SERVING THE PARISHES OF EAST FELICIANA AND WEST FELICIANA
DEMOCRAT THE ST. FRANCISVILLE
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
Leila Pitchford
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W e d n e s d ay, Au g u s t 27, 2025
$1.00N
Plans to build reservoir halted
AROUND THE FELICIANAS
Register for soccer in West Feliciana Sept. 1 is the deadline to register at www.wfprec.com for the 2025 Fall Soccer with West Feliciana Parish Parks and Recreation. Open to ages 3-13, the fee is $75. Practices run Sept. 4-26. Games are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sept. 29-Nov. 14. Coaches and referees are needed. Those interested should contact mpatten@wfparish.org or (225) 784-8447.
Community market coming The Clinton Community Market is set for 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 6 on St. Helena St. Vendors, local shops and local restaurants will be available.
Meet the veterans Clinton is Home is hosting a Meet the Veterans event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Green Door at H Mercantile., 12408 St. Helena St., Clinton.
SU Ag Center to host canning and preserving workshop The Southern University Ag Center will host a fruits and vegetables canning and preserving workshop from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 11 in Room 157 of Pinkie Thrift Hall on Southern University’s campus. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. The workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to the fundamentals of food preservation and canning. Participants will learn how to safely preserve seasonal produce, trends in food preservation, and the essential equipment. During the workshop, participants will prepare fruit, pack a jar, and receive a jar of preserves to take home. The workshop is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. To register, visit form.jotform. com/252096036998066.
Cat Island hosting bird event Friends of Cat Island announced its third annual Fall Migration Birding and Nature Walks will be Sept. 6. The bird walk is from 6 to 10 a.m. The nature walk is from 8 to 11 a.m. Both walks will be about 3 miles. The exact location on the refuge will be based on refuge conditions at the time. Experts will be there to assist with species identification. This event is free but register by contacting either William Daniel at (225) 721-0090 or epewhd@icloud.com or Jesse Means at (225) 936-6529 or jesselmeans3@amail.com. Specify what walk you want to do: the birding walk or the nature walk.
Bicycles sought Bicycles — new, used, any condition — can be dropped off between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday at the West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office CRT building, 9946 West Feliciana Parkway, St. Francisville. All donated bicycles will be refurbished by Angola inmates to be distributed in the community.
Angola Rodeo tickets on sale The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections announced tickets are on sale for the upcoming annual Angola Prison Rodeo held at
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STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK
Darling Creek flows beneath Otis and Willie Matthews Road in Darlington. Portions of this creek, which flows into the Amite River downstream, would be temporarily flooded if a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam were built south of this area in St. Helena Parish.
Proposal again faces stiff opposition BY DAVID J. MITCHELL
MISSISSIPPI
Staff writer
Troy
LOUISIANA
Plans for a huge reservoir north of Baton Rouge to help keep the Amite River from flooding densely populated neighborhoods downstream have been sidelined by opposition from people who live in the countryside where it would be built. Instead, the agency that revived the decades-old reservoir idea will focus on restoring curves in the Amite and keeping sediment out of the river, measures that could help scale down disasters like the widespread August 2016 flood, which damaged nearly 65,500 homes and thousands of businesses in East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes alone. The agency, the Amite River Basin Commission, hasn’t formally opposed the big reservoir in East Feliciana and St. Helena parishes. But it has now agreed to add the East Feliciana Parish government’s latest objection to the idea in the commission’s new master plan, which includes the reservoir. Paul Sawyer, executive director of the commission, said the action means the agency will be “laser focused” on other projects that it has money and support for, two elements he called “essential ingredients.” He said the reservoir idea has neither, even though research shows it would reduce flooding. “What we have been saying even before this became a household topic in East Feliciana and St. Hel-
Woodland
432
Felixville
Chipola
Maximum flood potential of dam 10
EAST FELICIANA PARISH
38
Coleman Town Darlington
67
Clinton
KEY:
Darling Creek
960
Expected inundation area in 25-year event (15,860 acres with dam)
448
Hatchersville
Comite River 37
