re: Thoughts on "Man Camps?"

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Dear Neighbors:

The Southland Field Board has unilaterally decided to lease out the grounds to temporarily house 2500 workers for five (5) years and bus them to Hackberry for work. This will affect your safety, your family's safety and your home values. This airport is already a nuisance to the neighborhood by allowing helicopters to constantly fly over the resident's homes at all hours of the day. They don't care about the community and are not good neighbors. Of course these unelected board members could care less because they live elsewhere and are not affected by it.

This unelected board has hidden this from us in an attempt to deceive us. The plans are drawn up and the contractor in place. They are having the contractor and their airport manager talk to us, one by one, to try and fool us into thinking they are doing us a favor. They think we are stupid and will just roll over for them. They have misjudged us. They have planned this for over three (3) months. Where were our police jurors during this time?

These unelected board members do not live near this property and they think they are not affected by what they are doing to us. How can this unelected board decide this without the people's consent? They are more concerned in keeping this nuisance airport open because it cannot sustain itself. They have chosen to put this facility in our back yard because they don't have to live by it and they won't be affected by the traffic, noise and crime that will emanate from it. All of West Calcasieu Parish will be affected. These people will venture the back roads and neighborhoods of Carlyss and into Sulphur as well. It is not only the people who live on Hwy 27 and Hwy 108 who need to worry.

The facility will use 30 buses multiple times a day to bring these workers to Hackberry. Our roads cannot take this added traffic and congestion. Our children and family are already at risk driving on this congested road with the traffic and the hazardous waste trucks that frequent it. This will affect the entirety of Carlyss. But the unelected board members don't care because none live by this nuisance airport.

The parish is complaining that sewage in the ditches is so great a concern they attempted to tax us for a sewer line. Yet they will allow 2500 workers to flood our ditches with their sewage? That doesn't make sense.

These workers WILL NOT be local workers as they claim. That is impossibility! First, if they were local there would be no need for temporary housing. Companies are already building temporary housing for 4000 workers in Johnson Bayou and for 5000 workers on Port Property in Lake Charles. There are not that many craftsmen in this area or the state to fill these jobs. These will be foreign or alien workers from different countries. These are not union craftsmen. Don't let them lie to you. From what we've heard, the facility in Lake Charles is on Port Property by the Sheriff's Department and strip clubs. The Port has Port police. They will also be protected by the Sheriff's Department and the city police. The company building in Johnson Bayou is housing their workers in Johnson Bayou. Port Arthur is already congested from the traffic going from Texas to Johnson Bayou. But both those temporary housing facilities are in the area where the work is and will benefit from the construction.

Let them house their workers in Cameron Parish where they will be working. They will work in Hackberry but play in our neighborhood. They have no pride of ownership. They won't get off of work and cut the grass on the property they own. They won't take their children and grandchildren to play ball. It will be 2500 foreign men with nothing to do and money in their pocket.

2500 workers could add 2500 cars traversing Hwy 27, Hwy 108 and all roads in Carlyss. Those foreigners without cars will be walking our streets at all hours. Our families will not be safe. Even if only 10% of these workers are criminals, drunks or dope heads, that puts 250 criminals, drunks and dope heads on our streets and in our neighborhoods. Then add the prostitution and drug dealers that will supply a portion of 2500 men making $80,000 per year (as the contractor claims). In any profession there will be good honest hardworking people but there will be trash as well. Water seeks its own level and so will the deviants they house in our neighborhood. The company claims these workers will be drug tested. That remains to be seen but alcohol is legal and these people will have 12 hours a day on their hands when they are not at work.

The company says that the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department has agreed to block and direct traffic at certain hours of the day so this company can block our roads and transport their foreign workers to a different parish to work. That should be self-explanatory regarding the traffic situation.

The company said that the Sheriff's department will patrol and they will have security on the premises. I wonder why? Could it be crime?

The company also said they are building one room bedrooms for the workers so they won't be attacking each other as they did in other places. They "learned the hard way". Yet they want to put these people in our neighborhood with our wives, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, our family, our retired, our seniors and our property?

This facility will not benefit our area financially. The company claims that they will have a store for the workers to shop and will feed the workers on the property. None of our legal businesses will profit from these foreign workers.

The company claims these men will work 12 hours per day and will be too tired to leave the complex. Yet, they plan on having a soccer field and baseball field at the complex. Their lies and pretty pictures do not hold water. There is no way these workers making $80,000 per year will stay in this compound and be good little boys. This company lie is laughable and insulting.

Our home values will plummet. The company says that is not true. If it is not true, then they should buy our homes and then sell them for what they paid for them. They would not be out of a cent. But they won't do it. It's common sense. They think we are stupid!

This work is being done in Hackberry in Cameron Parish. When asked why they don't put it in Cameron Parish the company said there is not enough land. Nonsense! Cameron Parish is the largest parish in the state geographically with the lowest population. They can find enough acreage there for their foreign workers. It's obvious they just don't want to pay the price for the land or have to go through the rezoning process. Southland's unelected board is desperately trying to keep their needless airstrip open and will rent the property for less than they can get it for in Cameron Parish. Where are our Police Jurors whom we elected to represent us? They had to know about this and yet we are just finding out.

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