VIDALIA &8212; Hurricane Katrina&8217;s wrath spared north and central Louisiana, by and large, but it did bring an added focus on levees across the state.

That includes Concordia and surrounding parishes, which are served by the Fifth District Levee Board.

The worry is at this crucial time &8212; with upgrades planned for the system of levees in Concordia Parish and tens of thousands of dollars already in recent years &8212; that board&8217;s budget will be cut even more.

For Barry Maxwell, a former president and current member of the Fifth District Levee Board, which includes Concordia Parish, ensuring the integrity of the levees is serious business.

&8220;The Corps rides with us every fall and goes over the levees with a fine-toothed comb,&8221; Maxwell said. &8220;Our levees are in great shape.&8221;

He and other board members worry the Fifth District&8217;s already small budget &8212; it maintains 355 miles of levees on an annual budget of less than $1 million &8212; may be cut.

Last year the state took away about $100,000 in funds, forcing the board to raise money by taxing farmland.

Maxwell said he hopes the levee board will be able to keep its funding given what happened to New Orleans when levees there broke.

&8220;We&8217;re going to do everything we can to get funds,&8221; Maxwell said. &8220;The biggest thing we have to sell is that if a levee breaks in Tallulah, it won&8217;t just flood our four parishes. There&8217;s a scenario where everywhere from Interstate 20 to Interstate 10 all the way west to Monroe could be flooded.&8221;

Maxwell said the board has to go to its congressional delegation each year to stress the importance of its work.

In its role maintaining levees &8212; and keeping the Tensas River navigable by dredging &8212; the board is operating with a pretty small workforce. There are 16 full-time employees. The board president, a role Maxwell formerly served in, also acts as director of operations to ensure the day-to-day operations of the district.

Levee boards across Louisiana are under more scrutiny than in the past because of the damage done to New Orleans by Katrina.

The Louisiana Legislature didn&8217;t approve a bill that would have made drastic changes in the levee boards, including the consolidation of several New Orleans area boards into a single regional board. Still, the legislature will likely look at levee issues again in a January special session, Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu said.

But for Concordia, Tensas, Madison and East Carroll parishes, regional levee boards aren&8217;t anything new.

The Fifth Louisiana Levee District has 355 miles of levees running from the Arkansas state line in East Carroll Parish south to the edge of West Feliciana Parish, comprising more acres of levees than any other district in the state.

And, unlike some of the levee boards in south Louisiana with their huge incomes, all this has to be maintained with an annual budget of less than a million dollars.

&8220;Almost half of our budget comes from Concordia Parish and that&8217;s just because of the Old River Control and (Engelhard),&8221; Maxwell said. &8220;(The levee district is) four of the poorest parishes in the state, some of the poorest in the country.&8221;

Maxwell and Morris Wilson represent Concordia Parish on the board, which is comprised of two members from each fo the four parishes &8212; East Carroll, Madison, Tensas and Concordia in the district.

The levee board works to maintain the levee, give permits for activity that might affect the levee and actss as a liaison between the Corps of Engineers and local landowners when work needs to be done on the levee.

Soon, the Corps will begin work on main line Mississippi River levees in Concordia Parish. &8220;Next year we&8217;ll raise some of the levees north and south of Vidalia,&8221; Maxwell said. &8220;We have about 85 miles of levee that needs to be raised. It&8217;s all two to five feet deficient, according to the Corps.&8221;

Since 1973, the year of the last major flood event on the Mississippi, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working to build up 192.8 miles of levee that were deemed deficient.

The federal government pays for the work after the levee board secures the right of way.

&8220;To give you some idea of the cost-benefit in this, we paid $14 million for 85 miles of right of way. The Corps paid $113 million for the construction costs on that project,&8221; Maxwell said. &8220;You get a good ratio there.&8221;

The board purchases right of way from local landowners and is reimbursed by the state, Maxwell said.