Joint Quality of Life - Public Works.

These are all things we've already been looking at, and at this point we are looking at what funding we have available that will allow us to continue this work, primarily again in the space of condition assessment to identify the next areas that we need to be focusing on. And we're very pleased to be making progress on South Claiborne and 3rd, as well as another repair on Willow Street as well this week. Good morning. On this slide, we want to update the joint committee on the financial planning for the immediate action plan and very happy to report we met in front of the infrastructure advisory board last month and received approval for the $4 million to move forward on those critical repairs underway. So very thankful, appreciative for that support from the infrastructure advisory board. On the middle term and longer term, we know those are bigger dollars that require planning and strategy, but just to let the community and the joint committee know, in the past we've received over $2 billion in external funding through FEMA and other sources, in addition to the $1 billion in CELA federal programs. So our priority is to pursue these external funding sources, grants, loans, capital outlay, whatever preferred financing to avoid the rate payer, and then also bonding. But at this point, as we mentioned before, we are at capacity on additional water bonds, so we need to work to grow the net revenues to be able to issue bonds to pay back over a longer period of time. So all solutions are, you know, of course being looked at, working with our executive directors, FACES and other communities, our bond council, financial advisors in the city. So we'll continue to partner and form strategic solutions to look at these generational challenges with infrastructure and deferred costs over many decades, really. So just that's all I want to update you there. Thank you. Okay. Next, we'll talk about the fire hydrants. Fixing fire hydrants continues to be an important task for our crews. We are nearly at 16,000 fire hydrants in the city, and so far in 2026, we've inspected 649, repaired 135, and replaced 13. There are still over 400 open work orders for hydrants, not all of which are out of service, but we're working on getting this number down. The warehouse has the parts needed for the majority of the repairs, and ordering continues as a matter of normal business. All right. Now we are going to shift a little bit and focus on the sewer system side of things. I wanted to provide this group with an update on the sewer force main break that happened in the industrial canal. This occurred on April 17th, when a sewer force main break that goes under the industrial canal was damaged. Sewer to Water Board mobilized contractors on the 18th, and we were able to cease and stop the discharge of sewer into the canal on April 27th, which was accomplished by installing two large line stops on either side of the canal. We estimate that approximately 50 million gallons of sewer were released at this time. Fortunately, the majority of the flow of sewer that goes to the wastewater treatment plant in this area actually goes through another pipe that is nearby and adjacent to the one that was damaged, so there was a relatively small amount on a daily basis that was already going through this pipe. The majority was going through another pipe, and anything that was going through the pipe that was damaged has been rerouted through those other pipes, and there's no major impact to sewer operations as a whole because of this. In conjunction with LDEH and DEQ, the recreational advisories in the canal systems have been lifted, and based on data that is collected at Lake Pontchartrain at the Seabrook Bridge, there were also no impacts to Lake Pontchartrain from this event. In terms of a permanent repair, the immediate concern was getting the sewer stopped. In terms of the permanent repair, removal of debris around the pipe continues to be underway, and we have a preliminary repair plan that will involve replacement of the damaged section of pipe under the water, as well as a welding of some additional damage that doesn't necessarily need to be a full pipe replacement. There can be some welding. The debris has been extensive. We're continuing to remove that, or our contractors are continuing to remove that, and we'll update with a repair plan when we have that at that time. We wanted to take a moment to discuss the topic of sewer impacts to stormwater overall. We will go into more specifics on the Dwyer Canal in the next slides, but I just wanted to talk a little bit more high level. The primary concern with any sewer contaminated water is through contact, so through swimming, boating, fishing, et cetera. Fishing and shellfish harvesting can also be a concern, and it can also have negative impacts on aquatic life and the ecosystem balance. We also know that odor is a concern, which can be a nuisance at lower levels and can be a health concern at higher levels. And the primary cause of stormwater contamination with sewer that we see is through what is called inflow and infiltration, as well as through sewer manhole overflows. So there's some more information on this slide around the definitions of those. Inflow happens when there is a direct connection between the sewer and the drainage systems. For example, if something was installed incorrectly, directly into a storm line, this happens but is less common than infiltration, which is when there's a break or a crack in the pipe, which causes sewer to leak from a sewer pipe into a stormwater pipe. Again, we have a graphic here that shows the different areas of the system where this can happen. And finally, an overflow is what occurs when sewer cannot flow through the pipe and comes out through a manhole in the street, which we do see in other places.

In addition to sewer contamination, there is also other sources of bacteria in the water, such as pet and animal waste, as well as yard waste, after rain events. Specific to the Dwyer Canal, I wanted to share a summary and continued updates of what we've been working on there. At the end of April, we met with local community members who we have been engaged with throughout this process, and we reviewed all of the work that we have done, along with our continued actions and our next steps. We have been working in this area since December and early January, and it has involved multiple courses of action to investigate the sources of the issue and make the necessary repairs. We'll review the specific steps we've taken on the next slide, and do want to fully acknowledge that we understand and appreciate the concerns of the community. This is not an acceptable situation, and we are continuing and have been continuing to work on addressing this problem. Specifically, our most recent efforts have been focused on dye testing, and I think I spoke to that a little bit the last time in this meeting. We're focusing on six streets that appear to have the most persistent issues. Those are Galahad Street, Lurline, Bonita, Citrus, Charlene, and Arthur. What the dye testing does, it identifies areas underground where there is a broken pipe or defect in the pipe. We identified seven locations of these defects on Galahad Street and have completed all of those repairs on that street. We have identified five more on Bonita and Lurline combined, and our crews are making these repairs now. The intent is for the dye testing and all other repairs to be done by the end of June, at which point we are hoping that we will see improvement because of these actions. We have also recovered sewer from multiple locations in the canal. We've identified blockages and clean sections of sewer lines. We have also identified some areas of illicit discharges that were contributing to discoloration of the water in this area. And as we previously reported, we made repairs to the Cerise pump station in March. This station was being bypassed from December due to some issues with the pump, and the sewer levels in this area were elevated due to the station not being fully operational. But we did make those repairs in March, and that station is back in service. And finally, as also we previously reported, there was an overflow at the Castle Manor pump station in December, which was corrected at that time. So I just want to reiterate there is not one specific location that is the problem. We have identified and are continuing to identify multiple underground repairs that need to be made. We are confident that these repairs will make a positive impact, but of course if testing shows otherwise and there are still issues, then we will continue to investigate the problems and make repairs. Okay, we'll look at the cost and timeline for Dwyer Canal action. To summarize, we can group this work into three buckets, identify, repair, and prevent. In the identification phase, this work is continuing by completing dye testing on six streets. Three streets are done and three remain. In the repair phase, we are making point repairs based on the findings of the dye testing. Repairs on Galahad Street are completed, and the remaining repairs that are found will be done by the end of June. We also invested nearly $400,000 to repair at the Saris pump station to replace piping, valves, and pumps. In the prevention phase, we just received response for an RFI for a biotechnology pilot test that can help to address blockages in sewer lines and wet wells. We are reviewing those now, and we are working on updated public education campaigns around fat, oils, and grease, and wipes. Wipes are not flushable and can cause blockages in pipes and pumps, and we want to make sure that the people know not to dump fats, oils, and greases as well. They may not be the specific issue of the Dwyer Canal, but in general, this is good practice that we want to make sure everyone is aware of. And I just want to say again, fats, oils, and grease, especially when you have the restaurants and all, it's imperative that they don't simply put that directly into the system because it does make for a lot of problems for us, and that's across the country. And then again, the wipes, while often they say they are flushable, they end up making a problem in our system because there are basically rakes that pull up through the water, and they clog it up and make it hard to manage the system. So I hate to interrupt and break my own rule, but just for the public benefit, and we can all understand this, so you're saying that even flushable wipes are not advisable for our system here in New Orleans? That's correct. All right, I think that's something we really need to do a public education campaign around because I'm guilty. All right, thank you. Okay, and we can, but yeah, that's something we have to address in D.C. And the different agencies, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, they have bulletins on it too, so I'll be glad to share that. Yeah, we are already working on those campaigns as well. All right, and so from a continued public health and safety concern around the Dwyer Canal and sewer in the stormwater, as well as related to temporary pumps that we do have out around the system, I'll talk to that in a minute, but again, we are continuing to collect samples along the Dwyer Canal area to help us determine the effectiveness of repairs. I want to emphasize that we still are recommending no contact with the water. Bacteria concentrations are unfortunately still high, and we also acknowledge that there are smells that people are experiencing, and that is from hydrogen sulfide, which is a component of sewer. This is a source of odors that is often observed via smell at low concentrations.

