Staff: Cross Gates getting millions
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – After Parish President Mike Cooper announced in February of this year that St. Tammany received a second round of multi-million-dollar grants for parish water system upgrades you would think he would be hailed for the work his staff did to bring the dollars here from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Instead, some residents in the long troubled Cross Gates system run by the parish-owned Tammany Utilities were loudly complaining about what they claimed was millions of dollars going to a host of other water systems besides their own.
Cooper responded by calling together a host of top parish officials to show that the criticism was unwarranted.
“At best, the false information going out is due to a lack of understanding in both water systems and grant applications. At worst, it is an attempt to discredit our efforts for political aspirations,” he said, with his Oct. 14 re-election bid right around the corner.
The parish first announced in January of 2022 that an initial grant was received in the amount of $22.8 million, followed in February of this year by news that the parish would be getting an additional $48.3 million—again, to improve problems in 19 different parish water systems.
However, it was the Cross Gates system that has been at the center of eastern St. Tammany water problems for several years, including what is now being called the “Easter leak” in 2022, which is just one of a number of incidents in recent years that led to residents there vehemently complaining over-and-over to Cooper.
That was followed by Councilman Mike Smith saying he was “not happy” with the parish president because he thought much more of the money would be coming to this area where Tammany Utilities serves approximately 8,100 customers in numerous Military Road area developments, including Cross Gates.
That story line began to quickly make the rounds on social media, largely by Cross Gates residents, who saw millions of dollars going to 18 other water systems after their own problems were frequently in the news for various issues.
Cooper called together a group of five top ranking parish officials, including Director of Utilities Chris Tissue, to refute those allegations and explain why there is a reason a lot of money is going to other systems. Additionally, they stated that out of the $43.2 million from the two grants going to eastern parish systems, Cross Gates will be benefitting from approximately $13.3 million of the money, almost a third of what the parish received.
Parish Public Information Officer Michael Vinsanau said there will be two new water towers built for the area, one being a complete new well and tower for Willowwood—which provides a lot of the water for Cross Gates homes. There will also be a new treatment facility at that well.
Smith still said he thought that more could have been done for Cross Gates, “and I believe that in the time covering both grants, they took their eye off the ball—which was the Cross Gates system that needs so much work.”
Speaking of political issues in the entire situation, David Cougle is challenging Smith for his District 12 Parish Council seat on Oct. 14 and believes the incumbent is using the water situation as a way to win votes.
“On his campaign flyer, Mike Smith makes it look like he got the $40 million all by himself,” Cougle said. “He has been a councilman for four years and still hasn’t been able to get anything done to fix the Cross Gates water system.”
However, Tissue did acknowledge the distribution system for the Cross Gates area is not being changed and while there are plenty of people who have publicly complained about how bad the water tastes, with others saying they have had skin rashes or gotten sick, he said the water is positively safe to drink.
“We test it every day, and the Louisiana Health Department comes down to test it monthly,” he said. “The water has not failed any recent tests. The idea that the water is not safe to drink is overblown—it’s just not true.”
Parish staffers explained that many administration heads, and other employees, “worked extremely hard to find the best way we could to get the most money from these grants coming to St. Tammany, all with the intent to help as many systems as possible.”
The dollars were available at the state level from the ARPA, but systems around the state had to fill out a grant application with numerous ways to score points and prove their system needed the money for upgrades. The more points the system received, the more money they could get.
But that was another reason for complaints. Cross Gates scored 40-out-of-40 for a fourth-place ranking in the Water Sector Grant Application out of approximately 80 water systems in the state that applied for the money, leading some residents to wonder why more wasn’t being done to their system.
No system was allowed to get more than a $5 million grant, regardless how big it is, but Vinsanau said the creative thinking of their staff led to the large amounts of money on the two grants, bringing in a total of $71.1 million to benefit 19 parish systems. In the big picture, it will benefit Cross Gates residents in a bigger way than they could have been on their own.
“Because we brought in a number of smaller eastern St. Tammany water systems, they each were eligible for $5 million. Then we used some of that money to benefit the entire East St. Tammany water system by connecting them. It gave us the money to build the expensive water towers and wells that will help Cross Gates, as well as the smaller systems,” he said.
“Without doing it that way we could never have gotten this much money and then Cross Gates wouldn’t have had as much benefitting their system,” Vinsanau added.
Some critics still weren’t happy with millions of dollars going to places like the Military Ridge Development where Ozone Pines has only 25 customers, the Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park with 23 customers, or the Southern Manor Mobile Home Park that only has 85 customers.
But Vinsansau reiterated that if those smaller systems didn’t all qualify for up to $5 million, all of whom could send some money to the regional wells and water tower upgrades and construction in what will become an eastern St. Tammany water system, there wouldn’t have been enough money to benefit Cross Gates in a substantial way.
Other smaller systems that will see upgrades in the eastern St. Tammany water system include Tammany Mobile Home Park, SMJ Mobile Home & RV Park, the River Oaks water storage tower and several other smaller areas of homes throughout the Military Road and Brownswitch Road areas, where water lines will be extended to their homes.
The new water towers will also increase pressure in the system after Fire District #1 recently tested hydrants in the area and complained that there wasn’t acceptable pressure in some areas to fight fires.
Since Tissue insisted the water quality is acceptable, Vinsanau was asked why there is a large number of complaints on social media.
“People begin to feed to the speculation, but the bottom line is that according to LDH standards, the water is safe for anything,” he noted. “I think it’s reflective of problems in water systems throughout St. Tammany and the state. All of them have very old pipes and wells—it’s an incredibly expensive situation to address and we are all doing our best.
Tissue was asked to rate the quality of the Cross Gates distribution system and lines and said, “about a 6 to 7” on a scale with 10 being the best.
“Our staff did an amazing job to bring in these dollars for St. Tammany water systems since my promise has always been to do all we can to provide safe water to all the residents of our parish,” Cooper added.
St. Tammany also benefitted with more points due to the Parish Council approving a $7 million matching grant, another criteria to rate higher for the money.
Work for the improvements in the east is almost ready to start after engineering plans have been complete, and all the work must be completed by December 2026, or grant money will be lost.
“We are hopeful that once people see shovels in the ground and work getting done, they will see how much we are trying do to improve water for everyone,” Vinsanau said.