By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

EDGARD – The St. John Parish Council on Tuesday granted approval for the parish to advertise for bids to handle an expansion at the Lions Water Treatment Plant in Reserve.

Funding for the major expansion work will be taken from the $29.5 million bond issue that was approved back in April.

Council members unanimously approved authorization to seek bids to enlarge capacity at the plant during the council’s finance committee meeting Tuesday. St. John Acting Chief Administrative Officer Buddy Boe said the design work for the project is about 95 percent complete and will be ready by the time a winning bid is secured.

Plans for the expansion call for an increase in treatment capacity from 3 million gallons per day to 5 million gallons per day. Boe said the work is expected to cost the parish about $4.1 million, which will be completely covered by the bond issue funds.

Boe said the plant, which provides drinking water from the Mississippi River to parts of LaPlace, Reserve and Garyville, has not seen improvement work since about 1997. He said parish leaders have been trying to expand capacity at the facility for a number of years.

Boe said Lions has been operating consistently at about 95 percent capacity and added communities typically look to expand at or around the 80 percent threshold.

He said this expansion would take care of St. John Parish’s east bank quantity issues for the next 15 to 20 years.