So from a health and safety perspective around temporary pumps, we have a photo here of what it looks like when we're pumping from a manhole, from one manhole to another. When we do this, then of course we have to remove the manhole cover, and so that can create, that does create an open hole that we are making sure that we are instructing our crews and our contractors to put barricades and coverings around. I do want to mention that manholes are not naturally tight, which is to avoid a buildup of any gases. So we do want to do these coverings and make sure that we are limiting as much sewer gas exposure into the community as possible, but we also have to make sure that we're not creating another hazard by doing so. But we are doing, this is an example of one that we have recently done. There is also concern that we have heard around noise and emissions from the temporary pumps. And just to reiterate, the reason we would use a temporary pump is if the permanent pumps at a sewer pump station are not operable, or one is operable and another is not, we have to pump sewer from one manhole to another around the station. That is the situation that happened at the Cerise pump station. When possible, we use electric pumps at these stations, which reduce noise and emissions concern. Sometimes we do have to use diesel pumps for diesel-driven engines, rather, for these pumps. We do use quiet pumps, quiet pack pumps as they are known, and also tier 4 engines, which are designed to have lower emissions. So we do recognize the nuisance and the concern to nearby homes and businesses. The ultimate solution is finalizing the repairs at the stations, which is a combination of various things. Some stations need pumps replaced, and in two cases we have those pumps ordered and should be installed in the next couple of months. There's also other stations where we need to replace valves and piping, similar to what happened at the Cerise station. And a couple of them need some much larger rehabilitation. So again, recognizing these are a concern, we are doing what we can to reduce these. It's certainly a cost for us as well, but we have to purchase new equipment or invest in new pipes and valves, as we did at the Cerise pump station, for these to not be necessary. I'll now provide a minor drainage update. Our minor drainage cleaning efforts for 2026 are well underway. We have a dashboard on our website where you can track our progress. Thus far this year, we've cleaned over 1,000 catch basins and over 760,000 pounds of debris. We are paying for the contractor by pounds of debris removed, which incentivizes debris removal rather than just inspection. The dashboard on our website shows the areas where contractors specifically have cleaned from 2024 to present. The contractor has five crews and ramped up... Efforts in April, when the funding was available, it should achieve the same production as last year. In 2026, our priority cleaning areas are in Treme, Lower Garden District, with assessment to be done at the Bywaters, Algiers, and Audubon. Swibno has two primary crews working seven days a week as well. Most of our funding right now is for cleaning, but we also have capital repairs to make. We are hopeful to be able to utilize bond funds from the city to make capital repairs, which we estimate are over $8 million in the Treme and Carrollton neighborhoods right now, and expected to increase. As a reminder, our drainage-related issues need to be reported to 311 or our Swibno website via the flood tractor. In future, we want to combine 311 and 5-2 water systems, but that is a long-term goal. There is also a 311 dashboard that shows the open requests. We are continually working on QSYNG, reviewing the 311 data, and the 311 backlog will be going down with Swibno crews dedicated to new 311s going forward. Next, we have, these are photos of work that the team did last Sunday after the rains over the weekend. We can see how much debris was in the catch basin, and then you can see what a clean catch basin looks like. As previously mentioned, our contractors will be focused on the two priority areas for cleaning and the three areas for pre-assessment. These areas were determined based on the highest concentration of 311s via heat maps, which is how DPW focused their efforts. Swibno crews will be responding to new 311s. In 2027, we plan to switch to a drainage basin-focused approach. We should note that some catch basins are being reported repeatedly, even after they have been cleaned. This is primarily due to underground pipe repairs needed. As you can see in these photos, the cleaning is very helpful, but does not address broken pipes. Additional funding is needed to address those efforts. And next, I'll talk about the, and last, the hurricane preparedness. All departments are on track to reach preparedness goals before June 1st. We're meeting with departments throughout the spring. Final hurricane preparedness meetings, along with a tabletop exercise, will take place prior to June 1st. The Office of Emergency Management recommends departments review their emergency procedures, finalize contracts and agreements, and double-check emergency supplies, placards, and emergency contact information. Mr. Chair, that's all that we have with the presentation today. Thank you, Mr. Executive Director and the Sewage and Water Board team. Council Member Harris is recognized. Thank you, Chair. I wanna get back to the Arado Street slide. This is a major thoroughfare, and right now, there are streets blocked, but no work happening. So, what's the deal with that? Because we're down to one lane, but there's no activity happening whatsoever. It's just the street is blocked, and it's been blocked for the past week.

