St. Bernard Parish

July, 2009

Fourth & Forward

Parish President Craig Taffaro reflects on the recovery progress made in St. Bernard, as the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches.

 

 

To tell you the truth, 18 months ago when we started this, the focus was to do several things. One was to build teams that were going to create successes for our recovery. That���s probably the biggest accomplishment we���ve made.

Project-wise Val Reiss is probably one of our milestone and landmark developments that will be ultimately about a 20 million dollar project. It���ll be a real engine for us both economically for our recreation department, as well as for our social development quality of life.

Val Reiss will include, when all is said and done, 8 new baseball fields, 2 new concession stands, one with a lounge on the top of the third floor so it overlooks the entire complex, as well as a mini-convention center that will probably be in the neighborhood of somewhere about 45,000 square feet.

We have 3 fire stations open and the other 7 are under construction. Basically everything is in motion at this point, even any challenges we���ve made, we���ve been able to overcome. We still are on target to complete all 10 fire stations by the beginning of 2010.

Road work has been a real success. We���ve been able to partner with FEMA and GOHSEP to increase the eligibility of the number of roads and what roadwork will be eligible for reimbursement.

Our complex grounds have been something we thought were important for us to symbolize that our recovery is moving forward. That included the government complex where our operations take place, our ballroom to the civic center so there could be social gatherings and functions, and the Council on Aging was something that was tremendously important because our senior population has struggled to return. And we felt like it was important to give that population a building, an area, and a program where they could get together, and be comfortable, and feel like they could return to their community.

As I���ve talked with them several times, the message is that Council on Aging building basically gives people a reason to grow old in St. Bernard.

All the achievements and the milestones we���ve reached are because of the partnerships we���ve been able to create. At the local level with residents, businesses, at the state level, with GOHSEP, and obviously, at the federal level, with FEMA.

We���re excited because we said 2009 was the corner for us and we were going to turn towards more growth and out of the disaster recovery mode.

Basically what that means to us is, we can build on the foundation that has been created over the first five years, and that���s what we���re looking forward to.