"We have more volume than pressure from Cotton Road to Pietro Estates." Mayor Rodney Grogan said that at the October 6, 2026 Patterson City Council meeting, according to the official minutes published in St. Mary Now. Earlier that same evening, the city's engineer had announced that Patterson had finally secured a fully funded $5 million state grant for its water treatment plant.
The two statements describe two different problems. The plant grant addresses how much water Patterson can treat and store. The mayor's comment was about how hard that water pushes through the pipes on the south side of the railroad. The city has a separate list of projects for that problem, and some are funded while others are still only applications.
What "Volume" and "Pressure" Mean in the Minutes
Volume is how much treated water the system can produce and hold. Pressure is how forcefully that water reaches a faucet at the far end of a line. A town can have plenty of the first and still come up short on the second in neighborhoods far from the plant or at the end of a dead-end main.
The mayor's fix for the south side was not the plant. He said the city was applying for a grant of about $1 million to build a water tower south of the rail. He said the tower would "reduce the number of problems looping south of the rail and increase water pressure." To see why the plant came first, it helps to know how long that money took.
A Plant Project Years in the Making
Patterson runs its own water treatment and distribution system, so the city carries these costs itself. The current effort sits on top of a plant the city already struggled to pay for once.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Council approves about $5 million in bonds from Patterson State Bank and Morgan City Bank for a new water plant |
| March 2013 | Council authorizes another $4.6 million in bonds |
| August 2014 | Low bid comes in at $10.1 million against an $8.1 million construction budget, and the city rejects the bids to redesign |
| 2018 | New plant built because the old one had trouble meeting state Department of Health and Hospitals rules |
| December 2022 | $4 million application to the Louisiana Water Sector Program misses by seven points |
| December 2025 | Council passes a resolution resubmitting and asks the state to waive the 25% match |
| October 6, 2026 | Fully funded $5 million state grant announced |
The 2014 story in the Daily Review archive shows the city's approach back then. Grogan planned to strip out "bells and whistles" that could be added later, such as features that made the plant almost fully automated. He hoped that would cut about $1.5 million from the cost. He also drew a firm line: "I am not going back to the citizens and ask for another $2 million." Financing for that plant included a $3.73 million, 40-year USDA loan and a $700,000 USDA grant.
The plant opened in 2018, and the state then said the system needed another clarifier. That requirement set up the second long effort. The Louisiana Water Sector Program began as a $750 million ARPA-funded grant program for water and sewer repairs, improvements and consolidation. According to St. Mary Now's December 2025 report, Patterson's 2022 application missed by seven points. Grogan said the scoring favored systems that consolidated with other systems, which Patterson could not do. The same report quotes his account of the following years: "New personnel, new rules, and new federal changes were all challenges we had to deal with."
When the council passed the resubmission resolution in December 2025, St. Mary Now reported that Councilman Lee Condolle made the motion "hoping it will seal the deal." Grogan credited former state Sen. Bret Allain, state Rep. Sam Jones and state Rep. Vinny St. Blanc with lining up the money. Ten months later, the October announcement called the grant fully funded.
What the $5 Million Is Meant to Build
Jeff Meyers of Professional Engineering and Environmental Consultants described the project to the council on October 6. According to the minutes, it would:
- Double treatment capacity from 1.5 million gallons per day to 3 million gallons per day
- Double storage capacity
- Add a clear well built under the new plant to increase production
Meyers also gave a schedule. Bidding would start in about two weeks, and the project should begin in December 2026. That puts the expected start next month. The December 2025 application had proposed a new clarifier parallel to the existing one, plus a backup system. The October announcement focused on capacity, storage and the clear well.
Doubling capacity raises the limit on how much water the whole system can treat and hold. The mayor tied south-side pressure to a separate set of projects in the distribution lines, starting with meters and a new loop and ending with a tower.
South of the Rail, the Work Is in the Lines
The minutes list several projects aimed at the south side and the system's dead ends. They are at different stages, and their funding status matters as much as the projects themselves.
- Water meter changeouts, funded. In December 2025 the mayor said a $600,000 grant would pay to replace every water meter on the south side. On October 6, the council approved Water Meter Change Order No. 1, which uses the money left in that allocation. Those changeouts run south of the rail and extend to Pietro Estates.
- Sixty more meters, approved. Meyers reported that the state had approved another $49,000 to add 60 water meters.
- A 10-inch loop line, approved. The Louisiana Department of Health approved a new 10-inch line from the dead end of the existing main at Kim Street to David Street, creating a looped system in that area.
- A groundwater storage tank, applied for. The city is applying for another $3 million grant for improvements that include a new groundwater storage tank near the road beside the existing fire station. Meyers said it would bring storage to about 500,000 gallons.
- A water tower south of the rail, applied for. This is the roughly $1 million grant the mayor tied directly to pressure from Cotton Road to Pietro Estates.
Looping matters because a dead-end main feeds water from one direction only. Connecting Kim Street to David Street gives water a second path into that part of the system. The minutes describe the tower in the same terms, as a way to cut down on "problems looping south of the rail" as well as raise pressure.
As of the October 6 minutes, the projects on this list that were funded or approved were the meters and the Kim-to-David line. The storage tank and the tower were described as grant applications.
Pietro Estates Has Shown Up in Water News Before
Pietro Estates has come up in Patterson water news before. In October 2022, KQKI News reported that a major water main leak caused low pressure near Patterson Healthcare on Lia Street and in the neighboring Pietro Estates subdivision. The city shut off water in the area, and KQKI later updated the story to say the main had been repaired and service restored in Pietro Estates.
That leak was a one-time repair. The 2026 minutes describe something different, an ongoing pressure gap along the corridor from Cotton Road to Pietro Estates that the city plans to address with a tower. Taken together, the plant grant, the meter changeouts, the Kim Street loop and the tower application show the city working on both volume and pressure, with the plant furthest along.
Where the Next Update Will Come From
The council skipped November 3 because that was Election Day. The next meeting is set for Tuesday, November 10, 2026. The October meeting was held at 6 p.m. in the council meeting room at City Hall, 1314 Main Street. The October 6 water details reached the public through the minutes printed in the public notices section of St. Mary Now.
If you own a home on Patterson's south side, or you're thinking about selling one between Cotton Road and Pietro Estates, the city's water projects may come up when buyers ask about the house. I'm glad to talk through what that might mean for your home. Lori Broussard offers a free consultation, so schedule one whenever you're ready.
