One of the most vulnerable sections of Slidell to flooding from hurricanes is the southern end.

The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina four years ago rushed in to the subdivisions west of U.S. Highway 11 inundating houses with six feet of water. Last year during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the tiny two-foot high berm behind First Baptist Church that stretches from U.S. 11 west to the railroad tracks, broke because of high water, again threatening the houses in the Dellwood and Yester Oaks subdivisions.

Ever since that incident, Mayor Ben Morris has been trying to find a way to build a levee in that section that would be high enough to protect property and lives. However, there have been some problems, like determining who owns the land, and trying to get the money to build the levee. A group of south Slidell residents known as Citizens to Save South Slidell say they are tired of waiting and want that levee built soon. In fact, they say the levee should have been built back in 1997.

At the July 14 meeting of the Slidell Council, Dellwood resident Val Vanney, spokesman for Citizens to Save South Slidell, asked the council to audit city finances to find out why the promised levee was never built.

“We have spent 10 years fighting this,” Vanney told the council. “We want our quality of life and peace of mind back.”

Vanney said he has papers that show that the city agreed to build the levee while the pumping station at the Schneider Canal was being built. He said that over $1 million was used for the project and he wants to know if that money was misappropriated or misspent, which is why his group is calling for an audit.

However, former Mayor Sam Caruso, who was in office in 1997, took great offense to Vanney’s request.

“There is no need for an audit, because there is no money to audit,” Caruso said.

He explained that when the Schneider Canal pumping station was built, the only levee was supposed to be on the east side of the highway. The land at the time was owned by the Salmen Company, who donated the land to the city for the pumping station. However, the Salmen Company was afraid that once the pumps were started, the water would go under the highway and flood their land to the north. So they asked the city to build a small 9-inch berm stretching from the highway to the railroad tracks on the west side of U.S. 11.

Caruso said the city disagreed with Salmen Company about the flooding, but agreed to build the berm. In fact, Slidell built it 2-feet high instead of 9-inches. Caruso said that the land was a swap with Salmen Company, and the only money used was for the pumping station and not for a full-scale levee.

“There was never any money for the west side of the highway,” Caruso said. “All the money was used for the pumping station.”

Vanney said that a council resolution in 1995 orders that the pumping station and the levee be built and that there was $1 million allocated for the project.

But both Caruso and Morris said that the only agreement for the west side was the request by the Salmen Company for the small berm. The $1 million was only used for the pumping station and a levee on the east side of the highway

Caruso said that he did want to build a levee on the west side of the highway. The city applied to the state of Louisiana for money to build the levee, but they were turned down.

“This claim of misappropriation is grotesque and bizarre,” Caruso said. “There never was any money to misappropriate.”

He and Morris both added that the city is audited every year by outside auditors and the city would have been informed if $1 million was missing.

“We’re not saying the money was stolen,” Vanney said. “Maybe it was moved around to other projects.”

But Caruso insists that there never was any money for a levee.

That doesn’t mean the city has no desire to build a levee. Morris said that the parish and the city have gone into a cooperative endeavor to find the money. The biggest problem is finding out who owns that strip of land. After Hurricane Ike, Morris thought that CLECO owned it as a right-of-way for their power lines. However, he found out that CLECO was not the owner.

“We are aware of who owns it now,” Morris said. “A survey of the land shows ownership by a firm in Philadelphia.” He would not divulge the name of the firm.

The mayor said Parish President Kevin Davis has found some money to buy the land. Once that is done, Morris said the parish is looking for the money to build the levee.

“If they provide the money, we will provide the work,” Morris said.

Vanney said he is still skeptical and thinks that there is more to the project than meets the eye. But he said he would give the city until October before his group decides if they will still push for an audit.

“If we see progress, this may go away,” Vanney said.