By Dave Freneaux

HB-2 was passed by both the Senate and the House last week and it contains approximately $6 million in funding to study what remains of the Baton Rouge Loop.  The bill calls for $1 million in funding from the budget and an additional $5 million in borrowing to fund another study.  With surrounding Parishes having withdrawn their participation in the project, it appears that the proposed loop could only traverse East and West Baton Rouge Parishes.  That reduces the possible configuration of the loop to run from I-10 on the west side of Baton Rouge to the Amite River between Central and Livingston Parish.  This remaining toll road would be somewhere between 12 and 20 miles long.
 
Representative Bodi White was contacted and stated that he has a high degree of confidence that the Governor will exercise his line-item veto authority to remove the Loop funding from this bill.  Rep. White added that HB-1 and HB-76, which have already been signed, contain funding for several projects of importance to Central, including $50,000 toward the creation of an Historical Park at the site of the originall Greenwell Springs, and at least $100,000 toward project to extend Hooper Road over the Amite to Highway 16 in Livingston Parish.
 
 

CENTRAL FACTS 

Baton Rouge Business Report, Real Estate Report 2010 states:

          “The City Of Central encompasses 66 square miles, roughly the same size of Baton Rouge, but with 10% of the population.  Thus, despite experiencing incredible growth and being situated in an urban area, Central has a decidedly relaxed, rural and friendly atmosphere.  The Central Economic Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was established in 2009 to promote, develop and enhance economic and community development in the burgeoning city.  The CEDF activities have focused on increasing Central’s tax base and employment opportunities, supporting education initiatives, and marketing the city and its business community.  This includes working to attract much-needed retail, commercial and light industrial businesses to support the city’s growing demand and to sustain the lifestyle that attracted residents to Central in the first place.”

“Central’s focus on education and the city’s first-rate school system continues to be a magnet for residential growth.  The Central Community School System ranks as the fifth highest performing school district in the state despite being just three years old.  Yet Central also is the fastest-growing school district in Louisiana, with an average 9% annual increase in enrollment.  Thus, the CEDF and community leaders are working to ensure that sales tax revenues continue to support the school system and the opportunities it affords residents”  ‘Our tax base is a fraction of what other school systems have’, says Wade Giles, CEDF’s president. ‘We can’t sustain the school system solely on residential, so we need to expand and diversify our tax base”.

CENTRAL BY THE NUMBERS:

BATON ROUGE BUSINESS REPORT, REAL ESTATE REPORT 2010:

POPULATION:    28,000

PROJECTED POPULATION (2020):   46,000

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME:   $65,000

LAND AREA:    66 SQUARE MILES

AVERAGE LEASE RATE FOR RETAIL SPACE:

$11  PER SQUARE FOOT

SALES TAX:  9.5%

JULY 4TH

Central residents have a substantial number of our family members serving in the war.  We must add to this the number of veterans that have served in past wars.  To honor our heroes, whether past or present, I would like to ask our residents to display the American Flag permanently and not reserve it’s presence for the holiday. 

SPEED VAN:

Redflex Company has placed a speed van within our community as a sales demonstration.  You may have noticed it at different locations throughout the city.  THIS IS STRICTLY A DEMONSTRATION.  There will be NO citations issued.  If indeed this company or method of law enforcement is ever considered, there would have to be a public hearing before the Central City Council for approval which would welcome constituent input in the matter. 

REFLECTION:

As I enter into my second term as Mayor, I look back on the five years I have served and try to analyze my performance. I have always been drawn to a challenge in my duties as a teacher, coach, principal, and now as your Mayor.

Have I made mistakes?  Absolutely!  Have I made steps to correct those mistakes? Absolutely!  Starting a city from ground zero is the greatest challenge I have ever encountered.  There are no blueprints to accomplish this task, strictly on the job training!  This is not an excuse but an explanation.         

There are some misconceptions among our citizens concerning different issues.  First, our City Services is doing an outstanding job.  The new contract price for 2010-2011 is 62% of our Total budget and represents a savings of $150,000 over last year.

Our Master Plan is most important in keeping our sustainable life style and imperative we continue to fund it.          

Another point of great importance is Economic Development.  More businesses equate to better services for our citizens. Utilizing increased sales tax, we provide our school system with more funding and a better education for our children.  The continued funding of Economic Development is of utmost importance.  On this line of thought, I would like to clear up one other misconception: our Economic Development Consultant was funded by a $40,000.00 Grant and not $50,000.00 from our budget as previously reported.

