Levee District lends a hand with Morgan City flood control work

FRANKLIN — The St. Mary Parish Levee District will give drainage district officials a hand that could speed up flood control improvements in Morgan City.
The Levee District board agreed at Thursday’s regular meeting to extend a line of credit to St. Mary Gravity District No. 2A for added pumping capacity.
Also Thursday, the Levee District board heard that a request for bids on the Yokely Levee Extension near Franklin could go out as early as July.
Pump station
Gravity Drainage District 2A, recently created by consolidating districts serving Morgan City and Amelia, operates pump stations that remove water from inside the Morgan City levees when heavy rain is falling.
The drainage district has plans to improve the system by moving four pumps from a station now near Ochsner St. Mary up La. 70 to a point near Lake Palourde at Lake End Park.
Parish President David Hanagriff, speaking on behalf of the drainage district, told the Levee District board on Thursday that drainage officials would like to add a fifth pump to the new station.
But cash flow is a problem. The project, which also includes building a short levee near the station, is expected to cost about $7.1 million. Most of the money would come from a recent bond issue, and Hanagriff said $1.25 million in parish funds have been committed to the work. The district is also expecting state capital outlay funding.
But not all the money is available now, so there’s no money on hand for the fifth pump.
The Levee District agreed to lend up to $1 million, more than the fifth pump is expected to cost, to be repaid when the money is available.
That allows the drainage district to buy the pump sooner and at the current price.
Yokely Levee
The Levee District is working on an extension of the Yokely Levee from the Franklin-Baldwin area to the area near the Metal Shark and Gulf Craft shipyards and on to the railroad tracks. The $6 million plan is one of a series of projects designed to protect that portion of west St. Mary from storm surge flooding.
The levee extension includes small gates that would maintain the shipbuilders’ access to the canal and could be closed when tropical weather threatens.
About half the funding for the Yokely work would come from the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restor-ation Authority.
The Levee District has already been working on engineering plans for the extension. The district board heard Thursday that the project could go out for bid in mid-July.