Publication CPRA Using Giant Model To
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2019 PLAQUEMINES PARISH FAIR & ORANGE FESTIVAL DEC. 6, DEC. 7, & DEC. 8 91 YEARS, NO. 18 NOVEMBER 26, 2019 BELLE CHASSE, LA 50 CENTS Council member proposes CPRA using giant 5 p.m. start for meetings models to test By Jason Browne duced a resolution at the “I want to give the public a as council members tapped Mid-Barataria [email protected] Nov. 14 meeting to move the chance to come to the meet- the parish’s emergency If the Plaquemines Parish Port Commission and Par- ings where they wouldn’t funds to meet shortfalls, but diversion Council adjusted its meeting ish Council meetings from have to take o from work.” the question of citizen en- 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the sec- Cognevich’s introduc- schedule to allow more cit- gagement remains. ond and fourth ursdays of tion followed a discussion izens to attend, would citi- “I tried to move (meet- each month. at the Oct. 24 council meet- ing start times) to 4 p.m. a zens respond? “Before I became a coun- ing where council mem- at’s a question the cil member, I couldn’t go to bers discussed the public’s few years ago and couldn’t council could take up at its meetings because I wasn’t awareness on several key get the votes,” said District 2 Dec. 12 meeting after Dis- going to take o work to go,” budget concerns tied to po- council member Beau Black. trict 9 council member Mark said Cognevich of the ratio- tential fee increases. e fee “Hobbo” Cognevich intro- nale behind his resolution. increases never materialized COUNCIL – PAGE 2 Detained o cer on video An employee of Alden Labs observes a 1:65 scale following BCHS game sues model of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion constructed in Holden, Mass. By Jason Browne PPSO, school employees [email protected] By Jason Browne mines Schools for $1 million. Chasse fans in the bleachers himself as law enforcement e Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority’s proposed [email protected] Douglas C. Black led was circulated on local media and pointed it at several in- $1.3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion in Plaque- e probation o cer who a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. following the incident show- dividuals and was forcefully mines Parish has proven endlessly controversial, so the CPRA was tackled and detained by District Court for the Eastern ing PPSO deputies and BCHS detained after he refused to commissioned two gigantic models of the structure in Mas- Plaquemines Parish Sheri ’s District of Louisiana alleging employees forcefully taking holster the weapon. sachusetts to make sure the diversion will work the way they O ce deputies and Belle he was trying to defuse ten- Black to the ground with one After an investigation, think it will. Chasse High School employ- sions between the BCHS and deputy swinging a collapsible PPSO issued an arrest war- Brad Barth, CPRA’s operations assist administrator for the ees on the BCHS football eld Landry-Walker High School baton at Black’s legs. After rant for Black on Nov. 21 Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversions, was after allegedly brandishing football teams in his capac- news of the incident circu- charging him with aggravat- in Holden, Mass., earlier this month visiting a 200-foot-long a taser at school employees ity as security for LWHS fol- lated, eyewitnesses on the ed assault and battery for al- model of the Mississippi River, complete with the entrance following a football game is lowing a Nov. 8 game. Cell eld claimed that Black drew suing the PPSO and Plaque- phone video shot by Belle his taser without identifying LAWSUIT – PAGE 3 CPRA – PAGE 2 PHS breaks ground on $2.5 million athletic fi elds By Jason Browne perintendent Denis Rousselle elevated in order to survive a Representatives from Student athletes, coaches and administrators [email protected] said the new elds will be paid ood or storm surge, the $2.5 Yeates and Yeates Architects from Phoenix High School join Plaquemines Phoenix High School broke for with leftover FEMA mon- million will pay to construct said construction on the ath- School Board members, central offi ce staff, ground Nov. 21 on a $2.5 mil- ey, which is why the conces- concrete slabs with utility letic elds is scheduled to parish government offi cials and representatives lion athletic complex that will sion stand and restrooms will hookups where mobile con- begin in January and likely to from Yeates and Yeates Architects Nov. 21 include a football eld and be mobile. Because of FEMA’s cessions and restrooms can take ve months to complete. for a ceremonial groundbreaking for PHS’s baseball/softball eld. requirement that any building be maneuvered into place forthcoming athletic