Chaplain's Lake construction captures community focus

By KELLI FONTENOT
Published Sept. 17, 2008 by The Current Sauce

Chaplain's Lake, a body of water once admired for its aesthetic appeal, was drained over the summer, and the city has now finalized the rest of the construction plans. The recent activity in the now-empty basin near the north end of the lake has caught the community's attention.

For the past two weeks, a CAT marsh buggy has been treading through the muddy remains of the lake, swirling a 50-foot metal arm around in the slimy material.

The sludge is actually a mixture of lime, alum and silt, according to Regional Construction owner Pat Johnson.

"It's just dirt, mainly," Johnson said.

When water from Sibley Lake goes through the water treatment plant's filtration system, all the sediment from the bottom of the lake enters the system. The water treatment plant backwashes the water, leaving sludge that is carried through a water line and deposited in Chaplain's Lake, which runs alongside Jefferson Drive.

Continued construction brings traffic to standstill

By KELLI FONTENOT
Published Sept. 10, 2008 by The Current Sauce
Students who live off campus may have noticed an increase in heavy traffic this week. The lag, in part, is due to the blocked intersection of Front Street and Church Street, currently under construction as part of the Front Street brick project. Project manager John Bell plans to have the intersection finished by Friday.

It took five months to complete the first two phases of construction, and with just two months before the first event of the Natchitoches Christmas Festival, Bell and his company, Progressive Construction, are racing against the clock to finish laying down the bricks.

The crew typically works from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week. As of Friday, the crew started working in shifts to cover full 24-hour days, which will continue until the bricks can be returned to the Church Street intersection. Bell's goal for the intersection completion is less than a week away - Sept. 12. The anticipated deadline marks the beginning of the annual Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival.