Morgan City port center construction underway

Construction work is underway at the site for the Port of Morgan City’s Government Emergency and Operations Center with piles being driven this week, port officials said Monday.
The Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District commission met Monday at the Port of Morgan City.
Project Manager Walt Adams said M.D. Descant in Bunkie, the contractor for the construction phase of the project, was issued a notice to proceed on Dec. 18, 2014. The contractor mobilized at the site prior to the Christmas holidays, Adams said.
The center will be located on La. 182 adjacent to the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium. The building can serve as an emergency command center during events such as hurricanes and will also house tenants from governmental agencies on a day-to-day basis.
Within the next 30 days to 45 days, Port Director Raymond “Mac” Wade hopes to be able to announce which governmental tenants will be housed in the center, he said. The center is only for governmental entities, he said.
During 2014, the first phase of work to prepare the site for construction was completed by Acadiane Renovations in Franklin.
The pile system is in the process of being installed, Adams said. Piles began to be driven at the site Jan. 7, and a total of 260 piles, each of them 65 feet long, will be installed at the site, Wade said. Pile driving will finish probably by early next week, he said. At that point, the contractor will pour the pile caps, which will support the building, he said.
The contracted completion date for the roughly $11 million center is Oct. 9, Adams said. However, officials plan to be finished ahead of that date and be ready to occupy the first floor of the two-story building by the end of September, Wade said.
The center is being paid for with $7.1 million in state funding while the rest of the money is coming from port funds. To date, slightly more than $1.5 million has been spent on the project, Adams said.
By the February port meeting, Adams hopes to be able to present recommendations for the special systems and equipment budget, he said. Much of that equipment is sensitive information so officials will have to be careful about reporting on those security-related items, he said.
Also at the meeting, Blaine Crochet of Darnell, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick presented the district’s 2013-14 fiscal year audit report. The auditor issued unmodified opinions, which are the cleanest opinions possible, on the district’s financial statements and compliance with the major federal award programs, he said. Findings in the report did not lead the auditor to modify its opinions, which would have been negative, Crochet said.
The first finding in the audit was the inadequate segregation of accounting functions, which is a repeat finding due to the district having a limited number of personnel, Crochet said. The cost of achieving segregation of accounting functions for the district exceeds the benefits from doing so, he said.
The auditor also noted instances of non-compliance with two requirements relating to the 2010 port security grant. One finding was due to non-compliance with reporting requirements, Crochet said. Federal financial reports are required to be filed on a quarterly basis and are due within 30 days at the end of each calendar quarter.
Semi-annual assistance progress reports are also required to be filed within 30 days after the end of the reporting period, Crochet said.
Ten of the 17 federal financial reports that were tested in relation to the grant were submitted after the due date, Crochet said. Three tested semi-annual assistance progress reports were submitted after the due date as well, he said.
Management’s response to the finding was that the late reporting was a result of difficulty accessing the website where the reports must be filed, Crochet said.
The final finding was due to non-compliance with cash management requirements, Crochet said. The auditor noted that funds totaling about $200,000 were transferred to the district within the first six months of 2013 but were not obligated for disbursement under the grant award until March 2014, Crochet said. Management indicated that these funds were initially drawn to fund the projects of two sub-recipients that ultimately declined the grant awards through the district, Crochet said. Those two sub-recipients were McDermott and Magellan, Port Special Projects Coordinator Mike Knobloch said.
Additionally, the district needed to request an extension of the grant award period, which extended through May 2014 for action that occurred in December 2013, he said. “The district chose not to obligate any funds under the award during the time period in which it awaited a decision on the grant extension period request,” Crochet said.
Management responded that these occurrences resulted in the significant amount of time that elapsed between the initial drawdown and ultimate disbursement of funds, Crochet said. Management added that the district plans to improve its policies and procedures to maintain compliance with cash management requirements of grant funding, he said.
In other business, the commission:
—Approved Commission President Jerry Gauthier to sign a letter of no objection from Miller Engineers & Associates Inc. on behalf of the Town of Berwick regarding a sewer project.
—Approved Wade to sign a consent form from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be able to cross the corps’ right-of-way.
—Approved a contract in the amount of $15,020 for Conestoga-Rovers & Associates to provide updated facility safety and response plans for the port.
—Approved a contract with Bean Consulting to help with engineering regarding dredging efforts.
—Approved the port to request price quotes for a company to decipher surveying information on port’s security vessel.