A Community Update Meeting was held in the Estherwood Elementary auditorium Wednesday night, to give residents who have been hoping for over a decade to replace the Pontoon Bridge on Hwy. 91 a voice to vent their concerns.
The bridge has been a source of frustration for many years due to how often it closes down when heavy storms saturate the area with water.
The meeting, which was hosted by the group OneAcadia, brought area legislators District 25 Senator Dan “Blade” Morrish and District 42 Representative John Stefanski to speak with the crowd as was Bill Oliver with the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD). Other area dignitaries such as former Acadia Parish Police Juror A.J. “Fatty” Broussard, former Estherwood Mayor Bob Maples and Tyrone Glover with Congressman Clay Higgins office were in attendance.
OneAcadia President Laurie Suire welcomed those in attendance.
“I would like to thank everyone who drove here in the rain for coming here so that your voices could be heard,” she said. “The Pontoon Bridge is the main highway heading north that connects the people from towns like Estherwood, Morse and Midland to their jobs and other daily tasks that lie north of the bridge. When it is inoperable, drivers have to travel to Crowley or Jennings - which is an extra 30 miles in some cases.
Sen. Morrish was next to address those in attendance. He discussed his frustration at the state congress’ inability to get any meaningful legislation passed to get anything done in improving/replacing the bridge.
“I’m old enough to remember when there was a ferry bringing vehicles across the bayou,” he said. “Then for a short time a few years ago people were kicking around the idea of moving the bridge altogether.
“When I first ran for Senate 10 years ago I promised to do something about that bridge and I was unsuccessful. I’m not real proud about that.”
The ongoing crisis with Louisiana’s budget obviously hasn’t done much to help the situation.
“Money always seems to get in the way,” he said. “Every member of the legislature has issues in their own districts that they give priority over our roads and bridges. There are 39 senators in our state’s legislature. And 38 of them don’t have this bridge on their priority list. John (Stefanski) has 103 other representatives that he works with that don’t have it high on theirs.”
Stefanski said that during his recent campaign he grew to understand how important the bridge was to residents in the Estherwood/Morse/Mermentau area of his District 42.
“While I was campaigning so many people were telling me about how important it was to fix this problem,” he said. “We got it put on the capital outlay list and the money just hasn’t been there. We need to get creative about getting the necessary funding to get this done.”
Oliver spoke next and discussed how regardless of when money becomes available, it would be a tenuous process (approximately four to five years) to get the project completed.
“I’ve worked this parish for over 20 years and I’m familiar with how important this bridge is to this community,” he said. “But it has been a very slow moving process. Unfortunately, the budget today isn’t helping us.”
Oliver described how the state prioritizes projects and said that even though the bridge closes far too frequently, it is still in relative good condition.
“We have people in other parts of the state that have deteriorating bridges that were built in the 30s and 40s who are higher up on the list,” he said. “There are over 1,000 bridges in this district and 90 of them are labeled as being deficient. Those are the bridges that are looked at first when it comes to having them replaced. We also have about $120 million statewide allotted for doing this work. The state has people that inspect these bridges and the Pontoon Bridge is structurally sound. We’ve closed 46 bridges that were deemed to be dangerous. This is an issue all over the state. We simply don’t have the funding.”
Many of the residents in attendance were in no mood to feel understanding.
“What is the purpose of this meeting,” said Sandy Maples, who was in attendance with her husband, former Estherwood Mayor Bob Maples. “I understand that y’all are sorry about the situation. But you know we need a bridge. I’m not hearing any solutions only that y’all are here to listen to us. We’ve been trying to bring this issue to people’s attention since my husband was the mayor.”
Suire took the mic to answer Maples question.
“We understand your frustration,” she said. “This is how things are done. They are telling you what they have to tell you. It may be 10 years but they are here to let you know where things stand.”
“I understand but it always seems to come back to the same thing,” said Bob Maples. “I think we should be up on the priority list for other reasons. That highway is a hurricane evacuation route. It’s also instrumental to the economic development of this area. We have an airport (LeGros Airport) that we can’t get off the ground because people have problems getting to it.”
One woman who was in attendance with her three children was visibly upset.
“This is our only way out of town without having to drive through Crowley or Jennings,” she said. “Why don’t we get some of the money that has gone to repair bridges like the Avenue F bridge in Crowley or the Northern Ave. bridge over there by Capitol Manufacturing?”
Oliver responded “that other bridges are repaired in order to prevent closure...this bridge is not.”
Suire told the members of the audience to “write as many letters, send as many emails as you can. Make your voices heard.”
Bob Maples asked whether Hwy 91 being a hurricane evacuation route could possibly get some funding from FEMA or another agency in the federal government.
“We have gotten money from the federal government,” said Morrish. “Unfortunately, they have barely any money for human assistance. One of President Trump’s promises when he took office was to get the infrastructure fixed. These days he’s more preoccupied with health care and budget reform. The infrastructure seems to have been put in on the back burner for now.”
One woman suggested that officials enforce the weight restriction on the bridge more strictly and use money from those ticketed as a source of funding.
“You have people flying over that bridge in large trucks and nobody’s ever there,” she said.
Another man said that one thing “everyone in this room agrees on is that it seems like they open the bridge too early and then close it back too late.”