The St. Charles Parish Council voted July 27 to authorize Parish President Matthew Jewell to submit an application to the Delta Regional Authority's States' Economic Development Assistance Program seeking $500,000.00 for Phase 2 of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad Culvert Crossing, part of the Fairfield and Oakland Conveyance Improvements Project. The resolution passed. No details were given at the meeting on when the parish would learn whether the grant is awarded.

The council also introduced, but did not yet finally adopt, three related infrastructure change orders that will come back for a public hearing on August 10. Those items would increase the contract for Ormond Center Drainage Improvements by $271,095.41 and add thirty days to the schedule, increase the Destrehan Wastewater Treatment Plant Aeration Basin Rehabilitation contract by $71,532.00 with one hundred thirty-three additional days, and add $1,005,921.76 and sixty days to the Ormond CN Railway Culverts Project. None of these were voted on July 27; they were only introduced.

On zoning, the council rejected a request from Stein Management, LLC to change the classification of Lots 1 and 2, Block A, Good Hope Plantation from R-1A to R-1A(M). That ordinance failed. Three other rezoning ordinances did pass: a change from C-2 to R-1A on the Lower 85 feet of Lot 6, Village of Hahnville, requested by Billy Butler for Moore New Homes, LLC, and a change from R-1A to O-L on Lots 1, 2, and 3 of the Friloux-Donnaud Estate, requested by Robert Gilbert.

The council approved Amendment No. 1 to the 2026 Consolidated Operating and Capital Budget. The amendment adds revenues and transfers totaling $17,205,154, adds $65,875,729 in accumulated fund balance, and sets expenditures, including transfers, at $80,338,499 across all governmental funds. Parish officials said the changes are meant to adjust the beginning 2026 fund balances to match the parish's final 2025 budget figures and to carry forward money for construction, architectural and engineering, and other fees that were budgeted in 2025 but not spent because projects were not finished that year.

The council approved a lease agreement between DJV, L.L.C. and the parish for office space for the River Parishes Workforce Development Board.

Separately, the council filled two seats on the St. Charles Parish Communications District, appointing a representative from the Parish President's Office and a representative from the council itself, and appointed a representative for Emergency Medical Services as requested by the Hospital Service District No. 1 Board of Commissioners. The council also accepted the resignation of Johnny Bourgeois from the Communications District seat representing the St. Charles Parish Firemen's Association. A nomination to fill that seat is expected to come before the council on August 10.

The council heard presentations from the Port of South Louisiana and the St. Charles Parish Housing Authority. The Port flagged the I-310/US-90 interchange project as a priority it intends to support, though no specifics of a new approach to the project were given. The Housing Authority said its financing plan for converting the Destrehan and Hahnville properties under the RAD Section 18 program is expected to go to federal reviewers later this year. The Parish President's office told the council that grass cutting is running behind schedule parish-wide because of staffing and equipment shortages, and said new hires and repaired equipment should help crews catch up. A Small Business Administration representative said parish businesses and nonprofits, including volunteer fire departments, hurt by Tropical Storm Arthur can apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans through a deadline in March 2027, though the loans do not cover personal property or vehicle damage.

The meeting opened with an in memoriam for longtime parish employee Kirk Andre Friloux and a proclamation naming August as National Heatstroke Awareness Month.

Residents should watch for the August 10 public hearing at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers, where the council is set to take up next year's parish tax levy ordinance, a change to the civil service board's membership rules, the three infrastructure change orders described above, a $9,040,972.00 construction manager contract with Woodward Design + Build for the new Hahnville Branch Library, a wastewater generator maintenance contract with ARCCO Company Services not to exceed $99,735.00, and a $1,208,100.00 contract with Pintail Contracting Services for renovations at Ama Park. The council also deferred filling a District VI seat on the Library Board of Control to a future meeting.