WSM Port maintenance dredging slated

Maintenance dredging at the Port of West St. Mary’s slip is under way.
Executive Director David Allain reported Tuesday that the project contractor has completed the containment area for spoil material. The dredge itself should be on site around March 22. The slip is undergoing routine maintenance to remove accumulated sediment.
The spoil will increase elevation at the site and make it more attractive to possible tenants in the future.
Allain also reported that the water main line from Baldwin to the industrial park site on the Charenton Navigation and Drainage Canal is close to complete. Engineer Reid Miller said that a subcontractor to bore for placing the line under U.S. 90 should be at work soon.
In other business, Allain said he has been in conversation with the owners of LAD Services LLC, which leases the port-owned facility on the Charenton canal at the site of the former Superior Services.
Allain said though there has been no recent activity at the site, the owner is current on lease payments and intends to keep the facility under lease long-term.
“He’s had some labor problems and he’s working a double-shift in Stephensville,” Allain said. “Some of those guys will go back to Baldwin.”
There was a crane in the building that the lessor discovered was inoperable. It was repaired at a cost of $11,000. The port commission agreed to pay $8,000 of that cost.