Jury seeking funds for drainage study

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, October 13, 2009

VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish Police Jury passed a resolution Monday to apply for capital outlay funds that will be used to complete a drainage study on Cocodrie Bayou.

The resolution was passed at the behest of Concordia Parish Economic Director Heather Malone.

Malone said that following a recent trip to the bayou — the parish’s main drainage artery — with representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the corps representatives agreed the study is needed.

The federal government will fund the first $100,000 of the study, and all costs above that will be shared 50-50 with the local government, she said.

When she gets a quote from the corps about what the drainage study will cost, Malone said she would apply for capital outlay funds to pay the local portion.

The jury also passed an enterprise zone resolution for Rig Masters of Monterey.

The resolution would allow Rig Masters to take advantage of certain sales tax credits, Malone said.

Juror Randy Temple said he didn’t have any problem with the resolution.

“I spoke with (Rig Masters owner Richard Young) earlier, and he is going to create several new jobs, and that is what the enterprise zone is about,” Temple said.

“We did this for Alcoa, we did it for the hydro plant, we have done it for other enterprise zones in the past.”

In other news:

4The jury voted to allow a private citizen to haul off two old storage buildings for the cost of $1. The citizen had offered to remove the buildings free of charge.

The buildings are old and of no use to the jury, and members said they would have let him remove them for free, but state law would not allow that because he would be providing a service to them.

4The jury passed approved a proposal that would divvy up a grant, $270,000 for repairs at the old courthouse and $200,000 for the Ferriday water plant.