P.O. Box 24378 New Orleans, LA 70184 504.324.2270
District Five Recovery News
Minutes from the 3rd Infrastructure meeting 3/21/06
Utilities – Potable Water Service The Water System is providing safe drinking water throughout the City, except in the immediate vicinity of the 17th St, Canal breach. Prior to Katrina, the Water Plant was pumping an average of 100 MGD (million gallons per day). Currently, the Water Plant is pumping about 145 MGD, with less than 40% of the pre-Katrina population.
Status of Future Work – The S&WB several years ago commissioned an evaluation of the water distribution system and that study developed a Water Master Plan that called for extensive replacement of the water distribution system. The Board took no action on the report because of the high cost.
Customer Situation – Water is available to nearly all customers. Due to the number of leaks, there may be periodic interruption in water service as leaks are repaired and possibly lower than normal water pressure.
Utilities – Electric Service - Power is currently available to all customers in the Lakeview area with the notable exception of the immediate vicinity of the 17th Street Canal levee breach. Service is not available between 40th Street and the Old Hammond Highway and between the levee and Fleur-de-Lis. The Avenue C substation at Fleur-de-Lis sustained a great deal of damage and continues to be out of service. Current plans call for the Avenue C substation to be partially energized by the end of May. Any residential customer wanting electric service should be able to receive service at this time by using the Fast Tract permitting process described on www.cityofno.com website. Commercial customers will need to follow the standard permitting process.
Street Lights - Streetlights on Lakeview’s main through fares should be lit up. These lights are served off the higher voltage distribution feeders. Streetlights which are served off low voltage laterals won’t be energized until a customer served off the lateral requests and gets power. In all cases failed or broken streetlights fixtures are repaired by Entergy under a contract with the city as they are identified.
Utilities – Gas Service The Lakeview high pressure gas system is in service. The low pressure gas system still has water in it. If your gas meter has an additional attachment with a round regulator, your service is from the high pressure system. You are on the low system if your gas meter does not have the extra attachment. When the gas meter and gas lines were under water, before customers call Entergy to restore service, a licensed plumber must inspect and repair the customer’s gas piping and apply for a permit from the NO Department of Safety and Permits.
Entergy continues to pump water from the Lakeview low pressure system everyday. Entergy currently expects the low pressure system to be completely drained in the next 2-3 weeks. At that time, gas service should then be available to all gas customers in Lakeview
Cox Communications - There is ongoing restoration work in all of Metropolitan New Orleans. Restoration of commercial power, replacement of damaged poles and replacement of underground cable continues in all areas. Cox asks that we do not put discarded debris next to green utility pedestals to avoid damage to them during debris pick up.
Utilities – Sewerage Services District 5 is served by 5 sewage pumping stations. All five were flooded and the pumps and motors are inoperable. The S&WB has contracted with a private firm to set up temporary pumps to bypass the station until existing pump stations can be restored. Currently, two stations are operation on temporary pumps, one station is operating on temporary pumps, one station is operating on a portable generator and two stations are not operating at all.
Status of Future Work The S&WB continues to work to restore the existing pump stations but is hampered by lack of personnel and funding constraints. The S&WB cannot provide a timetable for completion of repairs at this time.
Customer Situation All houses that were connected to the sewer system are still connected and can use water to flush toilets. If problems occur, they will be sewer manholes overflowing, or odor problems. Individual houses should not be impacted.
Transportation-Bus Service At the present time, we are working with the folks at UNO to develop our dream transportation system. We need to work in conjunction with the BNOB plan.
RTA We have acquired the 3/18/06 update that was issued from the RTA on all of their facilities, busses, streetcars, route changes and ridership totals.
Fire Stations There are 2 fire stations in Lakeview, One on Harrison Ave. and one on Robert E. Lee, which is the only one operable. The response time is under 3 minuets and they expect no change in the response time. There is a need in donations to help rebuild both fire stations and we are looking into the legality of taking donations from the public to help restore the houses. The firemen are the medical first responders as well. Post Katrina there is no overtime for the firemen. They are shifting people from one section of the city to the other to overcome the overtime deficiency. It takes 4 firemen to man a hose at a fire and there are only 3 firemen on each shift at our fire house.
Police Department There is no change in the level of police protection in Lakeview. There are police stations located in City Park along with a 911 Call Center off of City Park Ave. The Third District is operating out of trailers. The only crime problems in Lakeview are the continual looting. There are the same number of patrols at night as during the day. There are 5 unmarked cars patrolling, but mostly they are marked cars. At night they are no longer rolling with their spot lights on, they are more or less “creeping” through the area. The looting is a day time activity, not so much happening in the dark hours. About 4 pm police start checking suspicious people still in the area and will pull them over to run background checks and see if their stories check out.
Traffic Lights - Power is available to all Lakeview traffic lights. The city has responsibility to restore all traffic lights to service. (We will probably want to get better info on this from the city.)
Mosquito and Termites - We received a complaint form from City of New Orleans, Mosquito & Termite Control Board. The form is to be used for Mosquito complaints for pools, ponds, tires or standing water that could possibly be breeding mosquitoes. The form, that is available at the LCIA Community Office at the Gulf Coast Bank on Harrison or you, can e-mail your complaint to nomtcb@yahoo.com.
Demolition Permits - The number of demolition permits issued for the week ending 3/17/06 is 26. Added to the previous figure of 166 brings the total to 192.
Renovation/Rebuilding Permits - The number of renovation/rebuilding permits is approximately 25,000 for the whole city, but was not broken down into districts. It would likely involve a lot of grunt work to make the data useful, although there is a lot of computer data and map generation being worked at city hall and some entity may be able to spit out something useful.