fi elds. Plaquemines Schools Su- built with FEMA dollars be during games. PHOENIX – PAGE 2 Photo by Jason Browne MAILING INFO HERE BCMS Sixth Graders talk to Local Government O cials On October 13, sixth grade students and teachers at Belle Chasse Middle School were al- lowed to speak with and ask questions of our lo- cal elected o cials. As part of the Project LEAD curriculum, students learn what happens when someone decides to break the law and is caught. District Attorney, Charles Ballay welcomed the students and ex- plained what his o ce does after a crime is com- mitted. He spoke about In the front row are members of Belle Chasse Middle School sixth grade class. Back row, from left: Project LEAD Coordinator Rae Riley, Detective Hardin, Sheriff Jerry Turlich, District Attorney Charles LEAD – PAGE 3 Ballay and Deputy Francis. 2 NOVEMBER 26, 2019 THE PLAQUEMINES GAZETTE BC Lions Club donates $1,000 to Operation Christmas Child The Belle Chasse Lions Club has made a generous donation of $1,000 to Operation Christmas Child (OCC), a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse International. OCC is in its 25th year, packing and sending shoeboxes full of school supplies, toys, hygiene items and other goodies to children in 150 countries. The Crossroads Church which meets in the Lions Club Home at 308 Avenue J, has participated in this ministry for the last eight years and is a Drop-Off location for anyone bringing packed shoeboxes. The Crossroads packed 525 boxes at its packing party this year and more boxes were delivered from the community during Collection Week, which was held November 18-25. For more information, please call Liz Goodgion at 504.421.2376 or view the OCC website at samaritanspurse.org/occ. Alliance Renery Donates Hams, Turkeys to Ironton Senior Citizens Ahead of Holidays The Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery donated 34 hams and turkeys to St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Ironton on Nov. 22. Each year the refinery and the church partner to provide the senior citizens in Ironton community with the donation ahead of the holidays. Pictured are Pastor Haywood Johnson, Phillips 66 Public Affairs Advisor Tristan Babin and members of the church. third, opponents tout still more CPRA studies claiming that the mod- CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE ern Mississippi River lacks the to the diversion conveyance necessary amount of sediment channel, and a 100-foot-long to build the land that the CPRA model of the exit from the con- claims the diversions will pro- veyance channel, complete duce. with outfall into Barataria ba- It’s that third controversy sin. e 1:65 scale models were that is behind these particu- constructed by Alden Labs, the lar models. Dr. Dan Gessler, same company that built the Alden’s vice president, said 10,000-square-foot model of the models have been pains- the lower Mississippi River for takingly constructed to mimic LSU’s Center for River Studies the dimensions of the river, the in Baton Rouge. And Barth diversion channel and Bara- said CPRA plans to tap Alden taria Bay. But they’ve also been again after testing is complet- lled with a scale amount of ed for the Barataria diversion tiny plastic pieces precisely en- to build models for the Breton gineered to oat, sink and stick Brad Barth, standing, the Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority’s operations assist administrator for the diversion. exactly like sediment does as proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, and an employee of Alden Labs, crouching, observe a 1:65 scale e river diversions are it’s carried along the river. model of the diversion that takes up most of a 300-foot by 90-foot building in Holden, Mass. Alden built two huge controversial for a number of “e sediment cannot be models, one of the Mississippi River and one of the outfall in Barataria Bay, to study how the diversion will perform. reasons in Plaquemines Par- sand because it won’t move sand out of the river. It’s a tech- straight line of concrete. e sediment to see how much is iment will settle. ish. First, because shermen in the scale model, so we nique Alden has developed scale is too large to create one owing into the conveyance “e deltaic is where the believe the inux of fresh wa- switched to lightweight plas- over more than 100 years in continuous model in a single channel when it is opened. numerical model comes back ter will kill oysters and drive tic material,” said Gessler. “We the modeling business, since building. e river model has At the outow model, wa- into prediction. But this will be shrimp, crabs and n sh out can derive an equation for its origins in 1894 as part of the piles of the plastic bits stacked ter with the correct amount able to tell us how much sedi- of the bays.