In an effort to make the rail spur at the parish’s Industrial Park more suitable for potential lessees such as Cabot Corporation, the Evangeline Parish Police Jury voted Wednesday during a special meeting to seek $270 thousand dollars from the State Bonding Commission.
The matter was brought up during discussion of grant requirements for work to be done on the rail spur. The grant would come from the Delta Regional Authority and would cover the “refurbishing as well as making additional tracks,” according to Secretary-Treasurer Donald Bergeron.
Bergeron explained that the current spur is 1,200 feet long and holds 12 rail cars. There is additional space to extend the spur in excess of 785 feet to hold approximately 32 or 33 rail cars in total.
“The maximum amount of the grant is $250 thousand,” said Bergeron. “I believe we have the ability to scale back our project if we’re awarded less money, or the jury can say we’re building the whole thing.”
Being that the cost of the total proposed project is $520 thousand, the police jury would have to go before the
Bond Commission in order to “borrow money to finance the whole project,” according to Bergeron.
“I would think that, to approach the Bond Commission, we would have to have a lease in place to show that there is going to be a stream of income to cover the bond,” said attorney Marcus Fontenot.
As Bergeron pointed out, the police jury does not currently have a lease with Cabot but did have one previously. The carbon black facility is; however, still using the spur to put there empty box cars. No lease terms with Cabot were discussed during the meeting.
In a related matter, the police jury voted to name itself as a job creator in order to satisfy a grant requirement. “The one hiccup in all of this that came to our attention a little late is that DRA applications now are very much tied to job creation,” said Bergeron. “Cabot is going through an expansion, so we thought it was a slam dunk. But, it wasn’t that easy. Cabot has not agreed to sign the participation agreement paperwork indicating that they would be hiring anyone that is required.”
Bergeron stated that the local Cabot office has expressed to him that jobs would be created during their expansion but was still waiting to hear back from the corporate office before any paperwork is signed.
Juror Sidney Fontenot proposed an idea for the jury to hire one person to operate a facility at the rail spur where the jury “could start servicing and having our limestone and other road materials delivered to the yard.”
The application deadline for the grant was Friday.
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By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor