Delcambre to enter into agreement with school board over land for future city park

DELCAMBRE — Delcambre Mayor Pam Blakely attended the recent Iberia Parish School Board meeting and came back with an agreement for the town’s planned park property on the corner of Main and Pelloat streets, she told the Board of Aldermen at its monthly meeting on Monday.
The board then voted to authorize the mayor to enter into an agreement for the property. The cooperative endeavor agreement for development of the property requires that the town send all plan specifications to the school board for approval prior to construction, town attorney Gabe Duhon said.
Later in the meeting, Delcambre Police Capt. Perry Shaw told the board that the monthly crime report shows the number of calls and arrests in the town remains relatively high, averaging a little more than two calls and/or arrests per day, he said in response to a question from Alderman Bryan Glatter.
“We’re doing our best,” Shaw said. “We are incarcerating them. We have one officer per shift. And we do get help from Erath. But it is going up, those numbers. Every month those numbers are rising.”
A lot of the calls are domestic disturbances, and a few dealing with homeless people.
“Those numbers are on the rise,” Shaw said. “I see this summer we’re going to maybe almost double that, because it’s summertime. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”
There were 17 alarm calls, but around half were at Delcambre High School, and the school has contacted the alarm company to address that situation, Shaw said.
The board also heard from Twin Parish Port Commission Director Wendell Verret on the status of the planned Dwight’s Restaurant at Bayou Carlin Cove.
Soil tests were conducted to ensure that the location will be able to hold the weight of the proposed building, which will lead to a change in building plans for the restaurant, Verret said.
The plans were for the property to be elevated four to six feet.
“Those reports came back and we will not be able to use fill to build the restaurant, we’ll have to use pilings,” Verret said. “The cost will be about roughly the same, maybe a little bit more on the building for the flooring. So we’re going back to Dwight’s and their architect and work with them and flush out the details of changing the plan to going to pilings. It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to go to bid this month, so hopefully next month.”
The building would have settled too much if soil fill had been used, Verret said.
“I feel it will be a stronger structure on piles,” he said. “But it’s a good thing we did that. If we had gone and built on fill, it would sink three to four inches. That’s just not acceptable for a building.”
In other business, the board approved a resolution to hold a special election on Oct. 14 to levy 1 percent sales tax to fund emergency(police and fire) services.
The board also addressed seven more houses to be torn down or cleaned up.