Tri-parishes set to receive $5.3 million from LRA

Lafourche, Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes are scheduled to receive more than $5.3 million in hurricanes Katrina and Rita recovery money from the Louisiana Recovery Authority, pending approval by Gov. Jindal, the state Legislature and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The LRA was created to manage federal relief funds following the 2005 hurricanes.

The money will be administered through the LRA’s Long Term Community Recovery Program. The funds are part of $10.4 billion in federal Community Development Block Grants allocated to Louisiana for infrastructure and housing reconstruction in parishes suffering damage from the 2005 hurricanes.

Lafourche Parish is set to receive $2.3 million, Terrebonne $2.5 million and St. Mary $502,000, according to LRA officials.

The funding was based on the estimated amount of infrastructure and housing damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The LRA was able to allocate the $5.3 million because Congress infused the state’s Road Home program with $3 billion in December, said spokesperson Christina Stephens.

The extra Road Home money freed up $500 million to fund the Recovery Program statewide.

The three parishes have already been approved by the LRA to receive $2.15 million through the same funding source, part of the original $200 million allocated for the Recovery Program in June 2007, Stephens said.

To receive the money, officials in the three parishes had to identify recovery projects gaining LRA approval.

Eligible Recovery Program projects include acquiring real property; clearance or reconstruction of buildings; assistance to nonprofits and neighborhood-based organizations; job training, and payment of the non-federal share of other federal matching grant programs.

The money allocated in June provided $948,000 for Lafourche, $1 million for Terrebonne and $200,000 for St. Mary.

Officials in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes said they do not know which projects will be funded.

However, Terrebonne will use some of the already-approved Recovery Program funding to relocate a sewer line in Chauvin obstructing a levee enlargement project, said parish Planning Director Pat Gordon.

Additionally, the Terrebonne Parish Council last Wednesday approved the creation of a senior recovery planner position to manage the parish’s Long Term Community Recovery Plan.

The position will be funded mostly through another LRA program, the Parish Recovery Planning Capacity Building Program.

Gretchen Caillouet, Lafourche Parish director of economic development, said Lafourche has 27 possible projects submitted to the LRA for funding with Recovery Program money.

Some of the projects are more regional in scope, Caillouet said, like coastal restoration and the reintroduction of water from the Mississippi River into Bayou Lafourche.

“But the CDBG grants have parts where we need to benefit more lower-income people,” she said.

For St. Mary Parish, an LRA Web site listed improving the Harry P. Williams Airport, updating the parish’s emergency preparedness and hazard mitigation plans and improving flood control as possible Recovery Program projects.