VIDALIA — Projects for Concordia Parish on the state’s capital outlay funding plan received a green light last week from the governor’s office, but some projects still need to fill up their tanks with federal and other funding before hitting the road.

With a final signature on House bill 2 from Gov. Bobby Jindal Wednesday, the $4.3 billion, multiyear spending plan now heads to the State Bond Commission.

Since Jindal didn’t line-item veto any portions of the bill, the plan has approximately $120 million more in new projects next year than for which there will be available money.

Legislators and others pushing for projects in their parishes will stay busy in the coming months in hopes of being included in the $350 million in new financing that will be approved.

Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, said Concordia Parish is in good shape to begin receiving funding for its priority 1 projects.

“None of the projects on that bill are guaranteed, because they have to go before bond commission, but it’s good news for Concordia Parish, because they have a lot of priority 1 funding,” Riser said. “The projects in Concordia are on the very top of my list to see that they are accomplished.”

The projects in the bill are rated from priority 1, which are first in line for funding, to priority 4, which will be funded later.

As chairman of the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, Riser has a seat on the State Bond Commission, which will meet next Thursday.

“The commission will decide which projects are ready to go, start approving priority 1 money and then it goes out the door,” Riser said. “Some of those projects are just not ready, so we have to decide what might be holding up a project.”

Concordia Parish projects listed in priority 1 funding include $1.1 million the Vidalia Riverfront development and $2.5 million for public improvements to raise the Mississippi River levee from Arkansas to Old River.

Other key funding priorities for Concordia Parish in the bill include $3.5 million for the Black River Lake drainage project.

The Black River Lake Commission, set up several years ago to help manage the Black River drainage area, also known as the Horseshoe Complex, was allocated $1 million in priority 1 funding and $2.5 million in priority 5 funding for drainage structure installation, studies, permits and construction.

And while the construction of the project is ready to begin, finding an entity to provide upkeep and maintenance after construction may delay the project from receiving funding.

Bill Beasley, member of the Concordia Parish Drainage Committee, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to ensure the project will be properly maintained before signing off on the project.

“They want to know who is going to be responsible to maintain these facilities in the long haul,” Beasley said. “It would be a fairly simple structure and operating or maintenance costs isn’t the problem, it’s the unknown factor that there might be some dredging to do in the future and that cost is unknown right now.

“Nothing is definite at this point, but everyone is working together to have this thing ready in the next few years.”

Beasley said the structure would be two 10-foot box drainage tanks, with cutoff gates that would be installed with 3-foot intervals to control the water levels.

Last week, members of the Black River Lake Commission, drainage committee, Concordia Parish Police Jury, Corps of Engineers, Riser and Rep. Andy Anders met to address how quickly the project could start taking shape.

“We were essentially trying to figure out who could handle the upkeep of this project, but some of the costs that are necessary are still unknown,” Anders said. “We’re trying to get some holes filled to where we can work on this and make sure it gets done.”

Anders and Riser said they would keep the project as a high priority on their lists to ensure the funding is still available once a maintenance provider is established.

“This is a perfect scenario of where the money available for a project is contingent upon one last step of that project,” Riser said. “The state money is ready to go, but the project can’t be authorized to begin until we can guarantee we have someone to maintain everything.”

Other Concordia Parish projects, like the Vidalia port, are also ready to begin construction, but must wait for federal matching funding to continue.

The Vidalia port was allocated $5 million in capital outlay funds in the bill. That includes $1 million for development in priority 2 funds, and $4 million in priority 5 funding.

Mayor Hyram Copeland and his staff normally take a trip to Washington, D.C., for meetings with congressional delegation members in December, but he said they might be booking a flight sooner.

“We’ll probably make the trip to Washington before that, because the next step is to sit down with our congressional delegation and obtain that additional funding for the port project,” Copeland said. “The next five years is critical for the Miss-Lou region, because we’re going to see some major economic development projects take place.

“For us to receive this funding just tells you that the governor and our state delegation believe in Concordia Parish and the projects we’re working on.”