Levee District No. 3 Projects Are Underway

By ERIC X. VICCARO

eviccaro@stegenherald.com

The culvert expansion and ditch diversion construction projects are underway.

That was learned during the Levee District No. 3 meeting, which took place Sept. 8, in the Ste. Genevieve City Hall board room.

“Some of the pipes are already in,” levee superintendent Norm Gallup reported.

Levee District No. 3 president Vern Bauman said construction might be completed by the end of the month.

Vern Bauman Contracting also has been working at the levee, cleaning out the intake — floating debris is currently being removed on site.

There will be three sets of pipes installed of various sizes ranging from 24 inches to  four feet.

Bauman reported the new pipes will help lesson erosion. Ditch diversion and the culvert expansion also will help save on time and the expenses of pumping water, Bauman said.

Gallup said he would like to have some additional equipment time added to the contract with Steve’s Hauling and Excavating, LLC, of Oak Ridge.

He would like to use the equipment to “take some sod off and extra dirt to the toe berm of the levee,” as explained in minutes provided levee board member Sue Schweiss.

Gallup also wants to see some rip-rap around the culvert pipes, and concrete cubicles might need to be installed between pipes on Division Street near a group of cottonwood trees.

Rip rap rock and concrete blocks are both used in the erosion control process, Bauman explained. 

Gallup said he would call Spacewalker, a distributor located in Bonne Terre, on the concrete cubicles.

Rick Naeger reportedly will seed the inside of the levee in the near future.

FISH AND WILDLIFE TAKEOVER

Bauman asked Mayor Paul Hassler, who was in attendance, where the levee district stood on maintenance when the National Fish and Wildlife Service (NFWS) takes over.

Hassler explained the process is “at a standstill” until the recently formed Joint Levee Commission takes action.

During his city administrator’s report on Thursday, Happy Welch reported the date for the Joint Levee Commission meeting hasn’t been set yet.

“We will start organizing that before the end of the month,” Welch noted.

Bauman said the levee district should have attorney David R. Human, of the St. Louis-based law firm Husch Blackwell, draw up a legal document for what the United States Corps of Engineers expects the district to maintain so there is no issue with NFWS.

No new business was discussed during the roughly 30-minute session.