Morgan City Council picks mayor pro tem, hears about grants for water plant, walking trail

The Morgan City Council has a new mayor pro tem and some grant money to make water plant and recreation improvements.
On Tuesday, the council voted to make Steve Domangue the mayor pro tem on the recommendation of Councilman Ron Bias, who will turn over the post to Domangue.
Domangue represents District 4. He won a three-way race in November 2018 to fill an unexpired term after James Fontenot resigned. Domangue qualified for re-election without opposition in the November 2020 election.
Also Tuesday, Mayor Lee Dragna told the council that the city has received a grant for water plant improvements. The grant comes from federal American Rescue Plan Act money administered by the state government.
The city will match the grant with $1 million, and the grant will pay for the rest of the $4.9 million project.
After the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Charles Solar Jr. said the project will install new clarifiers at the city’s aging water plant. The new clarifiers require fewer chemicals to treat water.
The new $5 million plant recently constructed in Patterson works on the same principle.
The council also heard from Catherine Holcomb of St. Mary Excel about neighborhood signs, a recent workshop on a new way to look at development and continuation of work on the city’s bike-walking trail.
Plans call for an extensive trail around the city. On Tuesday, Dragna said three phases of the work will be completed this year. The council approved a bid from Cedar Construction on Tuesday for the Justa-to-Cajun Coast phase.
So far, the city government has received $727,000, including $625,000 in grants and a $102,000 donation from Morgan City’s all-purpose benefactor, the H&B Young Foundation. The most recent grant received was $200,000 from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Recreational Trails Program.
Grant requests total-ing $1.1 million are pending.
Holcomb also praised the effort to erect signs identifying neighbor-hoods, a project supported by funds raised by the residents. The signs, which cost about $1,000 each, have been put up in neighborhoods including Sacred Heart Park, Marquis Manor and Auburn in Morgan City and Golden Farms in Berwick.
“This is going to help develop pride in those neighborhoods,” Holcomb said.
She also recapped a recent development workshop led by Verdunity, a Dallas-based engineering firm that specializes in a different kind of development strategy.
At the workshop, Kev-in Shepherd of Verdunity said the conventional view of development is “big growth,” looking for big land acquisitions and subdivision construction of hundreds of houses at a time. The result is too often a lack of affordable housing, lagging infrastructure maintenance, and residents and government workers who are frustrated with financial limitations on what their officials can accomplish.
“We work with the locals in our communities to build and cultivate our neighborhoods and our communities over time, incrementally, one lot, one building, one block at a time,” Shepherd said at the workshop.
The result, he said, is growth that is more inclusive, sustainable and environmentally sound.
A video of the work-shop is available on St. Mary Excel’s YouTube Channel.
Also Tuesday:
—Dragna said the city is “very close” to an agreement on purchasing the M.D. Shannon Elementary building from the St. Mary School Board.
The School Board passed a resolution Jan. 13 authorizing a sale for $100,000.
Dragna had proposed that the city government purchase the building, which is used for youth sports. The purchase would include the city block on which the school rests, half of which would become lots for sale to those who want to build homes there.
—The council OK’d plans for the Irish Italian Parade. Organizer Walter Shepherd said the parade is scheduled for 1 p.m. March 19. The walkers and golf carts would go from Onstead and Second down Second to Everett. A block party would follow the parade under the bridge near Front Street.
—The council heard Raymond “Mac” Wade, executive director of the Port of Morgan City, say the unprecedented level of dredging in 2021 has allowed millions of cubic yards of sediment to be placed near the port’s waterways, creating land that fights Louisiana’s coastal loss.
Dragna, who served on the port board before his election as mayor in 2020, asked Wade when Bayou Chene will be dredged.
Dredging is planned for this fall, Wade said, marking the first time the bayou’s channel will be cleared since 2009.