Parish outlines water, sewer, flood-control and library plans in State of the Parish address

The parish detailed multiple projects intended to bolster water, sewer and flood-control capacity and to maintain daily services for residents.

Water Works District No. 3 is building a 2,000,000-gallon-per-day water plant near the airport (speaker cited a cost of about $18.5 million) and expects a 500,000-gallon ground-storage tank (~$2.2 million) and a new well (speaker said it will produce about 14,100 gallons per minute of treated water) to come online in 2025.

Sewer District No. 1 completed the purchase and deployment of 16 portable generators for lift stations and finished subdivision projects (speaker cited ~$1 million) and a Tower Drive 18-inch main relocation. Projects under construction include lift stations at the airport (~$470,000) and Versailles (~$1.8 million).

Flood-control work cited included completed Jefferson Canal North and South projects and major CPRA-funded initiatives now in design: a $160 million commercial canal and a $100 million Delcom Canal project. The president emphasized that those CPRA projects are funded by CPRA rather than parish dollars.

On libraries, the parish said it will seek renewal of a 4.5-mill levy in March to continue services at eight branches, with projected revenue of around $2.6 million and operating costs near $2.4 million annually.

"We have all of that. The primary agency for all of our emergency planning activities, evacuation, sheltering...is our Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness," the president said, noting the retirement of longtime director Prescott Marshall and the hiring of Brandon Migas to succeed him and continue emergency planning work.

Officials said more detailed design and bidding timelines will be released as capital-outlay and state-funded designs are finalized.