Though the Broome administration is unveiling details of its proposed stormwater master plan at a press conference scheduled for 11 a.m., it will be at least February or March before work on the plan can get underway, and that’s assuming all necessary approvals are granted between now and then.
That’s because the city-parish is dependant on the state to provide 25% of the matching funds—some $3.75 million—for the $15 million plan, which the administration has been touting for nearly two years now but has not been able to fund, and the wheels of bureaucracy move slowly.
FEMA, through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, is picking up 75% of the tab for the plan, which will be designed by engineering firm HNTB. But federal rules require a local match, which was more than the city-parish could afford.
Earlier this year, the city-parish got word that a separate, $1.2 billion federal windfall awarded to the state from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund a series of watershed projects in 56 parishes could be tapped to provide the local match for the HMGP projects, including the stormwater master plan.
But the state Office of Community Development doesn’t have the money yet, and OCD Executive Director Pat Forbes says it will be early spring before the cash is in hand.
“We’ve been saying since we got the $1.2 billion that our first priority is to fund the match for the local projects, which includes Baton Rouge,” Forbes says. “So we are hoping funding will be available by early spring, February or March.”
The reason it will take the better part of six months to get the money is because of the lengthy state and federal approval process surrounding how the $1.2 billion will be spent. First, OCD has to release its action plan for the money—the culmination of a year-long series of hearings around the state. That happens tomorrow.
Then, the state Watershed Council, which was appointed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, will have 45 days to review and, presumably, approve the plan. HUD, then, has another 60 days to review and approve the plan.
Forbes says he expects the federal agency to allow the state to set aside a portion of the funds to provide local matching funds for the HMPG projects.
The stormwater master plan is just one of many projects that would benefit from the matching funds. The parish actually has some $80 million worth of drainage and flood mitigation projects slated to be funded by the combination of FEMA grants and HUD match. Some 55 other parishes that were affected by the 2016 floods also have projects on the books totaling nearly $4 billion.