Yes, so the barricades will typically go up before construction starts, as was the case in here, but the team is, we've challenged the team to go back and look at that, and look at splitting this into different phases from a traffic control perspective, fully recognize the impact this is having, and need to get additional communication out on that project. When is the work actually gonna start? It will start in May. There's staging equipment and beginning preparations now. So, until the work actually starts, can you remove those barricades so that this major thoroughfare is not impacted? Yeah, we're looking and seeing what we can do at this point. Fully agreed and understand and respect that. And then, what is the plan for the bike lanes? It says you're working on bike lane impacts. Yeah, we'll be meeting with representatives from Bike Easy and the biking community, and we'll be sharing that as well. Yeah, please keep in touch with my office. Absolutely. Please let us know so that we can get the information out. I can tell you that because these lanes are blocked, there are major traffic issues happening, including impacting a graduation event, and more to come at that Xavier Convocation Center. So, again, there's no work happening, so there's no reason for that lane to be blocked. Understood. Vice President Willard is recognized. Thank you, Chairman Hughes. Thank you for being with us this morning. Thank you for the information. Few questions. So, on average, public water utilities in the country lose about 16% of their treated water. Your reporting indicates that in Q1 of this year, we lost about 77%. I'm guessing a lot of that is attributable to the water main burst that we had this year. Do you know what percentage of water loss Sewage and Water Board had for last year? Because it's around 70%. Still 70%. What about the year before? It's stayed at that trend the last few years since we've been reporting at the Public Works Committee. I think maybe the high 60s is the number I've seen before, around that. Okay, so, on average, we're losing more than three times what the national average is. And I brought this up at the last meeting. There's a reason I'm doing it. Have you guys done any type of calculations on the cost that is to rate payers for New Orleans to lose that much of its treated water? Yes, the marginal cost, there is a cost, but obviously the raw water comes at no cost. That is a part of the strategic plan, is reducing that part of some multi-strategy with installing the smart meters, getting leaks addressed all throughout the system to work on that number, bring it down. So that is a very important part of the strategic plan. I mean, I just think we need to be raising all the red flags about this, because on a regular basis, people in the city of New Orleans have trouble paying their monthly water utility bill. But we essentially give away, by water loss, 77% of our treated water. So that, I mean, this is a major problem. I'm sorry, but also too, as you mentioned, the smart meters help us to see where there's possibility of leaks. And also, as we talked about the water main breaks, you know, there are cracks in some of the system, and that's how you're losing it. As you mentioned, the infiltration, they call it I&I in the business, where you might have a break in the pipe that's allowing it to happen, and you have a connection that doesn't belong. Part of what we're gonna do with the water main program that we have, replacement program, is to analyze the system. And so where we see there are breaks or cracks, we'll go in and make the changes as we have funding to do so. But you are hitting on top of what is a major issue. I'd also add that it's an issue across the country to the point, just our system in general, to the point that the American Water Association said that to repair all of the water systems in this country would cost $2 trillion. And so it's an issue. And also, too, the water industry is talking about these issues in a different way. They used to talk about it in terms of maintenance and repair. Now they're saying things such as we're entering a new era of water main replacement. And so that's the drum I keep trying to beat when I'm talking to legislators in Washington about the funding we need. I'm also on the board for NAWQA, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and AMWA, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. And I'm stressing to them that we need to develop a new fund of money to allow us to help distressed municipalities address these multi-million dollar projects. And so that's what we're gonna continue to push. You're hitting the nail on the head, but it is a problem across the country. And I think a good amount of what we're doing with the water main replacement will help us go in the right direction. But I need to, and we all need to continue to work together and collaborate to try to get additional funding as best we can. Yeah, I agree with everything you just said. And I think it's going to take not only a regional push, but a national push from local governments across the country to say patchwork is no longer working for our water utility systems, for our drainage systems. We're at the point where they need to be redone, redesigned, re-engineered. But in the meantime, I'll keep doing my job as a regulator. And I think it's very important. As a rate payer in the city of New Orleans, I would be extremely frustrated, maybe even a little bit upset, probably upset, when I hear that 77% of our treated water, which we invest in, right, there's a cost to treat that water, is being lost. Next thing I want to talk about, the call center performance, did you have something? Okay, call center performance data, it shows 71, and I'll probably drill, you know, look at this more for the next meeting, but it's showing total calls answered were 71%, 19% were dropped.

Is that call dropped at 19%, is that of the 71%? Because on paper, that's, you're missing 10% right there, 71 and 19 only gets you to 90. So I was wondering how, is this 19% of calls dropped part of the 71 of answered? How do you categorize calls dropped? I have to check that, those numbers, you're referencing that's in the quarterly report? Yes, yes, that was in your quarterly report. I could check that, but yeah, normally we just report abandoned rate or some number versus percent. And answered, so I would think the 71% is answered. Abandoned would be more like 29, so I'd have to check that. OK. Can you look into that and get back to us on that issue? The next thing, this is in your quarterly report as well. Average days to completion for water system complaints, 52 days in-house, 103 for outside contractors. So the timing almost doubles when you go to outside contractor. Average days to completion for sewer complaints, 19 days, 32 days for outside contractors. My question is, why does utilizing the outside contractors almost double the time to completion? So typically when we're involving one of our contractors, that's a much more complicated job. It's not a typical point repair that our team would be doing on the normal course of business. This would be something more complicated. So the Ceres pump station is a good example of that. So it's different type of work that they are accomplishing for us. OK. That makes sense. Yeah. Maybe look at reclassifying that or relabeling it. In your report that we just went through, I just had a question because I saw it, you know, I work chemicals industry stuff. Zinc orthophosphate, you're going to use that as a pilot in the Algiers water plant. My question is, is this our first time utilizing this chemical for water treatment purposes for sewage and water board? Yes, it would be. And so this is a treatment process that is used throughout the country. So this is food grade. This is a standard industry practice around this. And it's supplementing our existing corrosion control process that we already have in place. So why are we just now trying this out? Yeah. So this is one of the recommendations that came out of the water quality master plan. And we had asked that group to look at ways we could mitigate potential negative impacts from future salt water intrusion events. So this is one of those recommendations from that report. OK. And we're doing it as a pilot just to see if we have better performance, less leakage. Is it financial? We can only do it for the Algiers plant? In the event of a salt water intrusion event, the Algiers intake would be impacted first. So that is farther down river and would be impacted first. So that's why we're focusing on that system at this time. Got it. Thank you. The next thing for the industrial canal sewer break. So we had leakage into the canal for 10 days. 50 million gallons of sewer was released into the industrial canal. Yes. And there's no impact to Lake Pontchartrain? We collected samples at various points within the canal system. And there was no indication that there was any concerns. How often did we sample Lake Pontchartrain? So we did not sample Lake Pontchartrain. We sampled the canal itself. But I want to just point out that the Pontchartrain Conservancy does sample there at the Seabrook Harbor, and there's really no concerns. So there is a lot of water that goes through those canals. There is a lot of ship traffic. And so this is not necessarily a stagnant body of water. And there's a lot of water in the canal in general. It sure would make me feel better if we just stayed on top of it and continued sampling. 50 million gallons of sewer leak, just that frightens me. And we have a lot of recreational activities happening in Lake Pontchartrain. So this is something that we need to stay on top of. Because if we start to get an indication that there are hazardous materials in Lake Pontchartrain, we need to issue warnings immediately. So please, please stay on top of that. If you need help from water testing from LDH, please let us know. So we can do whatever we can do. On that point, if something like this, if another situation like this happened again, are we looking at another 10-day period to fixing it, to closing off the sewer leak? I think if I can address, then of course you can add. Each situation is unique, and it depends on where the break is, what's the remain of the pipe, what type of specific repair has to be made, or fitting needs to be made to stop the flow. So it's impossible for us to say in advance. But our engineers have gone through this before. They are professionals, and we'll address it as quickly as we can. On the canals in New Orleans East, when can the people of New Orleans East expect for the sewer discharge to come to an end in the canals? So the work that we're doing right now to identify the locations of the underground breaks is ongoing, and our goal is to complete all of the repairs that we can identify right now by the end of June at the latest. I'm confident that will have an impact, a positive impact. But again, if we will continue to be testing that area, and if there's continued concerns, then we will continue to investigate and make repairs. So the plan right now is to have that discharge come to an end by the end of June? So those six streets specifically that we've identified with persistent issues, that is our goal, is to identify all of those and make all those repairs. Okay. Final point, and I know Council Member McCarran is going to touch on this, because we did a tour of a part of her district, Holly Grove, last night. Saw a lot of clogged catch basins. So I want to put this on your radar. I know we've done it in the past. I think it would be a good idea for Sewage and Water Board, the city, the city council, and neighborhood associations throughout the city to organize volunteer catch basin cleanups.

