Squeaky levee district seeks grease

The Terrebonne Parish Levee District is positioning itself to get onto the all important Louisiana State Bond Commission meeting agenda on Sept. 20.

The levee district is seeking $16 million in bonds to go forward with the Morganza to the Gulf project in the parish.

The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce has been assisting the levee district by writing a letter requesting Gov. Kathleen Blanco place the $16 million project on the agenda for the next Bond Commission meeting.

“We have supported Morganza to the Gulf since its inception. And we’ve been spending the last seven years, every year having a contingency go to Washington to try to get the WRDA bill passed so we can get authorization for it,” said Houma- Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce Director Kandy Theriot.

Theriot said that sending such a letter helps the governor see the community is supporting the efforts the Terrebonne Levee District is requesting.

“Everybody, to my knowledge, in Terrebonne Parish believes that we need to have levees to sustain our area. And without levees, if a hurricane comes this way, we’ll have seven feet of water in downtown Houma if the right storm hits at the right angle,” she explained.

Theriot said construction on the levees can be started quickly if more money is available faster, which can be done by bonding out the money already dedicated in House Bill 2.

Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District executive director Jerome Zeringue said typically what happens with capital outlay funding, like the $16 million his levee district is requesting, is it is appropriated, but it is subject to the state selling bonds to generate the cash for those projects.

When groups ask the governor to put the projects on the Bond Commission meeting agenda there will be a bond sale, which the state typically holds once a month, until the state sells up to its limit on the amount of bonds it can sell in a given year.

Zeringue said it was necessary for the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce to request the $16 million levee project be put on the Bond Commission meeting agenda, because Blanco sets the agenda.

“There are always more projects that exceed the availability of the state to sell the bonds. So, it’s simply to make a request. Whether or not, she (Blanco) puts it on the agenda is completely up to her, but you’ll never get in there unless you make the request,” said Zeringue.

State Bond Commission Director Whitman J. Kling Jr. said it’s not unusual for groups to represent their requests to the governor. It’s an accepted practice.

“If you don’t promote yourself, you’re not going to get on there,” said Kling. “You’ve got to make the request.”

Kling said he doesn’t know which projects the governor’s office will send to the commission to be put on the next meeting’s agenda.

“They normally would wait until the very last moment,” he said.

Last year, the commission had about $1.2 billion in available bonds.

This year, Kling said they have about $900 million, of which only $141 million remain for Priority II projects. The levee district’s project is considered Priority I, the highest priority.

“We had more demand than we had capacity last year. We’re in the same situation this year. We have more demand than capacity. We just have less capacity this year. I guess the competition is a little greater, but it was still bad to begin with,” said Kling. “If you’re in gridlock it doesn’t matter if two or three cars line up behind you. You’re still in gridlock.”

Kling said the demand is about $540 million for Priority II projects.

“One out of five is going to be happy,” he said.

But Kling said the “most important” projects, the Priority I projects, have already gotten their money.

With the WRDA bill still held up in Washington and authorization for federal funding for the Morganza to the Gulf project still more of a dream than reality, Zeringue said he and the levee district are doing what they can.

“We’re continuing to push and work locally to do what we can,” he said.

Zeringue said the first phase of the Morganza Project will be completed in September with three other sections under design and possibly going into construction shortly.

Another section will go to construction by the end of the year. And another two sections will follow in the first part of next year.

“We’re moving along. It’s just hoping the federal government can begin to participate as well,” he added.

The Louisiana State Bond Commission has its next meeting on Sept. 20. The deadline for parties seeking Priority II funding to get on the agenda was Aug. 21.

The deadline for Blanco to put bond requests for Priority I funding is Sept. 13 to get the requests on the agenda for the Sept. 20 meeting.