JOHN PERKINS
There was a sense of irrational exuberance inside the Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments’ (NLCOG) meeting room in the late spring 2019 monthly meeting. The room was filled with the usual business leaders from this third-largest city in one of the top 50 states in the Union.
It is rare to see so many gathered for NLCOG meetings. NLCOG spends a lot of other people’s tax money on projects that we can’t afford to keep up once completed. They are planning to spend $17 million on just one of two “service roads” for I-69, or at least where they would like to see I-69 built through Louisiana. There are no plans to build I-69 through Louisiana. They are hoping that TXDOT and the FHWA will “see that we mean business about I-69,” as Mayor Lo Walker said.
Well, the agenda item that the business leaders came to celebrate -- some looked like they had been tailgating since the night before -- was announced. Our local legislative delegation had unanimously supported a bill to move $100 million from the “shovel ready” Jimmie Davis Bridge rebuild project to the not nearly “shovel ready” I-49 ICC project. That stopped the JDB rebuild dead. It would have to find funding somewhere else.
That British Petroleum settlement money was moved “with unanimous support from our local legislative delegation. The I-49 project would have the state match money, or a $100 million portion, anyway. No word on the local match funding; locals are paying 13% of the $90 million Barksdale Gate project over the next 12 years. There is also federal money and state GARVEE Bond money paying for that project.
Maybe it wasn’t that our bipartisan delegation was unanimous in support for robbing the JDB project to pay for the I-49 ICC project. Maybe our delegates were tired and wanted to end the session and come home. After all, they can always correct fiscal mistakes made in the next fiscal session every two years. Maybe they wanted to go home and fix it next time.
It is now 2021, and Louisiana House Bill 645 will restore the BP settlement money to the JDB rebuild project and is being considered by the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee now. Local Representatives Raymond Crews of Bossier and Larry Bagley of Stonewall are on that committee. They need to hear from those of us who drive that obsolete old bridge every day and those of us who no longer drive it because it is too dicey. Call (225) 342-6945 and leave a message for Crews and Bagley. Know this: Whichever build alternative is eventually decided won’t be “shovel ready” until there is a Record of Decision (RoD) and the property acquisition and surveys have been completed with a final cost estimate (probably $1 billion). NLCOG leaders say we can drive I-49 as early as 2039 to boot. If all goes well. Please consider supporting my birthday fundraiser on Facebook and let me know what you think: PerkWrites@gmail.com
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE May 7 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.