By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Slidell city officials should have a pleasant task coming in the near future.
They will get to spend what is expected to be just over $3 million in BP Oil settlement money, which is the total the City Council recently voted to approve as their share of the agreement. It was part of an overall $18.7 billion settlement nationwide after the BP Oil spill in the Gulf, of which Louisiana got $6.8 billion.
From there, individual governmental bodies all got a piece of the pie.
Slidell’s City Council met in executive session recently to decide whether that sum was enough for what was considered economic damages, but short of taking on an entirely separate legal battle to get more money, city officials voted to accept the $3.002 million allotted for Slidell.
From here, the city is waiting to get the money, which should come in a lump sum. At that point, Slidell Mayor Freddy Drennan will have his own recommendation of how to spend the money, and all City Council members will also have input. At that point there will have to be a consensus of what to do with the money.
As a one-time lump sum of money, the cash must be spent on a non-recurring expense, meaning it would be very difficult, although not impossible, to utilize it to give city workers a one-time bonus of sorts.
Drennan said his prime interest is to “do something that would make the most long-term, economic impact on the city.”
While he, nor City Council members have made any definite decisions, Drennan said he agreed that spending it to bring the Tammany Trace from Thompson Road all the way to Heritage Park is the kind of thing he has in mind, or to spend it on a new water tower that is needed for Slidell in the Old Spanish Trail area.
“We are seeing a lot of new development in the Old Spanish Trail area, much of it due to the Fremaux Town Center opening, so we have got to get a new water tower in that area at some point. This would certainly help pay for that,” he said.
Councilman Bill Borchert said he definitely liked the idea of spending the money on the Trace, since it would have a permanent positive effect for city residents.
Meanwhile, Councilman Sam Abney had an entirely different approach in considering the money, saying the BP settlement was supposed to be for coastal destruction, so he thinks the money should be used for some kind of environmental, or coastal restoration in the Slidell area.
Councilman Val Vanney said he wants it to go to infrastructure work, even though the city admittedly needs tens of millions to fix all the sewer, water and road problems they face.
Vanney also said he liked the idea of trying to do something for city employees since “we’re losing key employees in top positions due to money, and this might be something that could help in that situation.”
The deadline of July 15 recently passed for all government bodies to accept the money and now everyone is waiting for the checks to arrive, although no specific timetable has been given for that.