St. Martinville Mayor Melinda MItchell listens to a discussion at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

ST. MARTINVILLE — The St. Martinville City Council is already looking for ways to use more than $2.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to make improvements across the city — and help the city pay its vendors.

The council heard from engineer Dale LeBlanc, who explained that the city could use a portion of those funds to secure another grant, similar to the one during the 2020-2021 grant cycle for lift station repairs, during the upcoming 2022-2023 cycle.

“You could turn $250,000 into a million-dollar project,” LeBlanc said. “In your wastewater and sewer systems, I know there is a need.”

The engineer said that the pre-application process for that grant program is already in the queue, with a decision expected by the end of the year.

If the city were to secure another grant, it would have up to four years to spend the funds.

During a discussion about hiring a consultant and setting up an account for the first $1.1 million in funding the city received on Sept. 1, Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper said that the city needs to move expeditiously on using the funds to right its financial ship.

“Some of that money can be used to compensate for expenses from the COVID shutdown and other losses,” Prosper said. “We need to get that money exactly where it needs to go and take care of this. Let’s get this money into the general fund and get these vendors paid.”

The council is setting up a proposal to go before the state bond commission to secure a $250,000 bond for one year to help it navigate its current cash flow crunch. The arrival of ARPA funds could help alleviate some of that fiscal pain.

The council als heard requests from two different groups for gatherings to unite the community against the rise of gun violence in recent months.

Joseph Cormier has his event, slated as a “Taking Back the ‘Ville” rally, set for Sept. 16 in the Early Learning Center parking lot, 1004 S. Martin Luther King Drive. Several city and parish officials, as well as members of the community, are scheduled to speak.

The other event, scheduled for Dec. 4, is a vigil for the victims of violent crimes, specifically those homicide victims whose cases are unsolved and the survivors of domestic violence. Organizer Stephen Menard, with the Justice for Unsolved Murder Victims Project, warned council members that there are dangerous people on the streets of the city.

“Y’all need to come together, from this councilman over here to this councilman over there, to get the people in the community to come together,” Menard said. “You are going to have another murder. (Police) Chief (Ricky Martin) is doing a good job, but you are going to see your officers in a shootout. These boys on the street do not care.”

District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier agreed.

“We are going to do what we can do with you,” Fuselier said. “We are making some progress. Last week, we had a couple of drug busts. We have some of these attempted murderers off the streets. But we are here because our family structure has been destroyed. Most of these young men would curse me if I tried to give them a Fathers Day card. If that doesn’t change, we aren’t going to win.”

City Legal Counsel Allan Durand also explained to the council that an agreement had been reached with the owners of the Evangeline Mobile Home Park to rewire the park, running its electric service through the center of the park to keep power lines from running across the tops of the homes in the park.

That agreement came after the coty turned off the power to the park in advance of Hurricane Ida out of fear of hgh winds dropping live wires on the resident’s mobile homes.

The council passed a resolution to have a deadline for the work to be completed so the issue could be put to rest.