By T. Scott Boatright
State Representatives Chris Turner and Rashid Young, who each serve portions of Lincoln Parish, both appeared before the Lincoln Parish Police Jury Tuesday evening during the LPPJ’s July meeting to present an update on the recent Louisiana Legislative session.
And they came bearing some good news.
But good news doesn’t always come without a fight, Turner noted.
“We had 900-some-odd bills in the (state) House, I think 504 in the Senate and about 700 resolutions,” Turner said. “So, there was a lot going on this time with a new governor and everybody trying to feel everything out because it was different than the other five years I’ve been down there. It was a different atmosphere this time around.
“We will try to get a little more for you next year before we run out of money. Trust me that I’ll try to do everything we can do. It was a fight to get the money for the fire department. And it was a fight for Dubach. There weren’t many resources out there. We got a few crumbs I guess you could say.”
Following is information about a few of those “crumbs” Turner and Young discussed with the LPPJ:
Cooktown Road Overpass
“I first want to update the I-20 bridge — Tech Drive (Cooktown Road overpass) project),” Turner said. “The I-20 bridge does have money allocated for it. I can’t give you a timeline, but the money is there. They’re still working on the planning but hopefully in 2025 we’ll start hearing something on that.
“We also got $20 million for work on I-20 near the Industry exit. If you want to drive in the left lane, I think it’s $21 million to fix that.”
HB940 authorizing the issuance of bonds to finance deferred maintenance projects included in the College and University Deferred Maintenance and Capital Improvement Program
“That is a deferred maintenance bill that will pump in about $60 million to Louisiana Tech and I think it’s about $74 million to Grambling over the next 10 years, so if anybody knows of a leaky roof, sewer or water problem or HVAC, I think those are the mostly costly things, at the universities, there’s some money to fix that,” Turner said.
But Turner also warned not all fixes will be quick.
“There’s about a $2 billion backlog in the state and (covering) about 70% of the square footage that Louisiana owns,” Turner said. “That’s a bill that had a bunch of nays until discussed where everybody understood it and then came back all yeas.”
New Industry
“Hopefully there’s something exciting coming up for north Louisiana in the next couple of months,” Turner said. “We should hear an announcement soon that will be major to our economy. It’s something that the Governor and Speaker have worked very closely on, and I just got lucky enough to carry the bill for the sales tax rebates for it.
“It’s going to be a huge industry and will affect us although I don’t think it will be in this area. They haven’t announced and I don’t know for sure yet, but it’s not going to be in Lincoln Parish, but it should be close enough that it will affect us. It’s a huge investment.”
HB461 providing for the confidentiality of documents related to local and parish economic development projects
“It’s a pretty controversial bill but was signed by the Governor,” Young said. “What it does is it protects parish governments and their economic development negotiations so that as you bring businesses into the parish and negotiate with those organizations in confidence, there’s some added protections in there for you so that you don’t have to disclose certain details of negotiations until two years after the project was successful or not successful.
“Some people liked it, some didn’t, but it’s worth noting because every other governmental entity at the state level has those protections but the parish governments did not have those protections, so it may help (the LPPJ) secure some economic development projects without folks getting into the middle of what you’re doing.”
Supplemental appropriations
“We got half-a-million dollars for the fire district, and I think another $225,000 for the industrial park the LED was trying to push and another $150 for planning money,” Turner said. “So, we came out pretty good on that. We were able to help Dubach, too, with the loss of their police vehicle, so I feel pretty good about that.
“There’s a lot going on at Grambling and a lot going on at Tech. The Forestry Research Center (at Tech) I think most of y’all have heard about, they got I think just enough dollars to get that started and also the new athletic center on the north end zone as well as a money for the steam system for their heating and cooling that got a good bit of money, too.”
Young said Grambling State will receive some help, too, following the legislative session.
“We secured $250,000 for Grambling State athletics,” Young said. “And there will soon be a huge announcement that will soon be made about the digital library.
“And while it’s a small project, it’s an important project, but there is a bus stop right near the Grambling State University’s campus that has no cover, and when those students and non-students are out there waiting for those buses, there’s no protection. They are subject to whatever weather conditions are out there.
“Councilwoman (DeVaria) Ponton in Grambling requested that project and we are going to look out for that project. It is a small project but will be huge for people around Grambling.”
Young said the city of Grambling will also receive additional state funding.
“I think there’s about $260,000 to $270,00 to upgrade Grambling’s Community Center,” Young said. “We’ve got a lot of senior citizens that are over there a lot doing games and things like that.”
