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City-parish dismantles part of man's ring levee constructed to prevent flooding

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BATON ROUGE- Armed with a signed court order, city-parish workers showed up to Ken Guidry's property Monday and began dismantling part of a ring levee he built to protect his property from constant flooding.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit has been following this case for more than a year. Last April, the city-parish won a legal battle against Guidry to remove the fill from the drainage servitude.

More than a year after that court order, the parish showed up with contractors and heavy equipment Monday to get the job done.

"Baton Rouge was my home," Guidry said. "I hate Baton Rouge. Politics, crooked, no good sobs."

East Baton Rouge Parish Drainage Director Fred Raiford said the city-parish is only trying to protect other residents from flooding.

"The city-parish doesn't go after the little guy," Raiford said. "Mr. Guidry knew for a fact what he was doing was incorrect and illegal, I met with him multiple times to discuss that. With that being said, anytime you block a waterway... that is why we had to take legal action to address that."

Guidry said with all of the constant development in Baton Rouge, his property began flooding years ago. To combat it, he built a ring levee around his entire property. Some of the fill he used went into a drainage servitude, and that's what the city-parish said had to go.

"They are all useless," Guidry said. "Useless. Fred is a spineless sob he never met with me, never wanted to meet with me. Promised my realtor he was going to call me, and he didn't do a damn thing. He's chicken s***."

Raiford acknowledged that the city-parish did not tell Guidry they were coming to do the work today, but have had meetings with him in the past.

"I never intended to fool with the ring levee," Guidry said. "That was not an issue while it was on the servitude. When you place fill in a dedicated drainage servitude, that is a violation of our ordinance, and why we took him to court. I haven't touched anything else on his property... just removing the fill that he illegally placed in a drainage servitude."

Initially, the city-parish said it would send Guidry a bill to remove the fill from the servitude. The parish is using federal American Rescue Act funds to remove it.

It's unclear at this point if they'll bill Guidry. The contract was approved for $63,000.

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