Parish lands $20 million in grants in two years

In a little over two years, St. Charles Parish has secured more than $20 million in grants, which will help fund parish projects like a new community center and paved paths on the levees while also allowing for numerous drainage improvements throughout the area.

Obtaining that money has been no easy task, and has often forced Grants Officer Holly Fonseca to put in a lot of late nights at the courthouse. But Fonseca says that unless the parish takes an aggressive approach to grant funding, that money could go elsewhere.

“Some of the funds are allocated to us and some of the funds are competitive, but you have to apply for either,” she said. “We have the resources, such as the grants office, and the advanced technology to go after this funding when compared to other parishes.”

In 2008, Fonseca’s first year as grants officer and Parish President V.J. St. Pierre’s first year in office, St. Charles secured almost $7 million in grants that have gone or will go towards projects such as a new Emergency Operations Center, Bonnet Carre Spillway road repairs and the Cousins Canal pump station. In 2009, the parish received more than $11 million in grants that included the complete funding of a new community center and money to help extend the paved paths on top of the Mississippi River levees.

Already this year, the parish has been allocated $125,000 to use for a new Highway 90 boat launch and new docks at the spillway for recreational fishing. Another big competitive grant this year was the $1.4 million the parish obtained for new bar screen cleaners at the Lakewood pump station.

“Some of these projects that are taking place now or will take place in the future never would have gotten done if it wasn’t for these grants,” Fonseca said. “Because we are getting this grant funding, we can use parish money for other projects.

“It has really cushioned our government from the impacts of the economy.”

St. Pierre agrees.

“It’s extremely important for us to be competitive when it comes to grant funding,” he said. “Knowing what’s available, not only from the state and federal government but also from groups such as nonprofits, is a way for us to accomplish what current funding won’t allow without increasing the tax burden on our citizens.

“With large-scale hurricane protection and drainage projects on the horizon, we know we will need outside and/or federal funding. Having a handle on grants gives us the inside track. “

All of these grants began simply as an application that the parish filled out in an attempt to qualify for funding.

Fonseca said the parish usually gets a notice of the availability of grant funding from state agencies or corporations, and then has a normal timeframe of four to six weeks to submit an application. But these aren’t applications that most residents are used to filling out.

Instead, they are filled with complex data that the parish must enter to show that they meet the strict grant criteria.

“Sometimes I already have a project on my radar that would qualify for the grant, while other times I send out an e-mail to other departments, such as public works, to see if they have a project that would qualify,” Fonseca said. “It’s really a team effort within the government that involves tremendous help from our state legislators and even involves those outside of government, such as the school system, Sheriff’s Office, or St. Charles Parish Hospital.

“Together, we help compile the data we need for the grant application. We have been very successful.”

As an example of how complicated securing a grant can be, take the $4.8 million Louisiana Community Development Block Grant the parish was allocated last year for a new community center.

To receive the grant, the parish has to show that at least 51 percent of the residents who will benefit from the center are low to moderate income. Because the funding is Gustav/Ike related, the parish also has to show how the center will help aid recovery efforts after a storm.

Since only 33 percent of the parish’s residents qualify as being in the low to moderate income bracket, the parish will show in the grant application how the services they would provide from the community center, such as the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and the annual Christmas toy distribution to underprivileged children, will be a major benefit to those residents.

In fact, because the grant is so complicated, Fonseca is working closely with a consultant hired to help secure the grant funding and is also managing the project.

“The Disaster Recovery CDBG grant program is very complicated. We have to make sure the parish adheres to those federal regulations,” she said.

While many grants the parish receives come from federal programs funneled through state agencies, others are nationally competitive in scope and are even tougher to obtain. Fonseca said that the $750,000 FEMA grant the parish received for a new EOC was one of over 600 applications. Of those, only 22 were awarded funding.

“They were giving out only $14.5 million nationwide and we were one of the applications chosen, which was a very big deal,” she said. “You rarely get a chance to receive grant funding for bricks and mortar to construct a facility.”

Fonseca, who was an accountant for 15 years before signing on with the parish at the tail end of Albert Laque’s administration, never thought she would be helping St. Charles secure all this funding. In fact, she only applied for the grants officer position after reading an article where St. Pierre expressed disappointment over the amount of applications he had received for appointed staff positions.

“I started as an accountant for the parish four months before Albert Laque left office, and when Mr. St. Pierre became parish president, I remember reading that article,” she said. “I told our finance director at the time, Lorrie Toups, that I was considering applying for the job and she encouraged me to do so.”

Fonseca, who had never even spoken to St. Pierre before her interview, got the job. Now, she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“I enjoy this job because it keeps me busy and it never gets monotonous because I get to meet with all these different people and agencies,” she said. “I’m still excited every time we get the good news on a grant and so is everyone else here.”

 

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