And we need to start that promptly so that we can get as many cleared out before hurricane season starts. But even before that, we are already in the midst of the hard, persistent summer rain, and so I think timeliness is of the essence. So that's something that I want to put on your radar. My office is ready to stand by however we can to help do that. But I think we could really put a dent in the number of catch basins that just need to be cleared out of mud and other debris that may be clogging half of the catch basin. So that's all I got. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Vice President Willard. Council Member McCarron is recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Sewage and Water Board, for being here today and updating us on the catch basins. I do want to give a special thank you to David and the drainage team. There was an issue with a catch basin in the district on Esplanade that was preventing a business from being able to open because of the water on the sidewalks. I appreciate their attentiveness. It was a weekend day, and they went out immediately to clear that, and the business owner was able to get his business open. So I appreciate that effort. But that goes back to this issue of catch basins. So if my math is correct, you guys have 2,900 open 311 reports. You've cleaned 1,029, which is about seven and a half per day. So we're basically on track to clean 2,700 by the end of the year. So we basically won't finish any additional 311 requests or catch basins that come through. So I guess, what is the plan to improve those numbers? Because I'm about to put in a whole host of 311 requests or however we need to report, which I would like clarity on. After my walkthrough yesterday in the Hollygrove-Dixon neighborhood, we identified basically almost every catch basin we walked by was either clogged with dirt, was halfway covered, not draining. I mean, it's clear that some of these have not been reported. Not every resident likes to report or can report, which is why I've been doing these walks through the neighborhood to check on it. So what are we doing to be a little bit more proactive about cleaning these catch basins, because my office is now inundated, now that it's starting to rain again, of my catch basin is not draining. So what can we do to improve on this? Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for that information, and we definitely look forward to having your reports of that. So the 2,900 open catch basin not draining code, we are continuing to QC and review that, right? So that we have a truly accurate number, but that is what is in the 311 system. The numbers that we're reporting this year are probably artificially low at this point, so we have just been able to ramp up the efforts of our contractor. And that was something we were able to do last month when funding was available. So as last year, kind of a slower start to the year, and then we're able to ramp that up in the spring going into the summer. I don't remember exactly how many catch basins we cleaned last year, but I think we had over 10 million pounds of debris removed. So we will complete more than 2,900. I think the key right now is to, we do wanna get this backlog down. We recognize it's still high, and that's causing some concern. So if these are new instances that you're speaking of, we definitely wanna get those in there, make sure we're addressing them. We'd mentioned that there's some pre-assessment areas and some target areas. Those are based on the information that we have in 311. If that information, Hologram Dixon, is not in there, we look forward to receiving that and seeing how we can incorporate that. But yeah, we will definitely, 311, making sure we're getting the new ones handled where our contractor's assessing these priority areas is our approach this year. Okay, and when crews go out to clean a specific catch basin, are they cleaning out everything on the block, or are they just cleaning the one that has been reported? Typically, the crew is going to kind of look holistically, and typically the one that's reported on the block, cuz that is the goal, is to address that one that's been unidentified. But I will make sure that if I will ask the team that if they're identifying others, we get those in there as well. Yeah, because I mean, I think there's plenty of times where one neighbor just reports one on the block but doesn't realize that the one down the block or a block over has the same issue and is causing this drainage problem. So I think I would expect that maybe contractors or the crews that are going out there could look at, okay, I'm cleaning this one, but let me check the other two or three on the block while we're there because easier for you guys if it's cleaned out and then you can just report it in your dashboard that you guys have cleaned out four catch basins on that one block. They should look at neighboring catch basins. Yeah. See, okay, is this a problem? Because often, as you know, you might have a lot of leaves that kind of roll down the gutters. So we can have them look at holistically as best we can. Okay, and about how long does it take from a time that a catch basin is reported for crews to go out and inspect and then potentially clean? I mean, is there a process like you go and inspect and then you come back and report back and then you send out a crew to clean or does it all happen at one time? I don't know that we have an average response time and it's something we can look into getting and reporting out and seeing improvements. So happy to look into that. Okay. The other thing is we noticed last night there were vehicles, obviously, when they're home in the afternoon, they're blocking potentially the catch basins.

