Parish Council to vote on sewerage sale measure

By Matthew Penix
St. Tammany News
Published on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 9:44 AM CDT

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Voters between Covington and Abita Springs will be asked on Oct. 4 for permission to sell the debt-riddled Sewerage District No. 6 to a private company if Parish Council members approve the measure tomorrow night.

The district’s debt, $500,000 worth of outstanding revenue bonds, makes it nearly impossible to purchase $4 million in needed improvements without a rate increase for its low-income customers between Covington and Abita Springs. As is, the average median income for the district’s customers is roughly $17,000 a year, too little pay to even ask for a $10 rate hike from $25 to $35 per month, the district’s board said.

To dodge a rate increase for the area’s 900 customers along Louisiana Highway 36, the district plans to ask voter permission to sell its sewage collection lines to Florida-based Utilities Inc. for $896,000. The district’s governing board would then be disbanded. The money would pay off debts, and parish officials would decide what to do with the rest, district officials said. But before any negotiations begin, the Parish Council must stamp its approval at the council’s monthly meeting 7 p.m. Thursday at Koop Drive near Mandeville.

In other expected action tomorrow, council members are scheduled to introduce an initiative to reroute the Tammany Trace around four acres of new trailhead enhancements near Slidell. Those proposed enhancements include, among other items, an interactive interpretive trail at Camp Salmen Nature Park.

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