Federal watchdog group calls marina waste of funds
UPDATED 6:48 PM CDT Oct 31, 2013
Read more: http://www.wdsu.com/news/investigations/iteam-millions-spent-on-marina-no-one-can-use/-/13627428/22743620/-/rdlpucz/-/index.html#ixzz2jQCPIGsF
A community could do a lot with $12 million -- like build a top-of-the-line marina complex to be hailed as an economic boon to the neighborhood.
However, for a marina project in Plaquemines Parish, there is no neighborhood -- and, officials now concede, no boon -- for the parish that pressed for the construction.
Months after its completion, the marina is a gigantic bust, and federal investigators may soon ask just how the marina project wound up underwater.
The marina was finished earlier this year in a part of Plaquemines Parish rich in history.
But some people asked why anyone thought it was a good idea to pour millions of government dollars into a marina in the middle of nowhere.
The lighthouse at Port Eads, at the southern tip of Plaquemines Parish, has withstood just about everything nature has thrown at it, but the marina hasn’t been as fortunate.
Battered by earlier storms and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, more than $12 million has been spent to rebuild the facility, records obtained by the WDSU I-Team show.
What is there is top-notch.
A new pier, fuel tanks, boat docks and cabins are just some of the vast improvements. But few have seen it. The facility sits unused, collecting cobwebs.
Fishermen like Barry Colligan have taken notice.
“They might never have anyone use it because of where it's at and the cost in maintaining the project,” he said.
Port Eads is 33 miles south of Venice, in the waterway known as South Pass. By boat, it’s a 45 minute ride, and there are no roads connecting it to the rest of the parish, which essentially means Plaquemines Parish spent $12 million on a marina that sits like an island.
The parish plan was to seek bids from companies that would pay for the opportunity to run the marina.
However, an internal memo sent in September from the parish attorney to the council shows no companies had any interest in that.
Plaquemines Parish councilman Burghart Turner is pointing the finger at Parish President Billy Nungesser.
“There is no plan, and at this point, we are stuck with it,” Turner said. “It’s almost as though the parish president has defrauded the federal government of millions of dollars.”
Turner said federal dollars shouldn’t have been used to fund the Port Eads project in the first place.
“Port Eads is in a floodplain area, and you can't use federal assets in a floodplain area -- well, it is, and we did,” Turner said.
After Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected the parish’s plan to rebuild the marina.
However, in December 2008, Nungesser traveled to Washington, D.C., to change some minds and successfully lobbied the federal government to green-light the project.
Work began in 2011, much to the dismay of some.
“Who (are) we building it for? If we are building it for outsiders, what's the benefit for this parish? How do the funds come back to this government? What's the benefit?” Turner said.
Outdoorsmen from places like Venice, Buras and Empire -- parishes in need of capital projects and new developments -- also want answers.
“The money would be better spent further north of this project,’ said Barry Colligan, who lives in Plaquemines Parish.
Records show the cost to operate the marina, if it were open, would be more than $2 million a year. Since no one placed a bid to run the facility, parish leaders now want to set up their own nonprofit group to control it.
“Now the council is talking about ... 'We should just give it away or turn it over to a non-profit,'” Turner said.
Documents reviewed by the I-Team show the parish has already begun selecting people to serve on the board of a nonprofit group yet to be formed.
“How are we going to handle it?” Turner said. “I don't know at this time, but giving it away is not an option. The mood is, ‘Let’s get it off our hands.’ How can we say that after we've spent millions upon millions? If that's the case, someone should go to jail because we have defrauded the federal government.”
Tom Schatz, with the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, reviewed the details of the project and video from WDSU.
"Building a marina for $11 million and not finding anyone to be able to run it is a good example of wasteful spending," Shatz said. "Members of Congress need to, not just look into FEMA, but other spending in Louisiana sent by the federal government to help the state recover."
When Nungesser was questioned by the I-Team about the marina no one can currently use, he said, “It ain't gonna make a lot of money, because it's a logistical nightmare.”
However, Nungesser said that at the time he secured the funding, it was the right thing to do.
“It was a viable part of the fishing industry,” Nungesser said. “They convinced me that was part of an economic engine for the fishing industry for Plaquemines Parish. … We submitted everything we had legally and ethically to FEMA.”
Colligan said he fears the project will never live up to its billing, and when people in the cash-strapped parish find out that $12 million was spent on an unused marina off the coast, they will be shocked.
The I-Team spoke with Jacque Kuchta, a big-game fisherman who will also be board member for the yet-to-be-formed nonprofit group hoping to run the Port Eads marina.
He said that he believes the port can be successful and financially profitable.
Kuchta said revenue will be generated from slip rentals, fishing rodeos and companies renting space for scientific research.
Kuchta said his group intends to rent more than 30 slips by the year’s end.
The costs for the parish residents keep climbing, though.
In recent weeks, due to the fact that the Port Eads marina is still unopened, the council appropriated $50,000 to pay for security for the facility.
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