DONALDSONVILLE, La. (BRPROUD) – Through a federal grant program established by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, $25 million in checks were given to several municipalities in Louisiana.
“Today is day two in our agency’s nationwide tour giving out nearly two-hundred million dollars in nearly 20 states in the country,” said Tristan Brown, Deputy Administrator of PHMSA. “This program aims to improve a thousand miles of high-risk legacy pipes, creating thousands of good-paying pipeline jobs and modernizing infrastructure that has been around for decades and indeed centuries.”
Community leaders, city workers and elected officials attended a news conference at Crescent Park. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy who pushed for this program to come to Louisiana presented the checks and said Louisiana will get the most amount of money with a focus on small towns.
“When they were there and I was there, we were thinking about our smaller towns. The bigger towns, they have the resources, the smaller towns, they don’t. And it kind of feeds on itself,” Cassidy said.
Some of the funding recipients include the City of Donaldsonville, the City of Carencro, Morgan City, Gas Utility District #2 of East Feliciana, the Town of Woodworth and the Village of Montpelier.
During the grant presentation, Donaldsonville was given the most amount of money. The city received $10 million. Mayor Leroy Sullivan of Donaldsonville wasn’t aware of the amount and was surprised by the news during the presentation. Sullivan said he is excited and very grateful for the funding.
“With this money and the amount of money that we get on a state level, we’re going to be probably halfway there as far as having all of the lines replaced so it’s a good feeling to know we’re accomplishing that,” Sullivan said.
