By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – With the final design phase totally complete, the St. John Parish administration is expected to request authorization to go out for bids for construction of the parish’s long awaited animal shelter at Tuesday’s council finance committee meeting.

St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe said the administration has forwarded the design changes to every member of the council, and he expects approval to move forward.

“The project has gone through various design changes, and the council has stayed up to speed,” said Boe. “They have been present at design meetings, and we have made changes and revisions to suit their requests. It should be an animal shelter that everyone will be happy with.”

The parish had originally budgeted $400,000 for construction, but, Boe said, the parish pulled an additional $200,000 from economic development, bringing the total cost to $600,000. Boe said design and construction costs for the shelter are included in this figure.

Also on Tuesday’s agenda, St. John Chief Administrative Officer Pat McTopy will propose a resolution to the council requesting Wal-Mart’s participation in the scheduled improvements to Carrollwood Drive at Airline Highway.

Boe said the parish has received correspondence from Wal-Mart representatives of their intent to participate, but the company had asked to see design and cost before agreeing to anything. He also said the parish is still waiting for results of a traffic study, which was conducted by Wal-Mart to determine if their trucks are to blame for the damage to the road.

“We expect Wal-Mart to participate, we just don’t know to what extent,” said Boe.

The St. John Council meeting is set for Tuesday, May 13, at 6:15 p.m. in the council chambers of the Edgard courthouse.