MC drainage district hopes it's back on track

FRANKLIN — Officials are offering hope that a boost from state funding for flood control will prevent a repeat of Morgan City flooding during Hurricane Francine.
Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 2A board members Chuck Walters and Charlie Solar told the St. Mary Parish Council on Wednesday that resolving deficiencies in a new pump station will free money to resume an operation and maintenance program.
Also at Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting, members passed a 2025 budget that moves on from charges and counter-charges about parish government finances and even adds a bit to the financial reserves.
Flood control
At the center of the problems for Gravity Drainage District 2A and its not-quite-consolidated predecessor District 2 is a new pump station near Lake Palourde. The district has a series of such stations to move water outside Morgan City’s levees during heavy rain.
Plans for the new station date back to at least 2013. The T. Baker Smith engineering firm was hired to design the station.
Later, the design was slimmed down in an effort to save $700,000 in what was to be a project costing $6 million-$7 million.
But the new pump station as constructed fell short of the pumping capacity the district was looking for. Walters said the need to bring in rented pumps, plus pump and generator problems at five other stations, consumed the district’s maintenance budget.
Instead of saving $700,000, the district ended up spending more than $1 million.
Walters, a former parish councilman, joined the board last summer.
“It’s been challenging, to say the least, these last five months,” Walters said.
The situation became more than a financial problem Sept. 11, when Hurricane Francine dumped an official total of 10 inches of rain on Morgan City, with anecdotal reports of 20 inches or more in isolated areas.
About 350 Morgan City homes sustained flood damage as the pumps struggled to keep up.
Now, Walters said, negotiations about cost are underway with the engineering firm, and forensic engineers have been called in.
Parish President Sam Jones announced last month that Gov. Jeff Landry has allowed $4 million-$6 million coastal restoration and protection money to be used for new pumps in the district. Some of the money is already going toward clearing drainage ditches.
Walters and Solar said that without the burden of fixing the pump station, the district will have the money to resume a normal operation and maintenance schedule. Jones also said the parish government needs to be updated on plans for maintenance.
The relationship between the parish government and its patchwork of special purpose districts has become a source of concern. All or the majority of board members on at least two boards have resigned within the last 18 months, while oversight of districts remains uncertain.
Councilman J Ina of Franklin has pushed for a new organizational chart for parish government entities.
Budget
During his 2023 campaign, Jones alleged that the parish government had two much debt, failed to take advantage of matching-fund grant opportunities and was in danger of failing to meet its payroll.
The 2025 budget adopted Wednesday anticipates $36.3 million in revenues and $36.1 million in spending, adding about $200,000 to the parish’s $17 million reserve.
The council also passed a five-year capital outlay budget.
The big-ticket items for 2025 are $1.1 million for a 911 Center retrofit and safe room, from a hazard mitigation grant; $1 million for reconstruction and overlay of Verdun Lane and Tiger Road, from Community Development Block Grant funds; and $2 million for reconstruction and overlay of Deslignes Road, the subject of a state capital outlay application.