It is nice to share, but, let’s be honest, it’s really nice to sometimes get a big piece of the pie.
The City of Abbeville can relish in that feeling.
Mayor Mark Piazza announced at the most recent City Council meeting that the city has been awarded funds from the Louisiana Community Development Block Grant (LCDBG) program. The city will receive $800,000 for sewer improvements.
“That is a large amount and it’s really going to help us on some improvements to our system,” Piazza said. “We’re thankful to the Governor (John Bel Edwards) and everyone involved in the LCDBG program.”
The grant program, which originates from the federal government and is distributed through the state level, is awarded every two years. What makes it significant for Abbeville this go round is that it has one of only 23 projects being funded this year from a total of $14,089,640.
“We got pretty lucky on this grant,” Piazza said. “We must have scored very well in the grant process. Richard Minvielle (city’s grant writer of Minvielle & Associates) always does a fantastic job for us on these applications. They are very competitive. We are one of 23 projects out of 300 municipalities and 64 parishes. Richard Minvielle and Todd Vincent (Sellers & Associates) put together an excellent package.
“We were fortunate to be funded on this because they didn’t dish out too many grants this year.”
Work will include the reconfiguration of several components of the sewer collection system to address issues with the inflow and infiltration of rainwater into the system. The reconfiguration will provide capacity relief to one of the main pump stations in the city, Pump Station No. 5 on Alley Street, by redirecting the flow from a contributing pump station, No. 11 on Willis Street, to discharge directly at the sewer treatment plant.
“The rehabilitation of the sewer collection will eliminate the overloads to the collection system in the north central portion of Abbeville,” Todd Vincent explained.
The project will also eliminate two sewer pump stations, No. 15-Roy Young and No. 19-Tiffany Plaza. Capacity at some other stations will be upgraded to make that possible. Cutting out two lift stations can also have a positive financial impact in the future.
“The cost can be high to replace pumps and motors for the lift stations,” Piazza said. “We could potentially be saving a good bit of money on repairs by eliminating lift stations.”
In all, Piazza said this grant is a tremendous addition for city and that he will continue to let Louisiana elected officials know how important the LCDBG program is to municipalities like Abbeville. The city has benefited from the program multiple times during the last decade.
“Every other year we have received a very substantial grant,” Piazza said. “It has helped us numerous times to resurface streets, improve drainage, improve the sewer system and improve the water system. We’re going to send a letter to each member of our Congressional delegation, encouraging them to continue the LCDBG program.
“It’s tremendous for all of Louisiana.”
