Council moves money to help fund project

Morgan City officials plan to commit local supplemental funding for improving Phase 1 of the wharf project.

The city council approved a resolution Tuesday that directs $619,218 to the wharf project.

The resolution is required because the supplemental funding is above the state’s Community Development Block Grant of $1.3 million issued to the city by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to HUD regulations, in addition to the grant money, the city’s supplemental funding has to be accounted for.

The resolution says $354,048 of the $619,218 had previously been committed toward the project. It was money received from the Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District and the H & B Young Foundation.

The remaining $265,170 will come from the city’s road royalties, said Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi. It is the city’s 3/10th-center sales tax for roads, sidewalks, riverfront walk and a list of other things that include the wharf.

“We went outside and collected a bunch of money to account for that,” Grizzaffi said. “The original bid was $1.68 million.

“The grant was only $1.3 million, so we had to account for that money early on.

“Now we’ve increased by going to this composite decking, which is more outside the grant money, and we’ve got to fill out this paperwork to justify where we are getting that money from. So this is all procedural.”

The original deck portion of the wharf was going to be wood, Grizzaffi said. And the wharf committee made a recommendation that we switch to a plastic, which is a composite decking.

“We went ahead and made those changes,” Grizzaffi said. “And the state came back and said you have to have a resolution. What we’re doing right now is to finalize that step. We’re just following the state’s procedure.”

During Tuesday’s council meeting, the council adopted the city’s 2016 amended budget for the fiscal year that began Jan. 1 and ends Dec. 31.

The revenues amended for 2016 were $33.8 million. Expenditures totaled $32.9 million, leaving a net excess of $909,264.

The net excess will be applied to the current fund balance of $27.2 million, totaling $28.2 million for the fiscal year ending 2016.

In other news, OST100 group organizer Charlotte Kahl recognized the city as a designated location highway site for the Old Spanish Trail.

Kahl’s mission is to get the Old Spanish Trail recognized as a national designated highway. The highway starts in St. Augustine, Florida and ends in California.

The trail is originally located on U.S. 90, but with the state’s plans to make changes to the highway, La. 182 will be designated as the scenic byway route for the Old Spanish Trail.

Also, the council approved Café JoJo’s request to host Rhythms on the River April 21-June 16.