Morgan City gets funding for sidewalks, walking app

Walking around Morgan City will become a more pleasant experience thanks to two sources of funding on which the City Council took action at the July 26 meeting.

The larger of the two items is a $930,000 award from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

The money comes from the DOTD’s Safe Routes to Public Place program.

The money will go to build and improve sidewalks from Front Street to the South Louisiana Community College Young Memorial Campus.

While the state money will pay for the bulk of the work, the city government will be responsible for expenses including right of way acquisition and what the state calls “non-infrastructure improvements.”

The Morgan City Council passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Lee Dragna to accept the grant and enter an agreement with the DOTD for the project on the city’s behalf.

Also July 26, the council passed a resolution authorizing Dragna to accept a $3,500 grant from the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area toward giving Morgan City a place in a historic walking tour app.

The app would work with kiosks around the city. Tour-takers could use their mobile devices to learn about historic Morgan City locations at each kiosk.

Also at the July 26 meeting, Gerard Bourgeois, the attorney for the Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District, asked the council to consider an ordinance that would require boats to be moved out of the way when necessary to accommodate dredging.

Port of Morgan City struggled for at least six years to persuade federal officials to provide enough funding to dredge the port’s channel to its authorized dimension.

For the last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has financed an unprecedented level of dredging from Morgan City to the Gulf. In April, officials held a ribbon-cutting to symbolize the opening of the port’s channel to something like its authorized dimensions of 400 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

The hope is that the channel will attract large import-export vessels to Morgan City for unloading to truck or rail transportation.

But boats tied up in areas such as the Morgan City wharf can delay dredge vessels that can cost $50,000 an hour.

The port board has already passed an ordinance requiring boats to be moved for dredging. But “the port doesn’t have police,” Bourgeois said.

ST. MARY NOW

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