While the Broome administration waits for the state to make available the matching funds necessary to kick-start a $15 million stormwater master plan, the clock is ticking.
FEMA—which, in May, awarded the parish a grant covering 75% of the plan’s cost—requires projects funded by the grant be completed within three years. That means the stormwater master plan has a completion deadline of May 2022.
But the state, which is providing the required 25% match for the funds from a separate pot of federal funds, doesn’t expect to have the cash in hand until February or March at the earliest. That’s because several layers of state and federal approval are first required.
At a press conference this morning, Director of Transportation and Drainage Fred Raiford said he has already made FEMA aware of the funding challenges and filed for an extension of the three-year deadline.
Asked whether the parish could get things moving more quickly by fronting the required match from parish coffers then seeking reimbursement when the state makes the other money available in the spring, he says it’s unlikely.
“That is something I asked about the other day, and though I did not get an answer, I feel certain if we put up the 25 percent match we may be subject to losing the funds,” he said. “That is certainly something we do not want to do.”
The stormwater master plan is one of several elements of the parish’s multipronged approach to dealing with increasing stormwater and flooding challenges. Other FEMA dollars from the grant program will go to fund dozens of projects in local creeks and drainage canals.
Separately, some $250 million in funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will pay for improvements to five key drainage canals in the parish.
Work on some of the ACOE-funded projects could begin as soon as the first quarter of 2020, Raiford said. Projects funded by the FEMA money will take longer to come to fruition, which Raiford and Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said is part of the downside to funding infrastructure work with federal money.
Said Raiford: “When you are dealing with federal dollars nothing happens quickly.”
The Metro Council will be asked at its meeting today to approve the use of the first batch of federal funds for the stormwater master plan. Raiford said he has been in contact with council members and does not expect any opposition from them.