Proposed Darlington Dam
Amite River
EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH
Baywood
37
ena is that we can’t do a project like this without the support and partnership of residents of East Feliciana and St. Helena,” Sawyer said. “They have to be on board with this.” The commission will proceed with $100 million in Amite projects funded through the Louisiana Watershed Initiative, the state-run, federally funded program prompted by the 2016 flood, as well as with a plan to restore parts of the Amite to reduce downstream flooding. It already has a deal in the works to buy more than 200 acres in St. Helena for the river restoration
Expected inundation area in “maximum” event (26,000 acres)
ST. HELENA PARISH
16
Staff map
and hopes to finalize it soon. The idea is to rehabilitate former gravel mining pits to restore natural curves along the middle and upper Amite and to find ways to prevent sediment from washing into the river. A straighter river with heavier sediment loads is believed to worsen flooding downstream. Gaining political momentum after the historic floods of 1983 — and then again in 2016 — the idea of a big reservoir has long been floated for the rural, hilly area north of Baton Rouge. The preferred location has been a section of the Amite River in East Feliciana and St. Hel-
Retired state highway engineer to represent East Feliciana on Amite River Basin commission BY JAMES MINTON Contributing writer
East Feliciana Parish Police Jury President Louis Kent announced Aug. 18 that he had appointed a retired state highway engineer to serve as his representative on the state panel trying to mitigate flooding on the Amite River. Roy M. Schmidt was a district engineer for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. He told the jury he has 40 years experience in engineering and holds licenses in civil and environmental engineering. As jury president, Kent can be a voting member of the Amite River Basin Drain-
age and Water Conservation Commission, but he can also appoint someone to represent him. Ed Parker has been Kent’s designee on the commission, but Parker fell out of favor with most jurors and a segment of the public after the commission released a plan earlier this year that called for constructing two reservoirs on the river in East Feliciana and St. Helena parishes. The jury voted to replace Parker in July, and the Jackson resident resigned at an ARBC meeting Aug. 12. The Police Jury adopted a resolution in July opposing the reservoir plans, which would require obtaining large areas of private property to
hold flood waters back from the river’s lower reaches. The projects would also require massive appropriations of federal funds to construct. The commission has backed away from the reservoir plans and will concentrate first on restoring curves in the river and keeping sediment out of the stream. “I think my role is to represent East Feliciana Parish; basically to work with you and this jury,” Schmidt said after Kent’s announcement. He added he will not work “in a vacuum” and will keep jurors apprised of commission actions. “I feel I can represent this parish, and I’m willing to do so,” he said.
ena just west of the community of Darlington, which gave the concept its name. Repeated analyses by the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have shown that the rolling topography there can be used to store water, reducing flooding by several feet in more populated, low-lying areas downstream. Building the storage area, however, would also mean permanently flooding tens of thousands of acres or greatly reducing their use, displacing people and potentially affecting businesses that rely on the land and the river. Chrissie O’Quin, the East Feliciana Police Jury vice president, delivered the parish government’s resolution of opposition to the reservoir to the Amite commission last month. She said people don’t want to be forced to give up their land, particularly for a project they fear may bring unwelcome changes to a rural area. “They enjoy that peaceful life up there,” she said. Opponents have appeared at several meetings in recent months, including one at a church that drew more than 300 people. O’Quin said she doesn’t take the commission’s acknowledgment of the parish’s objection to a reservoir as an ironclad rejection of the idea. But she was pleased with the tenor at the commission’s meeting Wednesday and with what was said
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‘It could turn Louisiana around’ Hut 8 breaks ground on $2.5B data center BY IANNE SALVOSA Staff writer
Hut 8 has broken ground on its $2.5 billion artificial intelligence data center in West Feliciana Parish. Miami-based Hut 8 is working with Entergy to prepare the substation and switchyard at its River Bend site, a 611-acre parcel off La. 964. Parish officials approved the project in January, which backers said will create thousands of construction jobs and more than 50 technician and maintenance jobs. The first phase of construction will produce two 450,000-square-foot buildings, the
ä See DATA, page 2G