Money for Morgan City levee work may be on the way

Levee upgrades totaling $14.5 million to protect Morgan City are among the local projects the area’s state legislative delegation worked to get for local municipalities.
State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, said during Wednesday’s St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce Legislative Wrap-up luncheon that the money was secured via the state’s Coastal Protection and Rest-oration Authority.
St. Mary Parish Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said that the funding is “a significant down payment” on what is needed for the project to close the gap between the Justa Street and Siracusa levees.
The protection will be located behind the homes backing Lake Palourde Drive in Lakeside Subdivision.
“We’re continuing to fine-tune the plans for that,” Matte said.
He said the levee district is looking for other funding sources to go along with that $14.5 million.
“The purpose of it is to close the system so that the entire city is protected to the 100-year storm standard,” Matte said of the project.
Gov. John Bel Edwards still must sign off on the funding allocation and the state bond commission must approve it.
“We were very appreciative of the senator being able to do that for us,” Matte said of Allain. “It’s a request we’ve been working on with the legislature and with CPRA, and it took his position to really make it happen. He was in the right place at the right time to be able to help us with that.”
Also, funding for water system improvements is coming to Morgan City and the town of Berwick.
Berwick is scheduled to receive about $2.4 million for water line upgrades, water meter replacements and sewer rehabilitation.
Berwick Mayor Duval Arthur said currently, about 30% of the town’s water meters are electric. With the funding the town receives, all will be electric. They will be read wirelessly from the meter truck.
He also said the waterline project funded in Country Club Estates will improve water pressure there.
“These are really good projects, and I think that’s the reason why they were all funded,” Arthur said. “We did a lot of work on our presentation, and I think that in the long run, that’s the reason why it was approved.”
Morgan City will get another $1.75 million for its water system for a new water clarifier.
“Our clarifier is like 50 years old, and it’s on its last leg,” Mayor Lee Dragna said.
Of that money, Dragna said, $500,000 has been pegged in priority 1 funding, meaning it will be received this year.
An additional $1 million will be given to the city from the federal Recovery Fund money the state receives because it is a water project, the mayor said.
The last $250,000 will be in Priority 2 funding, which the city will receive next year. However, the city will use its own money in the meantime to fund the project.
Other area projects Allain listed that will receive funding include emergency power upgrades at the St. Mary Parish Cour-thouse, a welding center at the Port of West St. Mary, $900,000 in water improvements in Baldwin and money in Franklin for street repairs and renovation of City Hall, and $750,000 for reconstruction of Martin Luther King Road in Charenton.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to deliver for the area along with the support from the people on my right,” he said, referring to state Reps. Beryl Amedée, R-Gray, and Vincent St. Blanc, R-Franklin.
St. Blanc also discussed House Bill No. 224, which has been signed into law as Act 375. It names U.S. 90 in St. Mary Parish as Mike Foster Memorial Parkway after the parish’s former governor, who passed away last year.
“That was another thing that I was proud of that we had done,” St. Blanc said.
Also in House Bill No. 224, Bayou Ramos Bridge on U.S. 90 will be renamed as the Jeffrey Paul Curry Jr. Memorial Bridge.