Parish mayors are upbeat at Chamber event

St. Mary Parish’s mayors found reason to be optimistic when they spoke Wednesday at a St. Mary Chamber luncheon.
The common threads were improvements in water and sewer systems and streets and efforts to prevent flooding.
Traffic has been on the minds of Morgan City drivers this week after a crash closed the La. 182 bridge for most of three days. But Mayor Lee Dragna looked at the recent growth in traffic in a different way.
More vehicles, plus difficulties in finding housing and commercial property, point to an economic uptick, Dragna said.
“Morgan City is starting to pop right now,” he said. “Evidently the majority of the work is happening in Morgan City.”
Dragna said Morgan City Municipal Auditorium is booked for every weekend through the end of the year, and improvements at Lake End Park have proven to be popular.
He hopes to increase Wi-Fi access in public areas and use federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to provide grants to encourage development in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Berwick Mayor Duval Arthur said he received word this week that the town government will receive a $1.6 million grant through the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for the most expensive part of the remedy for flooding in Country Club Estates Subdivision. Flash flooding pushed water into 39 subdivision homes in 2019.
The installation of larger culverts will also protect three other subdivisions, he said.
The town government has overlaid portions of 17 streets and has plans for more. Body cameras and ballistic shields have been purchased for the Police Department along with criminal justice software, he said.
And the Town Hall is getting a new roof and teller windows so people paying bills will be more secure.
Arthur said he’s worried that the 2020 Census will undercount Berwick’s residents. The current estimate from the Census Bureau is below 5,000, while estimates from LSU and the Louisiana Treasurer’s Office put Berwick’s population at 5,119, he said.
Mayor Rodney Grogan said Patterson has used funds from parish revenue sharing and the Louisiana Community Block Grant program for street overlays across the cities. A recent $572,000 bond issue will pay for more, he said.
Like Berwick, Patterson launched a drainage study after the 2019 flooding. The fix developed by engineers will cost $4.5 million.
The city’s new $6 million water plant is operating and offers the possibility of water sales to unincorporated areas.
Grogan urged his fellow mayors to do what they can for senior citizens, who face rising costs for food and utilities.