What kind of notice do you guys give residents? Because I would expect that if y'all are going out during the day and there's a car blocking that catch basin, you're potentially not able to clean it, obviously, unless you went to knock on their door and say, hey, can you move your car so we can clean this? What kind of notice and have you considered noticing people on that block, hey, we're coming to clean your catch basins this week, can you not park in front of them? No, I do, yes, that is a concern. And so we have experienced that on a couple different occasions. We are talking internally about that exact topic of how to do that. And specifically in these areas where we know we're going to have contractors focused, we wanna get that information and ask people to move if we need to. So good feedback and we're working through that ourselves. Okay, great. Yeah, I think that would be a good start there. And then has a citywide assessment been completed? I know you guys have some priority contractor cleaning areas. I don't see Holly Grove or Holly Grove-Dixon or areas in Council Member Hughes' district on this slide as priority. So how do you prioritize that and what about the citywide assessment? Yeah, great question. So the present priority areas are based on the information we have in 311 to generate heat maps, so areas of the highest concern. But again, this is based on information that's been reported to us. So we're focusing on those areas, but if and when we receive additional information, happy to put that into our planning and see what we can do. Say for District E more specifically, it's newer infrastructure, larger pipes. I just don't think we're finding as much is concentrated of a problem in that area, not to say there are not issues, just not as concentrated. But next year, after we're able to get this 311 down, focus on these areas that we know are persistent issues, then we will be switching more to a council district and watershed drainage basin-based approach so that we can make sure that we're doing a larger citywide assessment. Okay, thank you. That's all I have on those catch basins. I just had one question about, let me go back to the fire hydrants. There were two things. Number one, have you been coordinating with the fire marshal on testing and do they come and test it right after you've installed a new fire hydrant? And then the second part of that question is, we're getting, I know the newer ones are installed a little bit higher up and we're just getting questions from residents on why they look different than they used to. Yes, so the, sorry, I'm gonna flip back. Oh, I have a slide. So the fire marshal is responsible for testing. And so they, I think we do some tests when we make a repair, but in terms of the formal inspection, formal testing, that is something that they do on a routine schedule. I just don't recall if that's annually or if that's every six months, but that is something that they do as part of their normal course of business and report the information to us. And then I believe re-report back when we've made a repair. So in terms of there being a testing after repair, I will have to check in on that if that is something that they do as a matter of business. And in terms of them being higher, not. It's just a question that we've gotten multiple times. So that's why I'm asking it publicly. Yeah. If, I mean, if there's any, you know, reason, I don't think there is, but just. Not necessarily. Putting it out there. Okay, on the fire marshal thing. So they give you all a report that they have inspected. Can you provide that report to us? I mean, I think it would be helpful to understand, you know, I know there have been recent issues in the past in where fires have happened and fire hydrants are not working. So maybe it's that we also need to have the fire marshal in here to kind of give an update on their status on checking and testing fire hydrants. And I'm sorry, NOFD is the agency. I'm sorry, but yes, but we do get those reports from them and we'll, we can share that. Okay. Yeah, just want to be, correct that for the record. Okay, perfect. And one last question. So on the catch basins, residents should still support, I mean, call 311 for that? Yes. Okay. Yes, or they can do it online at the flood tracker. So they have two options. Okay. And it all goes into your database? It all goes into the, yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Council Member Green is recognized. Okay, Mr. Chair, thank you. Two issues, basically, but I do want to start off with a positive. I want you all to thank the members of your work crews who work in the heat, who work in the rain, who work in cold, and very honestly, never get recognition. I have an opportunity to go by many repairs that are being made because there are old pipes in different areas and they break from time to time. Sometimes people have done things that involve construction that create some of the problems that we have. But your work crews will never totally get the recognition that they need, they do so many jobs. But I've seen them at work in the summer, I've seen them at work for emergency jobs, and I just want to tell you that their work is appreciated. I certainly wish that more people were able to take advantage of the opportunity to be included into the system of retirement and the system of helping health benefits by participating officially in work crews. But the work that is being done that I see, I appreciate. I also want to say that for the sewage and the leak of the waste line in the industrial canal, have we come to a determination yet of what happened there, why the particular barge may have dropped something at that particular spot? That is an investigation that is ongoing and that's all we can really speak to at this point. Investigations take a long time, but it shouldn't be so long.

There was one boat involved, it happened at a specific time, someone who was in the area of the, I mean, who worked for the State Department of Transportation and Development saw the boat. I don't know why it takes so long. I don't know, it's not on you all, it's kind of on the Army Corps of Engineers. Right. Army Corps of Engineers. I don't want to cut you into bits and pieces, but as a lawyer, it's best that I wait until the final report. Sure, I understand, I understand. It's kind of something that I'm saying that's rhetorical, but of course that happened so long ago and you want to prevent it from happening again. And sometimes the way to prevent it from happening again is to determine what happened that made it a problem in the first place. But nobody really knows, so at the end of the day. I do want to say that certainly there will be litigation involved with this matter, but I went to the site every day because the site was staged in my district. So I was pleased to be able to speak to people there. I know that the media camped out there. I know I did any special press conferences. They stood there. They were there 24 hours a day, sometimes waiting for a story. But at the end of the day, there's nothing much that you can do when a boat drops an anchor or runs aground and causes that sort of leak. However, I will say this, are there alternatives to the way that we get sewer through that pipe? Not that it's been diverted. Is that a good permanent solution? Or is there something we're going to go back to the way it was? Well, at this point, we're proceeding to fix the pipe as it is. It does need to go under the industrial canal. The wastewater treatment plant is on the other side of the canal, and so it does have to go there. And I think in general under the canal at this point it still appears to be the best option, but your point is taken in terms of looking at other alternatives. Because right now we're actually using an alternative. It's been diverted, right? Yes. Where is it going so that the public knows it's diverted, but where are the millions of gallons of sewer going now? Yeah, so that line, we were estimating, carried about four million gallons, which is, again, a relatively small percentage of the total that we treat every day. And so that is a combination of two locations. There is a larger pipe that is parallel to the one that broke in that same area, and then there is also a sewer force main that goes up through New Orleans East and comes back around to the water treatment plant from the north. So it's a combination of those two pipes. Is that not a good permanent solution? We do like to have redundancy. That is important to us, right? I think that was the intent of having those two there to begin with, and so having redundancy and options is very important to us now in this instance, and we'd like to have that again for the future. Okay. Catch basins, there are 72,000 in the city, right? Yes. You right now are working on every four-year cycle to be able to get to each catch basin? The goal would be to touch them every five years, so 20% every five years, or 20% a year for five years would get us there. I'd like you to analyze, and every council member can have it, what would it take in terms of dollar volume to be able to do that? to address those catch basins every two years instead of five years. We know the obvious of five years, you're going to be coming back and they're going to get clogged, but it's such an important part of the drainage system of our city that obviously we need to get to them more than every five years. I will tell you that I understand how difficult it is. I have seen catch basins open where people have filled them with beads and they filled them with all kinds of foolishness for some reason, but I can understand how it would be difficult to get to them on a more regular basis without the money, but I think it's worth the analysis. It may not necessarily come from us. Maybe we can go to the state of Louisiana to support us as they're supporting other surrounding areas, so maybe that is something that can be done, but I think that we should have a cost for maybe what would it take to do it every two years. Could you speak to people who allow the persons who cut their grass and to trim their trees to blow things into the drains? Can you publicly express to the public that that debris doesn't dissolve and go away? I'll just stress very strongly, unequivocally, that everybody has to do their part. We're one community, and when it comes to tree limbs, leaves, weeds that you pull from your garden and all, don't put them into the catch basins. Don't put them in the gutter. Bag them for proper disposal because otherwise it will clog our system. It will make for a problem, not just in your neighborhood, it could affect others involved, and so it's just we need to be more courteous with each other and make sure that we're doing the right thing. But it just doesn't dissolve and go away. I've talked to some of these guys who are using blowers. I said, don't do that because it doesn't dissolve, but they actually think that it's just gone one day, but unfortunately, for years, it accumulates, doesn't go away, and it causes some of the problems that we see right now. It simply builds up. And it makes for a major clog. Right. So I agree with you 100% that they shouldn't blow it into the catch basins. They need to dispose of it, bag it, and dispose of it properly. It will make a problem, especially when we have a lot of rain, and so we need to avoid that. We need to work together. We need to think about our neighbors who are taking care of our lawns and leaves and limbs that we need to dispose of. I wouldn't mind seeing you during this season do a little bit more in terms of a public relation side to let people know that.

