APPJ may aid DeRussy in latest battle

 

By RAYMOND L. DAYE
Co-Editor
Fort DeRussy is locked in another battle and is feared to be overrun by this enemy, too.
Union forces overran Fort DeRussy in 1864. Now the former Confederate fort site is threatened by a new enemy -- Mother Nature. 
Steve Mayeux, president of the Friends of DeRussy organization and author of a book on the fort’s role in the Civil War, asked the Avoyelles Police Jury to step in and assume maintenance of the site in light of the state’s recent budget cutbacks.
The request comes 150 plus years after Col. Lewis DeRussy asked the Avoyelles Police Jury for help in building the fort.
Now, the Police Jury, meeting in its monthly committee sessions, was sympathetic to the need but not sure if it has the means to take over the task.
Mayeux said Dwight Landreneau, assistant secretary for the Office of State Parks, asked him to request the Police Jury’s assistance until the state is able to resume maintaining the undeveloped property.
“There are 80 acres that are undeveloped,” Mayeux said. “Only about five acres, around the earth works, would need to be maintained.”
Most of the property is being used for agricultural purposes until such time as the state is financially able to build a visitor’s center and other facilities at the site.
 
“historical treasure”
Mayeux said Fort DeRussy “is a historical treasure that is not being utilized to its greatest potential.”
He said tourists and groups call or come by to see DeRussy because of its role in the Civil War’s Red River Campaign of 1864.
“The state is turning the Indian Park over to the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe to operate and maintain,” Mayeux said. State employees at that historic site would mow the DeRussy property about once a month or when a group was scheduled to visit.
“Anything you can do is better than what the state is doing now, which is nothing,” Mayeux said, adding that he fears Mother Nature may take over the area if something is not done.
Jurors indicated a willingness to do what they can to prevent the site from being overrun by weeds. The two issues the parish has to overcome are manpower and equipment.
 
Lacks 
equipment
Jury President Charles Jones said the parish has an employee that could supervise inmate labor to work at DeRussy a day or two per month. However, the  Police Jury lacks the equipment needed to do the work. The type of equipment it uses for maintaining parish roads, bridges and drainageways would not be appropriate for the maintenance chores at DeRussy.
Jurors said they will consider options and seek solutions and get back to Mayeux with a plan.
Juror Mark Borrel said he will go out to the site to get a better understanding of the area to be maintained and the work that will be required to keep the site presentable and in good shape should the funds ever become available to properly develop it into a viable tourist attraction.
Jones said after the meeting that he will pursue the possibility of either borrowing the necessary equipment from a state agency when it is needed or requesting the state and parish enter into an intergovernmental agreement whereby the state lends the equipment to the parish and the Police Jury uses it to maintain the DeRussy park area.
“Ideally, it would be good to have the equipment stored at the site,” Jones said, “but I don’t know how secure it would be out there. We would not want to leave it in the open.”
Jones said the Police Jury has a secure area to store equipment and a truck and trailer to transport it to the park.
“What we don’t have is the equipment necessary to do that job,” he added.