By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

HAHNVILLE – St. Charles Parish President V.J. St. Pierre recently announced plans for a new Emergency Operations Facility to serve the parish in times of crisis, said a spokesperson for the parish.

St. Charles Public Information Officer Renee Allemand said the parish has been awarded $750,000 in federal grant money to go toward construction of the EOC. She said that the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness selected the parish’s grant application in a statewide competition and submitted it for competition on a national level.

Allemand said the award is part of $14.5 million that the federal government awarded to 22 state and local governments across the country for construction or renovation projects. She said St. Charles Parish fell just short of the grant’s maximum funding amount of $1 million.

Emergency Operations Center staff completed the grant proposal with assistance from Grants Officer Holly Fonseca. Officials said the award shows that the state and federal government both understand that St. Charles Parish has a growing need for a separate state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center.

“We submitted the grant application knowing the shortcomings of our current facility in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” Fonseca said. “But Gustav and Ike reiterated the need for a new EOC, so we were very pleased to hear that we received the grant.”

St. Charles Emergency Operations Center is located underneath the parish courthouse on River Road and was established in 1980. Tab Troxler, emergency preparedness director for St. Charles, said the present facility does not provide adequate space or protection for the myriad emergency possibilities that face the parish on a daily basis.

“Space and safety are big factors in what we’re planning to construct,” Troxler said. “We’re in need of large meeting spaces for personnel and we will need to be out of harm’s way with regard to storm surge and other potential disasters.”

All key agencies in St. Charles Parish, including the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, Parish Hospital, Volunteer Fire Departments, School Board and American Red Cross have utilized the EOC as their base of operations throughout weather incidents and industrial emergencies from any of the 23 major chemical, petroleum and nuclear facilities in St. Charles Parish.

A new EOC would enhance interagency coordination to facilitate effective and efficient responses to all emergencies, Troxler said.

Additional funding to construct the new EOC will come from the parish’s general fund, corporate and industrial donors and parish emergency response agencies.

Allemand said the plan is still in its very early stages, so there is no timetable on when construction may start. She also said that it is unclear where the new EOC would be positioned.