The St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation is proud to announce an important contract development for a local business leader.

MECO, a world leader in water purification, has been awarded a five-year contract to produce Lightweight Water Purifiers (LWP) for the US Army. The MECO LWP is the world’s most advanced lightweight mobile water treatment unit for military, civilian and disaster relief applications. It is designed to treat any water, anywhere.

St. Tammany Parish was recently chosen as one of nine Louisiana parishes to receive assistance in addressing economic recovery issues relating from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the deepwater drilling moratorium.

State Rep. Kevin Pearson was one of the recipients of the Dave Treen Award at the St. Tammany Republican Parish Executive Committee’s Top Elephant Awards event last night.

Today, U.S. Senator David Vitter’s spokesman, Luke Bolar issued the following statement highlighting a poll commissioned by WWL TV New Orleans from former Mary Landrieu Chief of Staff and Campaign Chairman, Ron Faucheux. The poll show’s Vitter with a commanding lead of 48 to 36 over Charlie Melancon.

Fire District 12 personnel responded to a leaking 55-gallon drum on I-12 at the Hwy. 190 overpass yesterday morning, resulting in the temporary closure of I-12.

At 10:22 Thursday morning, 911 operators received a call from a passing mortorist reporting that an 18-wheel trailer had cracked, spilling the drum from its load. When the first units arrived from FD12, the drum was leaking an unknown chemical substance. Firefighters from Fire District 4 in Mandeville responded to assist, and crews donned Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) suits to effect cleanup.