People fight for city cash

People are fighting for city cash. Shreveport has $2.2 million up for grabs in unspent bond money. The city council held a meeting tonight to give citizens a voice.

Nbc 6 reporter Karen Hopkins spoke with another group, scrambling to save a historic church from destruction.

St. Paul United Methodist church is the oldest African American church in Shreveport. It was established in 1865 shortly after the end of slavery.
Chairman Alvin Kirk say a flooding problem could wash away history. "If you don't know where you've come from, it's hard for you to plan where you're going."

Just steps from this historic church, is this drainage ditch, with heavy rains, it overflows into the church. Kirk says the drainage build-up started in the 1990s, after the construction of I-49 changed the way water flows. Water has poured into church basement three times. “There was mold, mildew in the air. We had to strip everything out of there."

City engineer Ron Norwood says Shreveport spent $145,000 to build a concrete flood wall and pump outside the church. Kirk says the repairs did nothing to stop high water. “In May of 2008, we had five feet of water in the church.”

“It's just a question of how far do you want to go to fix a drainage problem, how much money do you want to spend?" Norwood says an option is build a holding pond to divert the water. That could cost millions.

Kirk presented his case to city council. Shreveport has $2.2 million in unspent bond money. Kirk wants the leaders to invest in saving a landmark. “The foundation is getting weaker and weaker. It would be crushing to so many of the members."

Mayor Glover says, the city should use $300,000 of the unspent bond cash, for drainage projects. St. Paul’s United Methodist Church could receive some of that money.

Glover would like to spend the rest of the money on other city repairs.Government plaza has a leak problem. Glover wants to spend $1.3 million to fix the roof and replace the air conditioning,
$600,000 would go to renovate Riverview hall.