The Plaquemines Parish Council voted 6-3 to terminate Plaquemines Parish’s State of Emergency declaration at last Thursday’s council meeting. As of press time, Parish President Billy Nungesser said he plans to veto the ordinance.

At the meeting, District 1 Councilman Don Beshel, who offered the ordinance, sat quietly only offering his reasoning for bring the matter to a vote as being “normal government.”

In an interview after the meeting, Beshel elaborated saying he was unhappy with the handling of some PW monies and that it was time to return to normalcy in the local government, as other parishes have done by lifting their states of emergency.

PWs are project worksheet, which is FEMA’s terminology for the assessed value of replacing parish owned facilities destroyed by Katrina.

“All the other people (in other parishes) are still working with FEMA getting things done,” said Beshel.

Every time the issue of terminating the emergency declaration was put on the table, Nungesser adamantly spoke against it, saying it will slow down reconstruction of parish buildings and the cleaning of ditches and canals that are now being accessed without property owners signing right-of-entry forms. He said it may even jeopardize FEMA continuing to pay for debris clean up.

Beshel, in the later interview, acknowledged that the termination will slow some clean up down but not monumentally.

The council’s threat to terminate the State of Emergency goes back to Benny Rousselle’s presidency. But in all cases, the ordinance was either deferred or withdrawn.

Last week, it went to a vote.

“No” votes were District 2 Councilman Keith Hinkley, District 5 Councilman Anthony Buras and District 9 Councilwoman Marla Cooper.

“As a result of us being under a State of Emergency, I’m having great success getting my ditches cleaned,” said Buras. He advised waiting until Katrina’s three-year anniversary.

And that might just end up happening. Nungesser told The Plaquemines Gazette that he would veto the ordinance on Monday, May 12.

“There’s too much at stake,” said Nungesser. “I cannot allow them to cripple this parish for selfish reasons.”

Nungesser has said that his goal is to have all storm debris removed by the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in August. But without the ability to enter private property without a right-of-entry sign by the property owner, it will be impossible to meet that goal.

As far as Nungesser’s timeline to terminate the state of emergency, he said it should be “as soon as (the parish) is all cleaned up.”