$1.6M federal grant to lay groundwork for LaShip sewerage

Terrebonne Parish is receiving a $1.6 million federal grant to extend sewerage service to the LaShip shipyard under construction at the Port of Terrebonne, Woodlawn Industrial Park, other businesses along the Dickson Road corridor and the Louisiana Marine Petroleum Institute.

Officials from the shipyard, a subsidiary of Edison Chouest Offshore, requested that the Terrebonne Economic Develop-ment Authority apply for the grant, said TEDA executive director Mike Ferdinand.

Facilities along the Dickson Road corridor have had to provide their own sewer service, said Katherine Gilbert, TEDA business retention and expansion director.

“It extends sewer service down Dickson Road,” Gilbert said. “If companies want to locate there, they will have that option.”

Ferdinand said, “It’s the last infrastructure element necessary for the (LaShip) project.”

The grant is funded by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Econo-mic Development Administration with Recovery Act, or stimulus bill, dollars. The EDA administers grants to economically distressed areas.

TEDA’s application to the EDA said the area had been struck by four major hurricanes in three years, according to Robin Winchell, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-Napoleonville).

“This is a major infrastructure improvement,” she said. “It will make it more salable.”

Winchell said the sewage hookup will allow service to continue when power outages occur.

“When you have an individual plant, you lose power unless you have a generator,” Gilbert said.

Melancon stated in a release, “The Port of Terrebonne and Woodlawn Industrial Park help drive our economy in Terrebonne and Lafourche and throughout the region.

“Every day that these economic engines are slowed or shut down after storms is a major blow to the businesses, workers and communities who rely on them,” he added.

“This $1.6 million investment in our infrastructure will spur business expansion and job creation in Houma, and I am pleased to see more Recovery Act dollars hitting the ground in south Louisiana,” the congressman said.

The Louisiana Marine Petroleum Institute is a branch of Fletcher Technical Community College, which is based in Houma.