I would like to apologize for what I consider my biggest shortfall, my failure to communicate better with you the citizens.  Being a lifelong resident of Central, (66 years) and having worked most of my adult life in Central, I assumed citizens knew me and knew that I actually live and breathe Central.  I can assure you I am taking steps to correct this and am pursuing several avenues to release weekly information of happenings in the city.  I am now delivering my “From the Mayor’s Desk” to Central Speaks, Central City News and I post weekly on the Mayors website: www.mayormacwatts.com.

As always, I welcome you to speak with me on any issue.  My door is always open and you can reach my office at 261-5988 to make an appointment.  Remember, Central is one CommUNITY!

The author grants permission to third parties to forward and/or publish the entire text of this edition of FROM THE MAYOR’S DESK including this statement.  Forwarding or publication of any edited version of FROM THE MAYOR’S DESK IS NOT AUTHORIZED.

Thank you and God bless,

Mac Watts

Mayor

Submitted by David Barrow

    The city of Central has received $320,125 in Gustav/Ike Disaster Recovery Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds through the Comprehensive Resiliency Program toward completion of the Central’s Master Plan.   Community resiliency, the capability to anticipate risk, limit impact, and bounce back in the face of turbulent change, is the basis for this funding.

    A grant request was submitted to the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) by the city of Central on March 17, 2010 for inclusion in the program.  The city council approved a resolution expressing support for the funding as well.  Notification was sent to those agencies who were awarded funding on June 21, 2010.

     The funds are to be used for activities associated with assembling, surveying, and reviewing existing planning and zoning documents; activities associated with exploring and assessing Louisiana Toolkit, Smart Growth principles, and other contemporary trends; activities associated with the development of design guidelines and pattern book documents for use in implementation of a new development code; activities associated with development of implementation strategies and more detailed planning of the City Center; and other activities associated with completion of the Master Plan.

    “This is a tremendous step towards our continued work on our Master Plan,” states David Barrow, Executive Assistant for the city of Central, who submitted the application to LRA.  “The Moore Planning Group and our zoning attorney, Mark Balkin, have done an outstanding job with our Master Plan so far, and we look forward to using these CDBG funds to be able to do even more work than anticipated to help plan the future of Central.”

Submitted by David Barrow

Join the city of Central in a series of Public Meetings to view the Master Plan Proposed Land Use Plan.

Public Meetings are scheduled at the following locations and dates:

Indian Mound Baptist Church, 16755 Liberty  Rd

July 8, 2010 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 p.m.

Central Branch Library, 11260 Joor Rd,

Wednesday, July 14, 2010:  10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010:  6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Kristenwood, 14025 Greenwell Springs Rd

Thursday, July 22:  3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Submitted by David Barrow

Central, LA – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) opened bids on the LA 64 Magnolia Bridge widening over the Amite River on June 23, 2010.  There were seven bidders on the project.  The low bid was submitted by L&A Contracting Co. with cost of $23,522,134.53.  The estimated cost prepared by DOTD was $23,349,578.50.  The contract time is 725 days from the letting of the contract which should take place within the next three months after all contracts are signed.  So, the new 4-lane bridge should be completed by late 2012.
 
L&A Contracting Co. is the same firm constructing the Phase 1 bridges of the Central Thruway over the Comite River and Beaver Bayou.
 
Rank/ License/ Bidder/ Construction Bid/ Bidder's Proposed Contract Time (Days)/ Total Bid
1/ 00755/ L & A Contracting Co./ $19,897,134.53/ 725/ $23,522,134.53
2/ 42076/ Austin Bridge & Road, Lp/ $21,389,659.40/ 730/ $25,039,659.40
3/ 39462/ JB James Construction LLC/ $21,950,853.90/ 660/ $25,250,853.90
4/ 12312/ Gilchrist Construction Co. LLC/ $21,491,494.86/ 775/ $25,366,494.86
5/ 34567/ James Construction Group LLC/ $22,291,615.09/ 700/ $25,791,615.09
6/ 12370/ Hill Brothers Construction Co., Inc/ $22,248,402.51/ 775/ $26,123,402.51
7/ 02179/ Boh Bros. Construction Co., LLC./ $24,323,605.58/ 775/ $28,198,605.58

By Dave Freneaux

The Planning & Zoning Commission held its regular meeting on Thursday, June 24th.  After the commission recommended approval to rezone a property on Hooper Road for the opening of a real estate office, there were two items of exceptional interest which occurred at this meeting.

