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City engineer asks council to authorize DOTD and Delta Regional Authority grant applications for downtown streetscape and wastewater upgrades
Summary
City engineer Tim Mader asked the council to authorize an application for a DOTD Transportation Alternatives grant for the Parkinson Avenue downtown redevelopment and a Delta Regional Authority Community Infrastructure Fund application for wastewater-plant projects. He said DEQ issued a compliance plan with more stringent wastewater requirements.
City Engineer Tim Mader asked the council to adopt two separate resolutions to strengthen pending grant applications: one to apply to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development’s Transportation Alternatives Program for a downtown streetscape project on Parkerson Avenue, and another to apply to the Delta Regional Authority’s Community Infrastructure Fund for wastewater treatment-plant upgrades.
Mader said the DOTD program will now allow the city to apply with an adjustable cap so the state can contribute 10% of eligible construction and engineering costs, improving the grant’s viability compared with earlier capped awards. “So that costs you, nothing as well,” Mader said of the revised DOTD program funding terms he described.
On wastewater, Mader told the council the city had received a new, more stringent DEQ permit and would likely be placed under a compliance order requiring a multi-year schedule of improvements, including excavation of the East Marsh and upgrades to the ammonia-reduction unit. He asked council approval to submit a Fiscal Year 2025 Delta Regional Authority (DRA) grant application to help fund phases 2 and 3 of the wastewater plan.
Council members approved the resolution authorizing the DOTD application and separately approved the resolution to submit the DRA Community Infrastructure Fund application. Mader said these funding efforts are part of a broader capital plan to match engineering to grant opportunities and to reduce projected local costs for both downtown redevelopment and wastewater compliance.
Mader credited staff and council liaison Alderman Katie Chasson for helping prepare the DRA application materials and said the city received the final DEQ correspondence that will shape the compliance plan. No additional appropriation or vote on matching local funds occurred at the meeting; the council authorized only the submission of applications.
