Grizzaffi: Many projects in the works for Morgan City area

BY JANELL PARFAIT
The St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce hosted a luncheon at The Forest in Franklin on May 24 for parish mayors and leaders to give updates on their respective communities.
Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi of Morgan City announced that the new riverfront wharf, a $2.5 million project, is in the finishing stages. The wharf, which is equipped with electricity, running water and bathroom facilities, will house 12 shrimping vessels. The structure was made possible by a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Natural Resources and additional contributions from the City of Morgan City and the St. Mary Levee District.
“It brings us back to a lot of things in our community that, without the support of our corporate partners working together with our parish representatives, a lot of this couldn’t be done,” Grizzaffi said.
A $20 million levee system is also in the works for Morgan City.
“We’re looking for Morgan City to be the most secured, protected city on the coast,” Grizzaffi said. “Not only through the federal system on the riverfront, but now on the levee system.”
Grizzaffi recounts Lake End Park and Carillon Tower as highlight attractions of the city.
“(Carillon Tower) is a beautiful facility,” he said. “Not a lot of people around here even recognize it because they pass it all the time. But it’s visited by a lot of people throughout the United States.”
The tower stands on Brownell property, and the Brownell family donates $40,000 to the City of Morgan City annually.
“Over the last year, we’ve been meeting with the board of directors, and they’re getting ready to accept a donation of 10.1 acres of property to the City of Morgan City along with just under $1 million in cash to operate it into the future through a trust,” Grizzaffi said. “So once we do that, we look forward to tying Carillon Tower to Lake End Park.”
He laments that while the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium is “a jewel of our city,” it is difficult to make a profit through the auditorium.
“There are recurring expenses, and all of us know it,” Grizzaffi said. “Those things are what operate a city; the city’s got its own utilities: water, gas, sewer, police, fire…those expenses do not decline.”
Through attrition and retirement, Grizzaffi has managed to reduce the number of city employees down to 60 workers.
In regards to health insurance, the mayor said the city “took a leap of faith nine months ago.” Insurance rates were increasing by 30 to 40 percent and the city was paying $1.6 million annually. Grizzaffi settled for an alternative insurance policy that granted the city a $250,000 surplus.
He said that Morgan City’s current dilemma is commercial property insurance, a $700,000 expense for the city.
“We’re working closely with the agency now to figure out how to get that cost down,” Grizzaffi said. “It’s no different in the city than it is in a private business. You get them reoccurring expenses coming, and you don’t have the revenue to add them up together with Plan B. We’ve been talking about Plan B for the last two years, so we put ourselves into a position to try to hold out: no layoffs, no cutting pay, no backing down. We continue to run as a normal city.”