By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

VACHERIE – The St. James Parish Council on Wednesday unanimously approved issuance of up to $85 million in Go Zone bonds to help fund construction of an expansion at NuStar Energy’s petrochemical storage facility on the west bank of St. James Parish.

The low-interest bonds will go toward construction of the first phase of expansion at the St. James facility, which is situated on River Road. The project will double the size of the tank farm from 4.8 million barrel capacity to about 9 million barrel capacity, adding 24 tanks of various sizes to the facility’s footprint.

Parish Bond Attorney Hugh Martin said although the bonds are issued through the council, the parish bears no responsibility as far as making payments on them. He said NuStar is solely responsible for taking care of any debt incurred.

Martin also said the Go Zone bonds are exempt from federal and state income taxes, which allows the company to pay less interest over time.

The Go Zone bonds were created by an act of congress as a way to jumpstart economic growth in the region following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Parish President Dale Hymel said the NuStar project may be one of the last projects funded by the Go Zone bonds, as the remaining Go Zone money must be issued by the end of the year.

Hymel said Wednesday that the parish’s request must now go before the State Bond Commission for final approval before they can be issued to the company. He said the bond commission must approve the sale and issuance of the bonds before Dec. 31. Hymel said after the meeting he was not sure when the bond commission would approve the sale but said he felt confident it would be before the end of the year.

The bonds, if approved by the commission, will be issued as fixed rate bonds bearing an interest rate not to exceed 10 percent per year with a 30-year maturity date.

This first phase of expansion at NuStar, which is expected to be operating by August 2011, will bring about 400 new jobs to the St. James Parish region.

In other action from Wednesday, the council unanimously approved a resolution in support of the employees of Imperial Sugar Refinery in Gramercy, who are expected to be laid off when Louisiana Sugar Refining takes control of the facility on Jan. 1.

The resolution asked that LSR retain those workers from Imperial and also give them first consideration for rehire once LSR takes over.

The council also approved the introduction of an ordinance to allow the parish to purchase about 316 acres of swamp land on the west bank of the parish from the Bayou Chevreuil Land Co. Hymel said the parish would use about $1.5 million from the state’s Capital Outlay Program to make the purchase. Hymel said this is the fourth such land purchase made by the parish in recent years.

“This just makes it easier for us and the state when projects come up that use that land,” Hymel said. “Now there is no need to find a land owner before work can be done.”