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**TBCAC ANNUAL MEETING, March 13, 2009---MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS NOW ! !**
You are invited to our TBCAC Annual Meeting at the DAV Club, located on Hwy. 191 north of Hwy 6 on Friday March 13th, 2009 from 7PM to 9PM. We will furnish the entrée (Shrimp Parmesan). Bring your favorite Salad or Dessert & Soft Drinks if desired. Coffee, tea, and water will be the refreshments.
The Annual Meeting to elect five (5) Board Members (Group A) to 3 year terms and one (1) member (Group B) to a two (2) year term, will follow dinner. After the election, there will be a drawing for door prizes. We will then have open discussions on our activities, the lake level, the SRA and concluding with general “COMMENTS”. Come join the fellowship and share your concerns about issues concerning the Toledo Bend Area.
Reservations are requested but not required, but we would appreciate your letting us know if you plan to attend and will bring a friend to insure that an adequate quantity of food is on hand.
Contact: Mary Jo Gates@ 318-645-6452; Jim Simon @ 318-586-3153;
Ned Goodeaux @ 318-256-0501
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From The Treasurer; George Commons:
Annual dues are due in January of the current year. Some of our Members have paid their 2009 dues already. To clarify the situation, if you have paid dues during the months of September thru December of 2008, they have been credited to 2009. This is being done to put our dues on an annual basis, payable in the first quarter (January, February & March) of the year.
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Elections for the TBCAC Board for 2009
An election will be held for new Board Members at our March Meeting
Résumé’s for prospective Board Members should be presented to the Nominating Committee before the March Meeting. Additional nominations will be called for from the floor (bring Résumés). We will be voting for five (5) Board positions (A Group) for three (3) year terms. Four of the current “A” group have declared for re-election; Faye Boswell, Warren Bourgeois, Ned Goodeaux and Jim Simon. Henry Fewell has declined re-nomination. One Member has resigned from Group “B”, Ken Funderburk. There are two declared member candidates; John Toliver and Dan Battarbee. Members in good standing (dues up to date) can vote for the candidate of their choice.
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Sick Call
Several members of the TBCAC board have been under the weather recently. The Chairman, Jim Simon, underwent surgery and treatment for a tumor of the stomach. He is undergoing chemotherapy and is doing well at this time. He is back active in the organization. The Secretary, Mary Gates, contracted pneumonia and was recently hospitalized. She has been diagnosed with COPD. Please keep both of them in your prayers.
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OPINION
SRA-Louisiana Toledo Bend Water Sales
The Louisiana Association of Conservation Districts are attempting to inject themselves into the sale of Toledo Bend water. They are attempting to limit sales only to Louisiana customers, precluding the sale to Texas or any other non-Louisiana entity. One of the caveats in their resolution is “whereas, revenue generated from the sale of Louisiana’s portion of the Sabine River water must be used to benefit communities situated within the Sabine River watershed; and.” This document appears to be another money grab. These people do not want to assume any of the responsibilities and cost associated with the operation of the reservoir and the dam but smell an opportunity to ‘cache’ some free money. I do not believe these folks even know the Sabine River’s head waters are in Texas, and that there are eleven lakes wholly in Texas before the river enters Louisiana. That SRA-Texas controls Lake Fork and Lake Tawakoni, that the out flow of these lakes is what feeds Toledo Bend. The resolution passed by the cities of DeRidder, Leesville and Vernon Parish is attached below. It is presented here so that each of you may read it and draw your own conclusions….TBCAC board
A RESOLUTION BY……….