Some people really think that it just goes away after a while, that it somehow dissolves and goes into the Lake Pontchartrain, but it doesn't. It accumulates. And the final thing I'll ask you is, people have commented on and asked, well, why don't we put, after we've cleaned the drain, screens in front of it so that debris can't get inside? Might as well address that issue right now. I have an idea, even though I'm torn, because I think that it would stop other debris from debris from going, other water from being able to go in, but why don't you comment on that so that the public knows the reason that we don't have screens is blank? Sure. So the entrances to the catch basin do have bars on them there, so they do prevent, in some cases, the larger debris from going through. Not all of them do, but some do. So they will prevent the larger debris. I think the challenge with a different screen would be additional maintenance on that. And so we do not want to create any more barriers than there already are for water to enter. So we're already having this large effort to clean them and inspect them. I think the installing of screens and maintaining that would add some additional work. But it's a fair question. I think that we can continue the public messaging around not blowing leaves. Please clean out in front of your catch basin if you can, and that will make a difference. I want to thank the members of the Edgewater community and also the Punta Train Park community because they enjoy their trees, but they recognize that when the leaves fall, somebody has to take care of them. Even though we'd like the sewage and water board to take care of every drain, especially every year after the trees shed and after other matters happen like that, but there are some communities such as Punta Train Park, which is on Saturday, June the 6th, if anybody wants to meet. It's 8 a.m. Saturday, June the 6th, meeting at Bethany United Methodist Church, and they want sewage and water board to do it, but they pride themselves in the beautiful trees. They're going to clean the catch basins themselves, at least the outside of it, obviously. So I want to thank them and just encourage everyone to recognize that no one is deciding that we are not going to clean catch basins, but do the math to 72,000 of them and recognize that what you see on the surface is many times only a part of what the problem is. So I appreciate communities and individuals such as myself who cleans the one in front of his house. Thank you. Thank you. Let me go back to the industrial canal for just a second. So that incident was caused by a barge or a ship, right? What? Yes? Yes. Okay. So who pays for those repairs? Currently, we have to make the repair, but our lawyers will pursue the insurance of whoever is the wrongdoer in that situation. Gotcha. So would the sewage and water board be able to recoup? Yes, at its own cost. Okay. Thank you for that. I do want to go back and piggyback off of Council Vice President Willard on Dwyer Canal. So just so we can be clear to the public, when do we expect the leak to be fully stopped? So there are multiple streets that we believe, sorry, multiple storm drains on about six streets at this point that we believe that we see persistent issues. And so each of those streets has to be inspected, identify the locations of those breaks and make repairs. We've completed three of those assessments. We've completed repairs on one street. We have the locations of repairs that need to be made on the other two, and we are continuing to do the assessments on the remaining three. So when that work is done, and if that has not solved the problem that we're seeing, we will go do more streets. These are the six, the storm drains underneath those streets are the six that we've identified as being the challenges at this time. Okay. And I want to go back, I know in previous meetings I've asked about testing. So will sewage and water board publish raw test results, sampling locations, standards used and public health guidance? I'm sorry, can you repeat the question? Sure. Will sewage and water board publish raw test results, sampling locations, standards used and public health guidance? Yes, we do provide, so the testing results are uploaded to DEQ. We're providing those to DEQ, but they are not on our website, which is I believe what you're asking for. So we will work towards that. Yeah. If we can work to get them on sewage and water board's website and moving forward, if you can share those with us and we'll work in partnership to make sure we're being transparent with the public. Yep. Let me also, as we close, I just want to publicly acknowledge Justin McCorkle in my office was my point person on sewage and water board and infrastructure matters. I know Madam General Superintendent, he communicates with you on a regular basis. Thank you for being responsive to my office as always and the entire sewage and water board team. But Justin has been doing a lot of great work behind the scenes on this Dwyer Canal issue. I know he doesn't do it for credit, but I just wanted to publicly applaud him and thank him for his phenomenal work. With that, thank you all for being here today. Mr. Executive Director, keep us posted as you continue your road show. Want to get the word out to our residents. We get a lot of calls about sewage and water board, so this is their opportunity to interact directly with you all and Director LaBotte, thank you for your great work and the entire sewage and water board team and to those employees that are often working long hours in the sun, the rain, late at night, thank them. We do have one public comment, Sage Michael. Yeah, thank you. I want to publicly recognize myself for the work I've been doing on this work since December 11, 2025. Thank you Mr. Chair and committee members. I'm actually on vacation right now, but I'm going to try to use my two minutes wise as I find some notes, I jot it down hastily.

