Citizen Portal
Sign In

Commission approves reallocation of leftover water sector funds for St. John Parish wastewater plant demolition

6685241 · October 15, 2025

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The commission approved a request by St. John the Baptist Parish to reallocate $642,864.83 in remaining water sector funds to demolish an existing Woodland wastewater treatment plant; the decision followed debate over whether demolition was part of the original scope.

The Water Sector Commission voted to allow St. John the Baptist Parish to reallocate $642,864.83 in remaining water sector funds to pay for demolition of an existing Woodland wastewater treatment plant that the parish has already shut down.

Heather Paul introduced the request as a scope change for a phase 1, round 2 ARPA-funded project, noting no new funds were requested and that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) had no objection. Rob Delon of Digital Engineering and Reid Alexander of Saint John of Baptist Power Utilities told commissioners the overall project came in under budget and the parish wanted to use leftover funds to complete demolition tied to the parish's consolidation plan. "We came in under budget and rather than return the funds back to the water sector program, the request is just use those funds and expand your scope and do something else," Reid Alexander said.

Commissioners debated whether demolition had been part of the originally approved scope and whether approving the reallocation would set a precedent, citing other projects and a substantial backlog of unfunded needs. One commissioner moved to deny the request; another asked to defer pending comparison to a recent Donaldsonville decision. After discussion about prior approvals and the risk of losing ARPA funds if unused, Senator Reese moved to approve the reallocation. The motion carried by voice vote with no roll-call tally recorded in the transcript.

Commissioners instructed staff to track how leftover funds are applied across projects and to ensure consistency with prior decisions. The commission treated the action as a one-time scope reallocation; no additional state funds were requested.