A RESOLUTION BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DERIDDER, LOUISIANA DOES HEREBY REQUEST THAT THE LOUISIANA CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION AND THE GOVERNOR ENACT LEGISLATION TO INSURE THE WISE USE AND DISTRIBUTION OF OUR WATER, ESPECIALLY AS IT PERTAINS TO SELLING LOUISIANA'S WATER RIGHTS FROM THE SABINE RIVER TO OTHER STATES,
WHEREAS, water is a precious natural resource necessary to sustain human rife, maintain a productive economy,
and supply the lifeblood of a healthy environment; and
WHEREAS, the Sabine River provides the water necessary to maintain Toledo Bend Reservoir for water-related
recreational uses including fishing, hunting, swimming, diving, camping, and boating. Water-reiated
recreational uses associated with Toledo Bend Reservoir ere vitally important to local, state, and regional
economies; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana's natural heritage of water-related recreational activities such as fishing, hunting. boating,
and swimming would be jeopardized by the misuse and unwise redistribution of our water; and
WHEREAS, water conservation is prerequisite to any redistribution of water; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana currently owns the water rights to 50 percent of the water that flows through the Sabine River
within any given year which equates to approximately one (1) million acre feet per year of firm
water yield; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana's water rights should not be permanently sold, and our water should be redistributed outside
the State only when sound science demonstrates that a predetermined amount et water can be
redistributed without degrading our rivers, basins, floodplains, estuaries, and the overall health of cur
environment; and
WHEREAS, the ample flow of water through the Sabine River is necessary not only to sustain the environmental
health of Toledo Bend Lake and the River itself, but the Sabine River provides the freshwater input to
sustain fish and wildlife productivity for the Sabine and Calcasieu Basins including critical estuary habitat
for marine organisms; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana must determine that a surplus of water is available, at any given time of the year, before
selling water to other states, and Louisiana must insure that we utilize our existing water rights to
meet the current and future water needs of Louisiana communities so that they may continue to flourish;
and
WHEREAS, several other states are already being affected by shortages of water and Louisiana's future growth
and prosperity would be jeopardized by shortages of water. It is in the utmost interest of Louisiana to
establish a committee to oversee the management and protector of our water rights. At a minimum this
committee should he comprised of members of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries,
Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources:
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Sabine River Authority of Louisiana and the Louisiana
Association of Conservation Districts; and
WHEREAS, water shortages will result in a significant decrease in property values within and Adjacent to the Sabine
River Basin. Lower property values will result in decreased tax revenues for local, parish and State
governments; and
WHEREAS, revenue generated from the sale of Louisiana's portion of the Sabine River water must be used to benefit
communities situated within the Sabine River watershed; and
WHEREAS. Louisiana should not consider soiling the rights to any of our natural resources, especially water, to
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another state unless the state attempting to purchase those rights has exhausted their own supply of the
natural resource in demand; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana must work diligently and relentlessly to protect our water rights so that future generations of
Louisianans are able to enjoy our water-based natural heritage.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of DeRidder, Louisiana does hereby oppose
selling Louisiana's water rights to other states and further requests that the Louisiana
Congressional Delegation and the Governor of Louisiana enact legislation to help insure the wise
use of water for future generations of Louisianans,
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution was hereby adopted by the City Council of the
City of DeRidder, Louisiana in regular session duly convened on this 22nd day of
December, 2008 in Council Chambers at DeRidder, Louisiana.
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Home sales have firm foundation in Sabine
by Lori Jenkins--Editorial Assistant
Sabine Parish is, once again, won¬derfully isolated from the rest of the country in its ability to take care of business.
Parish banks are to be commended for thinking ahead when it comes to loans. They have foregone the mad rush of authorizing questionable loans just to sell property, as the rest of the nation has recently experienced. The average person might call them picky or a hard sell, but when it comes to loans, local banks have been right on the money. They provide a cushion of financial stability for the parish when they ensure that exact qualifications are met by loan applicants. If the qualifi¬cations are not met then the loan does not happen; they have probably said "no" more than they have "yes." Con¬sequently, Sabine Parish homes are still selling at a good rate and area foreclo-sures are almost nonexistent. Their ap¬proach has afforded the parish a firmer economic foundation than many others areas of the country have enjoyed.
Even though there are parish resi¬dents out of work or working reduced hours, there are many retirees located here and many continue to move here, which provides added stability to the parish as well.
Some prospective home buyers have come to Sabine Parish and made extremely low offers, expecting the owners to jump at the chance to sell. Upon learning that prices in the parish do not re¬flect the national economic down-turn, they are mystified. Ad¬ditionally, pric¬es of properties located on the water continue to go up instead of following the overall current trend of lowering.
Danny Manuel at Century 21 in Many just sold a home and states that January and February have been very good. "Our parish economy is more stable. Yes, the logging industry is hurting and the mills have reduced hours, but you aren't going to find any bargain basement deals here. Our banks have prepared Sabine Parish to weather the recession better than a lot of areas like Colorado or Florida. I think what problems we do have, like a reduction in people buying fishing camps are temporary, but home sales have not slowed any." (taken from Sabine Index ; 03/04/09)
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TBPJO engineer reports on dam
At the board meeting of the Sabine River Authority on Feb. 26, To¬ledo Bend Project Joint Operations engineer Neil Thibodeaux gave a report on the state of the Toledo Bend dam, including repairs completed ahead of schedule and a scheduled inspection to begin shortly.
AECOM has been hired as independent consultants to begin an inspection of the dam on March 25-26.
The inspection occurs every five years, according to Thibodeaux, and no problems with the dam are expected to occur.
The lake will not be drawn down for the inspection, he added.
Maintenance and repairs to the power generators have also been completed. The units were sched¬uled to experience downtime from Jan. 12 - March 9. The process was completed 10 days ahead of schedule on Feb. 29.
Problems are still being noted on 90-degree elbow joints that have cavitation damage south of the dam. The problem was first noted at the January meeting
The decision was made to stick with the same type of galvanized pipe that has been used in the past. Installing 1/2” pipe instead of ¼” should reduce cavitation as well. (from Sabine Index 03/04/09)
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