Thank you for the sewage and water board for the stakeholders meeting we had in District E Councilman's office representing that with Justin McCorkle and the District E sewage and water board liaison also represented and also communication, I want to thank you all for that. I invite City Council, all City Council members to take a tour of me on Dwyer Canal to see firsthand the issues I've been dealing with and also the repairs and inspections that sewage and water board have been making. On-site walkthrough with any City Council member I'm welcome to. We talk about water quality standards. I would like to sewage and water board to respond publicly, what are the water quality standards for fecal, E. coli, E. coli, and seasonal, summer, and winter, by season, by types, and by types of waterways. We talk about standards and they're reporting to you all water quality standards, they should readily be available to provide that information to you like right now and not come back to you. To identify this discharge in Cerise Canal, in a meeting we had it was reported as concrete dumping, after that meeting I identified it as not concrete dumping, it was another source of pollution which is very egregious. We also, the implementation of system-wide air quality and safety and temporary bypasses violates air quality. That gaps in prioritization, I did a huge advocacy on Parish Hill Boulevard, my name wasn't mentioned on that side, in Councilman Green's district, I advocated for that. LC 4th Street in Dwyer has water leaks, Danziger Bridge in Diamond has water leaks, St. Charles Canal in Dwyer has water leaks. My independent research and documentation has exposed a lot. With my advocacy, if I start my advocacy, will you protect my communities? If I start my advocacy, will you all protect my communities? Thank you. Hang on Sage, one second, I was going to wait until you got to the podium to publicly thank and recognize you. You have been sounding the alarm, dating back to my days in the state legislature. You've been a fierce and authentic advocate for our residents, often doing this on your own dime, on time. And it's just been so pure and authentic. And I recognize the great work that Justin is doing, but you have been a critical partner in the great work that Justin is doing. And we owe you a debt of gratitude, and I just wanna publicly thank you for not only your advocacy, but for your partnership. And we just are grateful for you, and look forward to our continued partnership as we continue to improve the quality of life of our residents. We owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you very much. We just demand clean air and clean water. Everyone in this building today will not walk home with sewage in their backyards, as I will. No one in this room will walk around to polluted air as Ms. Chastity Blackstone, her entire family is. It's been going on since December 2025. At what point is this egregious? At which point is this negligent? Listen, Soudan Water Board, when they came on, they have high challenge in their top staff. How many people did they fire when they came in? They have had people that are doing jobs they're not qualified and hired to do originally, or they're doing more with less with less qualified. Something management is going on, Mr. Chairman. I urge you to look into that. When was the last time these operators, Mr. Green, said that are in the summer heat? When the last time these people had a raise? Thank you. Thank you, Sage, really appreciate it. All right, with that, board is clear. Sewage and Water Board, thank you all so much. I really appreciate you. As DPW makes its way to the table, Council Vice President, can you come back one second? We need to approve some minutes. I will move to approve the April 21st minutes, seconded by Council Member McCarron, five yeas, no nays. I will move to approve the April 14th minutes. Council Vice President moves, seconded by me, please vote your machines. Five yeas, no nays, thank you. Thank you, Vice President. Are you sure that works? If not, here it is. Awesome. Director Nelson, good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having us. All right, we ready? Yes, sir. Excellent. So, I wanted to give an update today on the Joint Infrastructure Recovery Roads Program, or JIRR, and really appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning. Got a lot to go through, and we will go through in a fairly short period of time. Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to raise your hand, of course, ask at any point that you would like. But with the first slide, I want to give an update here. What we're going to do, if you don't mind, we'll let you get through your entire presentation, and then call some moments of chat. Perfect. Sounds good. This is just a graphical pictorial representation of the JIRR program. There's over 91 projects that have been completed prior to 2025. So, a lot of work has been done. I think we're all familiar with the impact that this road work has had. It's been very challenging for a lot of neighborhoods, but when you look at those blocks in dark blue, what you'll see is that there has been an immense amount of effort put forward, and over 6,000 blocks of the city. Almost a quarter of the blocks in the city of New Orleans will be touched by this program by the time it's finished. Those streets that are in gold were substantially complete in 2025, and those in light blue are in active construction here in 2026. I'll mention it a couple of different times. All of the projects that remain have been bid, are awarded, and are now in construction. So, we are on the glide path to completion for the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Program. So, very pleased and proud of, and I was remiss. I did not introduce Ryan Donegan to my left. He is the city's point, running point on this program, and has done an exceptional job. So, all of the positives that you'll hear today are a direct result of Ryan's input.

So, I can't thank him and his team enough. Also want to recognize CDM Smith. They've done a very good job of supporting us in the scheduling and execution of this work as well. So, looking at the next slide, this is just a depiction of the completion of the projects. Each of these is, we have the projects laid out by RR, and as I'll mention later, the RR4 series, RR401 through 407, are the last seven projects that we have. They are grouped projects. So, when we refer to NOFOG, that's the New Orleans FEMA Optimized Group. Did I get that right? Thank you. That is a bundling of projects that was put out in seven different groups last year, and that has resulted in some really good bid results for us that we'll look at here in a couple of slides. So, the next slide, what we see again is another depiction of the progress that we've made thus far. There are a series of legacy projects. These are going back to those projects wave one and two, if that raises any bells for you. Those will all be completed this year, and the bulk of those completed by the middle of this year. And then going forward, those NOFOG projects, as we'll see on a schedule in a bit, are all laid out by task order. So, again, as I mentioned, all seven projects, all seven of those NOFOGs are now in construction. 91 projects completed prior to 2025, and we had one project complete in 26. The legacies, if you go to the next slide, the legacies will be done this year. 27, we will not have a whole lot of substantial completions in 27. 27 is going to be a heavy construction year for us, but 2028 is going to be the year where we see everything coming to a close and an end. As I mentioned before, the completed blocks to date, 5,551 thus far. There's another 762 blocks, I believe, is it, that have yet to be completed. So over 6,000 blocks, again, as I mentioned. On the next slide, you can see this is a depiction of projects going to bid, when they went to bid and what their current status is, and what you can see there is that a lot of projects went to bid in 2025. So this was really a ramp up year for design completion bidding, and what you see is the dark blue lines. Those dark blues are quite a bit higher than the gold lines. The dark blue lines are the engineer's estimates, and the gold are the actual bid results. So what we saw coming out of the pandemic and out of 2024 is that the bidding of these groups in larger bulk quantities got us much better results, and the aggregate of those results on the next slide is that we were able to save approximately $100 million, which translates into 100 additional blocks of full street replacement that will not come at additional cost to the taxpayers of New Orleans. So that grouping of the projects resulted in a lot better economies of scale. We're seeing a much better bidder market, and that is leading us to the next slide, which is our cash flow projections. There's a lot of information both in this chart and in the background, but the bottom line here is that you can see we have a lot of construction dollars being spent in 2026, 2027, and then as we get into 2028, we can see things begin to tail off, and we will be complete by December of 2028 with the entirety of the program, and that includes the additional 100 blocks that are added in. If there are any questions about the colors, you can see the orange are those legacy projects. Those will be done this year. The blue are the projects that we have in the no-fog program, and then the green are those that's the savings that we are going to realize that will be completed in 27 and 28. And if we go to the next slide, this is a high-level look at the overall schedule, and we have a lot better granularity. I think the scheduling and execution on the program this year is probably the best that it has ever been. We have schedules down to the block laid out from now through the end of 2028, and I fully expect that we will have challenges. We won't meet the block-by-block schedule, but by having granularity, we will be able to address delays as they arise. We'll be able to address challenges because those will happen, and that is going to allow us to manage much more effectively the overall completion of this program. So what you see here is just a very high-level schedule. If you are having questions from your constituents, we can provide a high level of detail on a block-by-block basis, and I know that Ryan and his team have been sending out two-week look-aheads on a regular basis, making sure that folks understand where the FEMA program is at in their neighborhood. And this, I don't have a slide on this, but when you couple this with the Infrastructure Coordination Council, the ICC, and that dashboard tool that we have, we're starting to really see some benefit from having all of this in one single location. So when there's a question about who's doing work on my block, being able to see that graphically on a map and then come back to a schedule with a lot of detail I think is really starting to pay some dividends for us. So again, demonstrating a high degree of schedule control and completion by the end of 2028. And that brings us to the last slide that I have in my presentation. I just wanted to start with a couple of notes. So the settlement that is funding all of this was reached in 2016. So it wasn't reached until a decade after Hurricane Katrina rolled through New Orleans. And then from there, the original period of performance ran through December of 2025. So actually, I believe it was September of last year. And then again in March of this year, we made a request to extend the program. program through the end of 2028. So 2016 settlement, five named storms between that period of time and now and a global pandemic. This is the first extension we've asked for. We received a short extension through July 1st. That was received on New Year's Eve and again, as I mentioned, we've put in the request through December 1st of 2028.