First, Counciman Moak introduced a resolution placing a six month moratorium on any applications for C-AB-2 zoning, which is the classification for an establishment serving alcohol with no requirement to serve food.  Mr. Moak's resolution calls for a committee to study the issue and determine exactly what the City of Central wants to do with this concept as a whole rather than having a philosophical discussion about alcohol each time a rezoning request is made.  Since there are currently no cases before the City concerning C-AB-2 Mr. Moak felt this was the correct time to decide the issue.  By a 6 to 1 vote the commission approved the matter to go to full City Council for consideration.  Mr. Giles cast a no vote, citing that the concept of a "moratorium" is a red flag for developers considering investing in Central.  Mr. Giles has no objection to the study but is concerned about the halting of progress in economic development that accompanies a moratorium.

The other item of significant interest was the attendance for this meeting.  There were eighteen people in the room, nine members of commissions, three employees of the City or City Services, four who were presenting their cases for consideration, the owner of the meeting hall and a representative of CentralSpeaks.com.  There were no citizens of Central in attendance who were not otherwise obligated to be there.

The agenda, including the addition of the C-AB-2 moratorium discussion, has been posted on the City website for approximately 10 days, and has been available at City Hall as well.  The City has been sending the agendas to CentralSpeaks.com as a courtesy and has now agreed to send revisions as well, and CentralSpeaks.com will be printing these as they become available.  However, it is the primary duty of the citizens of Central to make the effort to stay informed and even to attend these meetings if the citizens want to retain the right to give input on these issues prior to them being acted on by our elected and appointed officials.  Central's form of government is NOT a pure democracy, it is a representative republic.  The opportunity to actually vote on any issue is given to the people elected every four years.  The opportunity for citizens to be heard on any issue is given at every public meeting.  It is perfectly acceptable for Central's citizens to trust the elected and appointed officials to make decisions without public input, as long as everyone recognizes that the people have then tacetly approved those decisions by their silence.

From the City of Central website

Woodrow Muhammad started working for Central part-time as an intern in early 2008 and he's now our newest full-time member, working as a Planner in our Planning & Zoning department. In May 2010, he received his Master's degree in Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University. Woodrow says he is "looking forward to becoming an integral part in the development of the City of Central."
 

Submitted by David Barrow

From time to time, we get questions about large trucks traveling on our roadways in Central.  Only certain roadways are designated as truck routes for vehicles over two-axles.  Those roadways designated as truck routes are:
 
Blackwater Rd, Denham Rd, Dyer  Rd, Greenwell Springs Rd, Greenwell Springs-Port Hudson / Deerford Rd (Hwy 64), Hooper Rd, Joor Rd, Liberty Rd, Magnolia Bridge Rd, Peairs Rd, Sullivan Rd, and Wax Rd.
 
Those are the only roads upon which large trucks should legally travel.  They should not use other local roads as shortcuts such as Lovett Rd, Devall Rd, Gurney Rd, Core Ln, Hubbs Rd, McCullough Rd and others.  However, if a large truck is making a local delivery, they are allowed to travel on local roads to make that delivery if that is where the delivery residence is or the only way to get to the residence for delivery.

By Dave Freneaux

In conference committee in the final hours of the legislative session Representatine Hunter Green, Republican-Baton Rouge, had the $5 million BR Loop Study funding added back to the $4.7 billion state construction bill which will be sent to Gov. Jindal for his signature.  The funding originated in the House but was removed from the bill in a Senate Committee.  Subsequent efforts to add the funding back on the floor of the full Senate also failed.  After the Senate passed the bill without the Loop Study funding it went to conference committee, where differences between the House and Senat versions of the bill are reconciled.  That is the point at which Rep. Green successfully added the $5 million back into the bill.  The House then passed the bill as ammended and sent ot on to the Governor.
 
Representatives Clif Richardson and Bodi White, both of Central, voted against the funding.  Richardson comments that we had a commitment over a year ago that input would be sought from Central before the project moved forward, and that has not been done.  Richardson adds, the law indicates that without the participation of Parish Presidents in surrounding Parishes, the loop can only run from the Mississippi River to the Amite River, meaning that $5 million is being spent to study a 12 mile section of toll road.