Golden Meadow to begin work on town hall

Golden Meadow will soon be constructing a new town hall/ multi-use facility thanks to

$850,000 in grants and $258,000 in loans from the federal Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon and state Director of Rural Development Clyde Holloway showed up Friday afternoon at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church’s La Salette Center in

Golden Meadow to make a formal presentation of the funds.

The approximately 3,600-square-foot town hall complex will be built in front of the state

Department of Motor Vehicles building, located at 500 N. Alex Plaisance Blvd. Golden

Meadow’s current town hall is 1,200 square feet.

The new complex will double as an emergency operations center for Golden Meadow and southern Lafourche during hurricanes.

The building will be constructed to withstand 150 mile per hour winds.

The money to build the town hall is part of a one-time, $7.5 million grant from the U.S.

Department of Agriculture to the Louisiana branch of Rural Development for assistance with post-Katrina and Rita recovery.

The Rural Development money can only be given to towns with populations of 20,000 or fewer.

Golden Meadow Mayor Joey Bouziga said the town bought the property on Alex Plaisance Boulevard in 1982 to build the new complex. However, Golden Meadow was denied federal grants at that time to construct the building.

Melancon said Golden Meadow’s present town hall was old in the 1970s.

“They need this new facility in times of emergency,” he said. “Small communities need the federal government’s aid. You don’t want to bankrupt them.”

As a general rule, federal agencies are difficult to deal with, but the Department of Agriculture is an exception, he explained.

“You know how easy the USDA is to work with,” Melancon said. “With Clyde Holloway, it’s a super group of people.”

Holloway said small towns would have it harder without the federal government’s help.

“With the federal government, nothing is easy,” said Holloway, a former Republican Congressman from Louisiana who was appointed state Rural Development director by President Bush in 2006. “It’s good to see us give money at the federal level. But even the

loans are low.”

“We’re probably the best agency,” he said. “As long as Melancon keeps funding money,

we’ll bring the money.”

State Sen. Reggie Dupre said Rural Development money is sometimes derided as “slush

funds.” The money really does assist smaller towns though, he said, because they cannot compete for funding with bigger cities.

“They say it’s ‘slush funds,’ but it is dedicated to helping them,” he said.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said the new hurricane resistant town hall would offer his department more direct access to the southern part of Lafourche, considering Golden Meadow’s southerly location.

“It puts us closer to a critical area,” he said.

Webre currently has hardened sites for hurricane emergencies at the Sheriff’s Office’s Galliano station, Lady of the Sea General Hospital, and the Port Commission office.

Also at Friday’s presentation, the Town of Grand Isle formally received $50,000 from the same Rural Development funds to purchase two new police cars.

“We’ve always gotten hand-me-downs from Jefferson Parish,” said Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle. “These cars have to go through salt water.”

Holloway said, “We wanted to help Grand Isle with something.”

U.S. Congressman Charlie Melancon (third from right) and State Sen. Reggie Dupre (second from right) visited Golden Meadow Friday to present Golden Meadow and Grand Isle officials checks for a new city hall/multi-use facility and two new police units, respectively. * Photo by MIKE BROSSETTE