Interest in SLCC school expanding, port director says

Executive Director of the Port of West St. Mary David Allain announced Tuesday he feels confident the port will receive an award letter around the second week of July for federal funds from the Economic Development Administration to help in building a South Louisiana Community College-run training facility at the port.
Of interest in the facility, Allain added that despite having been touted as a welding school, and still with that charge, he has received interest from carbon black plants, sugar mills and a salt mine concerning possible curriculum implementations in instrumentation classes for those various vocations.
He also sought approval Tuesday night for $32,000 to enter into a contract with South Central Planning and Development Commission, the liaison for working with the EDA on federally funded projects.
The SLCC training school project, if indeed awarded the expected federal grant funding, and bolstered by an extra $500,000 in capital outlay funds made recently re-available, would come to an estimated $1.8 million in federal and state allocations.
In other port news, the air compressor to complete Phase I of the port’s three-phase Department of Transportation and Development project, is reportedly enroute to the port. This will complete Phase I, and mark the beginning of Phase II, the erection of a sandblast building.