Congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation in September 2018, but holdups with the Office of Budget Management led to a battle that ended when President Donald Trump ordered release of the funds last month.
The first round of checks went out earlier this week for homeowners in 56 of the state's 64 parishes who were impacted by flood event in 2016.
The first disbursement of grant… Read more »
An $8.8 million project aimed at easing traffic problems near the Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge may be finished next month.The state is opening a new, Terrace Avenue exit off Interstate 110 South.Work began last August and was supposed to be finished this month. "They are a little behind," said Shawn Wilson, secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development."I… Read more »
BATON ROUGE - A neighborhood along Acadian Thruway, near I-10 and Dawson Creek, is tired of flooding. The most recent storm on June 6, 2019, was the final straw.At least 17 homes flooded along Honeysuckle Ave. and surrounding streets. Piles of debris sit at the curb, as it has in the past since this isn't the first time some of these homes have flooded."You know, if something isn't done… Read more »
There's a lot of moving parts surrounding the Amite River. Several communities shed their water into the river's basin, which runs about 117 miles from its mouth in Mississippi, with roughly 37 miles of those being navigable. Much of those 37 navigable miles run along and through Livingston Parish, making the river one of the most important bodies of water. Knowing that fact, all eyes… Read more »
Households of $90,000 or more must appeal to the state for a hardship to repay the SBA loan. The ball will now be in the court of Governor John Bel Edwards to define "hardship."Distribution of relief funds for flood victims from 2016 came one step closer to fruition last week when the Federal Registry published guidance on the long-awaited end to the Duplication of Benefits provision. The… Read more »
We're all in this together. If there's anything to be gathered from the eight studies of varying scopes and scales on the Amite River Basin, it's that – no matter what we want to think, say, or do, every governmental entity, every community, and even every person has an effect on the watershed around them. There are currently eight – yes, eight – studies being… Read more »
The Duplication of Benefits (DOB) saga is a fascinating one, but nothing brings that into as sharp a relief as the ending. For those at home, DOB became a massive point of contention after the Great Flood of 2016. Local residents were pushed to apply for both the Restore Louisiana program and for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. The Restore program was funded with… Read more »
Louisiana will likely receive $230 million of the relief money from the flood events of 2016, which caused extensive damage in parishes across south central and southeast Louisiana.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued long-awaited guidance on the Small Business Administration loans being considered a duplication of benefits for federal grant dollars available… Read more »
While officials in the Broome administration try to find a source of matching funds—some $2.1 million a year for 30 years—needed to draw down a $255 million federal windfall earmarked for five, local drainage projects known as the East Baton Rouge Parish Flood Control Project, they're also trying to secure the matching funds needed to get a Stormwater Master Plan… Read more »
The wait is over. According to U.S. Congressman Garret Graves (R-District 6) the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released Duplication of Benefits (DOB) legal guidance. Graves said that the 53-page document will be sent to the State of Louisiana for processing, and outlines changes that must be made in the Restore Louisiana program to match new guidelines. Once the… Read more »
