NEW IBERIA — Emergency funds in the amount of $3,011,136,886.60 is headed to Louisiana as a part of the American Rescue Plan. For some parishes, the deadline on how it will spend that money is just a few weeks away.
Iberia Parish is set to receive $13,563,659.00.
On Wednesday night, the parish council voted to use more than 1.6 million dollars to update the Coteau water system.
"Coteau water works was a co-op, Iberia Parish took over many years ago. A lot of the equipment they have is old. We want to replace things, not only that, we want to try to get Coteau Water Works district 3 to expand to help more of Iberia parish," Iberia Parish President Larry Richard said.
Richard says the money from the ARPA will be matched with a 5 million dollar grant from the state.
"Anytime we can spend $1.6 million, and get 6 million dollars plus worth of work is a big deal," Richard said.
"Iberia parish is trying to get as much bang for our buck."
At its next meeting, the council is expected to vote to use more than 1.3 million dollars to upgrade Sewage District 1's 40-year-old sewage system.
"It's going to take a lot to get it to another level, in an area we can get all of our constituents at a topnotch level," Director of Sewage Sistrict 1 Brad Craduer said.
Richard says other projects will soon be released to the public.
