State Grants aid city projects

The city of Eunice is slated to receive more than $700,000 in state grants to revitalize infrastructure, according to an announcement made on Monday by District 41 State Representative Mickey Guillory.
Eunice stands to receive: $45,000 for needed City Lake levee site work, $225,000 for maintenance and upgrades to the Wastewater Treatment Facility and $450,000 for the cast iron gas line replacement project, according to documentation submitted by Guillory.
He said that the city applied for the three projects and was approved for the funding of all three projects thanks to shepherding of the requests by him and other area legislators, Senators Elbert Guillory and Eric LaFleur.
“As always, I try to work for the local people that I represent and fortunately I am on the Ways and Means Committee, I was able to shepherd this request through the process and get it approved for the city of Eunice,” said Rep. Guillory. “Senator Elbert Guillory and Senator Eric LaFleur each submitted a letter of support for the three projects.”
The announcement came as a pleasant shock to Eunice Mayor Claud “Rusty” Moody, Jr.
“Great things happen when people work together at all levels of government,” said Moody. “This is your local government at work for the betterment of the citizens of Eunice.”
Moody said that the state funding will go a long way to making a much-needed replacement to the more than 14 miles of the city’s cast iron gas lines. He said that the funding for the wastewater facility will involve preventative maintenance by replacing many concrete sewerage pipes.
“What happens with the concrete sewerage pipe is that the sewerage gives off an acid that eats away at the concrete,” said Moody. “So, in a lot of instances, you have concrete pipes and the top of the pipe is out, eaten away. And this lets a lot of water in when it rains. And we have a lot of problems in various places because of that.”
Moody said that more rainwater means more processing through the Eunice Wastewater Facility. He said that some of the sewer lines in Eunice are “well over 50 years old” as the city has taken note of “cave-ins”on city streets.
As far as the cast iron gas line replacement, Moody said that the city recently changed out a city block worth of old gas lines. The cost for one city block was nearly $37,000.
“So, you can see that the $450,000 isn’t going to go very far,” said Moody. “But at least it’s a start in the right direction.”