Engineer brings scale drawings to council as jurisdiction question emerges on second property

PORT ALLEN — The city's search for a new sewer treatment plant site took its most concrete step yet on February 11, with City Engineer Tony Arikol presenting the council with scaled site drawings comparing two potential locations — while a question about city limits added a new wrinkle to the discussion.

The presentation at the February 11 regular meeting builds on committee discussions earlier this month where Mayor Terecita Pattan first presented the Allendale and Court Street property owned by Boulanger Properties LLC.

Two Sites, Side by Side

Arikol distributed exhibits showing both sites at scale, placing a rectangle roughly the size of the existing plant on each property to give council members a visual comparison.

Site 1 — Allendale and Court Street (Boulanger property): The plant would sit approximately one football field from the back property lines of the Westside Village  neighborhood near Harry Brown Street.  positioned about 50 feet off the existing recycling station. All access would come from Allendale, meaning no traffic through residential areas.

Site 2 — Further down Court Street: Two long, rectangular parcels, each 450 feet wide. The plant would be approximately 620 feet from the nearest houses — roughly 300 feet more buffer than Site 1. Access would come off Court Street.

Mayor Pattan said she, Arikol, and Chief Administrative Officer Phillip Mason rode out to the Court Street property on February 9 after meeting with the landowner.

"They're both cleared sites. They're easy to take a look at," Arikol told the council. He said either location could work from an engineering standpoint, though Site 2 would carry additional cost because it's farther from the existing plant's infrastructure.

"There's never an ideal place to put a wastewater treatment plant. It would be ideal if we could make it invisible, but we can't," Arikol said. "These are the two best that we've come across."

He noted the search has spanned five to six years for viable sites near the plant.

Jurisdiction Question

Councilwoman Adrain Joseph raised a flag that could shape the decision, asking whether the Court Street site falls within city limits.

The answer: it doesn't. That means planning and zoning authority would rest with West Baton Rouge Parish rather than the city — a jurisdictional difference that could affect permitting and oversight.

Ball Fields Idea Shot Down

Engineer Jim Tatum of Tatum Engineering Consultants, in town for a separate agenda item on the Westview Crossing subdivision, offered an unsolicited suggestion: move the ball fields near the interstate off-ramp, build new ones adjacent to the school, and put the treatment plant where the current fields sit.

Mayor Pattan said the idea had already been explored.

"We actually proposed tying the school in to us and we maintaining it for them," Pattan said of a partnership pitch to the school board. "And that conversation, yeah, went nowhere. I think it turned a little political, if you want me to be honest about it."

The suggestion drew quick pushback from other council members. "You done got messed with that park. Come on now," one member told Tatum. "Better work on your project. Don't worry about that one."

Blower Replacement Approved

In related action, the council unanimously approved moving forward with the emergency blower replacement project, though the agenda language was corrected from the original wording. The item initially read "increase in the number of blowers ordered from 3 to 5 at no increase in cost," which drew confusion from council members.

Finance Director Adrian Daigle clarified the actual motion: authorizing the city to award the blower replacement project contingent upon the bid coming in under $350,000 — the amount the council previously budgeted.

As previously reported, only two of the plant's five blowers are currently operational.

20 Years and Counting

Arikol offered a sobering reminder of the timeline involved.

"The last time I looked for a treatment plant site and actually built it, it took me almost 20 years," Arikol said. "I won't be here for the end if this one takes that long."

He emphasized that securing land is the critical first step. "Once you have the land, then you hope you can get grants and stuff because you already have started the ball rolling."

No formal votes were taken on either property. The sewer plant site search is expected to continue at future meetings.

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