Proposed ‘borrow’ site may be historically significant

St. Mary Levee District officials are trying to determine whether a proposed borrow site for the Morgan City Levee Improvements project is archaeologically significant.
The levee board met Thursday at Berwick Town Hall.
Regarding the Morgan City Levee Improvements Projects, engineers received a request for cultural resources survey regarding a proposed borrow pit, which engineers are proposing to use soil along the Hellenic property on the east side of La. 70, engineer Kevin O’Gorman of T. Baker Smith said.
An archaeologist will have to do the survey at the proposed borrow site, he said. In 1985, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found some old shell remains from about 1,000 years ago, O’Gorman said.
At Thursday’s meeting, the levee board approved amending the project contract for that historical or archaeological work subject to the approval of St. Mary Parish Drainage District No. 2.
While processing the permit application for the Siracusa portion of the project and Justa Street to Lake End Park section, officials learned that the Hellenic property had been flagged in the mid-1980s when the corps was looking to do a hurricane protection project, Tim Matte, executive director, said.
In the 1980s, that project ended up not going anywhere, but during the cultural, historical and archaeological survey, based on a preliminary survey, some sort of shells were found at the time, Matte said.
Officials must now hire an archaeologist to do an analysis in order to determine whether the site is of any archaeological significance, and whether the work being done will disturb or destroy that potential site, Matte said.
Engineers were working to get prices to provide that service, Matte said.
One description of the site is that it could have been a clam processing site with the shells being disposed of at the site, Matte said.
“We could as an alternative bring borrow in from someplace help so it shouldn’t hold up the project in theory,” Matte said.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the commission approved additional permitting services for the Bayou Chene Flood Protection Project in the amount of $6,951.18.
The amendment relates to a mitigation request from one of the landowners to see whether mitigation can be done on that property, Matte said. “We needed to get some survey data to it that’s a viable alternative to just going to buy credits from the mitigation bank,” Matte said.
For the Franklin Canal Pump Station, the board authorized Commission President Bill Hidalgo to sign a contract with Feliciana Welders to construct a gas line at a cost of $35,750 for the pump station.
The construction end date for the project is set for Sept. 29. The pump station will have four bays and two pumps. The extra bays will provide space for more pumps if officials decide to install them at some point.
The station will pump water out of the Franklin Canal Floodgate when the structure is closed. The floodgate was finished in November 2013.
The Hanson Canal project is expected to be finished by April or May, Reid Miller of Miller Engineers said. Engineers could then move to the Yellow Bayou project, which could be finished during hurricane season, Matte said. Hurricane season starts June 1.
The Hanson Canal and Yellow Bayou projects involve closing off these bodies of water with gates in order to slow storm surge.
In other business, the commission:
—Amended its bylaws regarding meeting locations to create a rotating schedule with six meetings a year on the east end of the parish and six meetings on the west end.
—Approved a letter of engagement with Darnell, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick for audit purposes not to exceed a fee of $25,000 for the next three years.