complex in Gray, La. that will house assorted Terrebonne government offices is scheduled to start sometime in 2013.

The Courier reports the complex would be home to a new juvenile detention center, emergency operations center and a Public Works yard that would supplement the yard on Grand Caillou Road.

The Public Facility Campus would cost about $15 million.

Parish government has already paid $1.9 million for the 30-acre site, money that came out of the general fund.