Vidalia port receives $1.5 million for port

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Saturday, August 1, 2009

VIDALIA — Sen. Mary Landrieu has secured approximately $1.5 million for the Vidalia loading and unloading dock project, better known as the Vidalia port.

In a news release, the senator announced the funding had been secured through the 2010 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill.

The appropriation is specifically to build a port access road, and Landrieu’s news release said it will create 200 jobs.

Allowing for the construction of the road will eventually decrease the environmental impact caused by highway usage, Landrieu’s office said.

“It will do that because it will keep some of the trucks off the road because we will be using the waterway transportation rather than the highway transportation,” Concordia Economic Director Heather Malone said. “There will be less mileage on the road and less exhaust on the road.”

The money isn’t quite in hand yet, though.

The appropriation has cleared the Senate appropriations committee, and has to be approved along with the rest of the appropriations bill from the Senate floor. Once that is done, the bill will have to go to conference with the House of Representatives, and once out of conference both chambers will have to approve it again.

“By November or December we will be talking with the Department of Transportation about whatever project proposal we need to get the money,” Malone said. “We still have a lot of work to do but it is a goal we can reach.”

Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said during a recent trip to Washington, D.C., the senator had promised her help for the port project, and he wanted to thank her for following through with that promise.

He also said he believes the appropriation may help make the project eligible for port priority funds from the state.

“It is imperative we put this together, because we have industries that are interested to coming to the Miss-Lou, and this will be important for them,” Copeland said.

The road will be located across Louisiana 131 from the Louisiana Elastomer plant at the second Vidalia industrial park.

This appropriation brings the total federal funds given to the project to $2.7 million.

The project was also given $1.2 million from the Economic Development Authority for construction on the port, Malone said.

The access road will be the first step toward starting construction at the port site itself, she said.

Approximately $750,000 in state capital outlay funds was spent to bring the necessary utility infrastructure to the second industrial park.

Malone said economic development authorities are looking to see if that expense can retroactively applied as match funds for other grants.

“We are going to try that because the port is going to be an amenity to the second industrial park,” she said.

Likewise, Malone said the City of Vidalia will donate the property the port will be located on — valued at $400,000 — as an in-kind match for future funds.