That short extension that we got had two deadlines in it, March 1st progress update and then again May 1st. Both of those have been met and I am very pleased to report that Friday and again this morning we had some really productive phone calls with FEMA. They have really taken this to heart. I know the government shutdown had a major impact on Department of Homeland Security and FEMA's operations. That has now been lifted. They're back and the wheels are churning quickly and they have been very, very positive in what they have asked for. Because of our high level of detail in our schedules, we've been able to answer all of their questions with a high degree of confidence and I am cautiously optimistic that we will have some good news here in the next two to three weeks, but we have to be able to deliver that program going forward. So looks like good news. Our partners at FEMA and GOSEP have been very, very helpful and so again I sit here optimistic today and ready to answer any questions that you or anyone else may have. Thank you very much, Director. Councilmember Harris is recognized. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Director Nelson. I was going to ask about whether, how you feel about whether or not we're going to get this extension. Yeah, we've had some very positive conversations. We had a meeting on Friday with headquarters. The Director of Public Assistance was on the call as well as the Director of Region 6 and the local team. As we've all probably seen, there's a new Director of Homeland Security, a new appointee for the head of FEMA. They have all been engaged and yeah, we're feeling good today and we'll continue to provide information as requested. Yeah, I appreciate that. I do want to talk about Lower Garden District, which is a mess. I know you were at the Neighborhood Association meeting yesterday. Can you just tell us what the status is and are we proceeding as your predecessor, Joe Threatt did, which was a block by block, tear up, fix, tear up, fix? Yeah, so that was a great, Director Threatt put together a really solid program. Previously, as I'm sure we're all aware, there was a large amount of demolition that would occur and then it would take months, if not years, to complete that. Joe Threatt and the team did a really good thing by putting together the task order framework and that continues today. That's what you see in that schedule is by task order. So that project specifically, RR068, that's the 1100 block of U-TURP, that will be completed within the next four to six weeks and I know the DPS01 project, which is managed out of the Office of Sustainability, Megan Williams and Lauren Muse, they're going to be out there this morning. They're heavily engaged and I know all of those things together make for a challenging situation but the JRR program is going to be out of there within the next month. Yeah, it's very challenging when we have JRR, Resilience Projects, Entergy, all descending upon one single neighborhood and everybody's just really angry and just waiting for this pain to be over. I hope you can assure them that they will have complete streets by the time it is over. That is absolutely the plan, that's what's going to happen and again, that's a discussion that we are glad to continue with the Infrastructure Coordination Council and having that dashboard. We do intend to have that publicly available so that our residents, when somebody's digging in the street, they can go to one location and find out whether it's Entergy, Delta, Sewage and Water Board, DPW and who the project manager, management team should be. And you're including in that the signage that is mandated, the Matthew Schoenberger birthday signage ordinance that we passed, that there has to be signage posted with contact information, correct? There should be, yes. We should have points of contact that you, so when a resident looks at a location, they find that it's whatever utility is, they should be able to reach out directly to that utility. We should have contact information included. Yeah, I just want to make sure that everybody knows because as you sat through the Swebner presentation, they're blocking a street, there's no signage, there's nothing in that project that they haven't started yet, so they need to be compliant with their signage. I didn't mention that to them. So the schedule and the two week look ahead, you hope to have public at some point? Yes, the two week look aheads I think are posted, are they not? Yes, they're being sent to all of your offices I believe. Not to our offices, but for the public because not every person in New Orleans knows to call their council member or whatever. Is it on your social media, is it? It's being posted on the website every two weeks. Okay. All right, great. And then finally, Girtown looks like Beirut. I know that's part of the JIRR project. It looks like it might be completed in 2028 if we get an extension. If not, we do have those bond, that bond money that we've identified streets and Girtown has been a big area. The question is, are we coordinating the bond projects with the JIRR work? Absolutely. Yes. And our internal staff have been meeting with staff from each of the council offices to make sure that we are leveraging that appropriately. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Council Member McCarron is recognized. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Steve for being here as well. Just a few things. On the two-week look ahead and look back, I really do appreciate that. We push it out to our neighborhood associations as well and they have come to us and said that they appreciate getting that message out because it's not something that they've had before. So I do appreciate that and I hope that continues. Just two other things, I don't see on the map that 100 million reinvestment phase. Are we going to be updating that soon or? Yes. Yes. So as of right now, we have to change order that work into the existing contracts.

We're waiting on the FEMA extension to happen prior to doing that. So once the change orders are executed, that'll be added to the map. We do have an updated map already. We just haven't put it into the presentation yet. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. I just want to... I don't have to say that publicly. Absolutely. From Hammond Highway to... Veterans. Yeah. It is definitely in the program. It will be added to the map. Okay. Perfect. And on the extension, I have already notified neighbors to call their congressmen and senators to ask for this. Is that something that you would advise that residents make the ask? This is a major win for the city of New Orleans, and to see this through to completion, it'll be the closing. It'll be putting a bow on a program that will have invested, as I mentioned before, 25% of the blocks will be touched by this program. And when done in concert with the Department of Public Works standing up its own internal forces, this is going to be the perfect segue for us to be able to handle our own internal maintenance and maintain that investment that the federal government is making. So I don't think there is any challenge with folks reaching out to their elected officials in DC and talking about how important it is to bring this home so that we can all celebrate a win together. Great. And you know that you have council support if we need to reach out as well. I know that many of us have called our congressional offices too, but... And they've been great partners as well. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. The board is clear. Thank you, Mr. Director. We appreciate you. Thank you for all the great work that you and your department are doing. And for all of the hard work in women and men, please extend our thanks for just the great and hard work that they're doing. You couldn't have said it better. I would be remiss to not mention and thank all of those men and women who are out there, especially when it's hot. They're doing the hard work. They're the ones that need the thanks. And going forward, they're going to be the ones that carry us into the next chapter maintaining this work. We owe a lot to them, so thank you for pointing that out. We do. And in this building, we're quick to talk about the people that don't work hard, but we got to do a much better job at acknowledging the many, many, many, many people who work really hard. And there are a lot of people in this building who work really, really hard. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your leadership. Thank you. Thank you. All right. With that, Council Member McCarran moves that we adjourn, seconded by Council Member Harris. We stand adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.