St. Joseph water system repairs to begin soon

Prayers are being answered for the citizens of St. Joseph regarding the poor condition of the town’s water system.
Repairs to the aging water system will begin in the next few weeks.
Senator Francis Thompson stated that he has been keeping a close eye on the state of St. Joseph’s water system and is happy to say that a few different forms of funding have been made available to the Town of St. Joseph and that changes are on the horizon.
First, the Town was recently funded with a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $553,621 to make improvements on an elevated water storage tank. The Town is currently in the process of conducting environmental review procedures and preparing the plans and specs.
Construction is expected to begin within six months.
Second, at the Senator’s urging, the Town also recently applied for emergency funding from the Community Water Enrichment Fund. An award of $250,000 is expected within weeks.  The Office of Community Development has produced the award letter for the Town of St. Joseph’s CWEF emergency application and has sent it on its way to the Governor’s Office.  
 Funding for repairs and upgrades to the Town’s water system was included in House Bill 2, the state’s capital outlay budget. In the current version of HB 2, $600,000 of Priority 1 funding and $7.2 million in Priority 5 funding is allocated to the Town’s water system.
“With funding in sight and construction expected soon, it is my sincere hope that the citizens of St. Joseph will soon find relief. I vow to continue to fight for clean water and I look forward to working with other community officials to ensure this happens as soon as possible,” stated Senator Thompson.
Representative Andy Anders added, “I will continue to work with all stakeholders to support the Town’s efforts to secure funding for water system improvements so that our citizens have access to clean, healthy water.”
“Currently, we are hoping that the necessary actions are taken by the State Legislature, Governor Jindal, and the State Bond Commission so that construction funds could be available as early as Fall 2015.  Should all of the necessary actions take place to secure the construction funding, H. Davis Cole & Associates, LLC will have the engineering plans completed so that bids for construction can be sought immediately upon receipt of funds from the State Capital Outlay Program,” said H. Davis Cole of the engineering firm.

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