Chat. mayor addresses council and community for final time

In her final meeting as mayor of the Village of Chataignier, Jackie Malveaux Thomas gave her final remarks to the village council, the community, and to her successor.
“Being this is my last meeting, I just want to say thank you to everybody for supporting me,” said Mayor Thomas. “To the people I’ve worked with, I’ve appreciated your services. And, I want to wish Justin (Darbonne) the best of luck. More power to you.”
To her successor, who was in attendance, the mayor said, “On a serious note, I really want to wish you the best. If I can help you with anything, I’ll help you. If I can guide you and put you on the right path to do anything, I’ll definitely be here.”
Mayor Thomas then turned her remarks to the community. “I just want to thank all of you guys,” she expressed. “Know that you helped and supported me during my administration to actually give me a chance to make history. I’m very fortunate to have made the history I’ve made following my father’s path.”
She continued, “Hopefully the community can work with (Justin) where everybody can start being united and working for the best of Chataignier. We’re going to move on, and hopefully we can stay together and be a community like God would want us to be.”
“That’s what we want,” said Mayor-elect Darbonne.
Earlier in the meeting, Village Administrator Gail McDavid briefed the council on work to the sewer system including the new pump and motor that were replaced Wednesday at the lift station.
As McDavid explained, there are complications even though the new equipment is working well. He said there is a restriction because of sand and pieces of tarp plugging up the lines, and a crew from Mamou helped to get the lines open. “It’s not totally plugged, but it’s severely restricted,” he stated. “That’s why the sewer is backed up.”
He went on to brief the council about the new sewer plant. He said it is working well but is “blowing fuses occasionally in the filter system.” He added some “tanks are not flowing properly,” and a contractor will be resolving the issues in January.
McDavid also reported he ordered the first refills for the new plant’s chlorine tanks. The cost for approximately 160 gallons came out to $953.00 plus other fees.
“With the heavy rains come a heavy flow of storm water into our treatment plant causing a higher usage of chlorine,” said McDavid. “Normally usage without the storm water is two and a half gallons a day in chlorine. At that rate, we’re going to be consuming about $500.00 a month just in chlorine alone.”
McDavid concluded he will work with a contractor to “try to get the usage down to the minimum.”