Northshore Conifer

Liqueurs, Liqueurs Everywhere… and Many Cocktails to Drink

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:50:31 GMT

I have noticed a lot of trends recently in the wine & spirits industry. One trend is how cocktails are making a big comeback. With our economy at a slowed state, many are looking for different libations. Looking for a difference in flavor, difference in price and a difference in style. Wine has been the hip and status choice for the public that was enjoying economic freedom. Now, for some, the game has changed. Everyone knows that wine can be expensive. Everyday wines which are around ten dollars or less can add up, whereas a bottle of your favorite spirit can last weeks at lower cost. With increased consumption comes the search and demand for better ingredients. On their own, or used as a mixer, interesting liqueurs can be the difference in what people are looking for.

A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. The word liqueur comes from the Latin liquifacere (“to liquefy”).

Liqueurs date back centuries and are historical descendants of herbal medicines, often those prepared by monks, such as Bénédictine. Bénédictine is a private recipe containing 21 plants and spices. Liqueurs were made in Italy as early as the 13th century. Nowadays, liqueurs are made worldwide and are served in many ways: by themselves, poured over ice, with coffee, mixed with cream or other mixers to create cocktails, etc. Liqueurs are also used in cooking. Some liqueurs are prepared by infusing certain woods, fruits, or flowers, in either water or alcohol, and adding sugar or other items. Others are distilled from aromatic or flavoring agents. Alcohol content is not a distinctive feature. At 15-30%, most liqueurs have a lower alcohol content.

In today’s market there are some new and very fascinating liqueurs and that is what we will focus on:

1. Aperol: Originally created in 1919, this Italian aperitif was not available in Louisiana until just recently. A cousin to Campari, it has a subtle orange flavor and contains such ingredients as bitter orange and rhubarb. www.aperol.com

Around $24 dollars-Try Aperol:

a. On the rocks.

b. Add one part Aperol to 3 parts Prosecco.

c. 1 part Aperol, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part spiced syrup and 1 party square one organic vodka, garnish with apple wedge.

2. Mathilde Liqueurs of France: A part of Cognac Ferrand, these are my favorite fruit liqueurs. They offer a range of flavors consisting of pear, peach, raspberry and cassis. They even have an orange liqueur infused with VSOP cognac that is great for making margaritas. The other thing I like is that they come in half bottles. www.mathildeliqueurs.com

Around $17

3. Trader Vics: This Company is primarily known for its rums but it does make a few liqueurs. We will focus on two.

a. Macadamia Nut, which is pure heaven in a glass with silky nut flavors. I like to drink it on its own but you can also heat it up and pour it over vanilla ice cream or pecan pie.

b. Kona Coffee was the Platinum winner in the 2007 World Beverage Competition. It has a rich coffee that is fantastic.

Add these two together and mix into an Irish coffee = three words “Over the Top”, www.tradervicsrum.com around $24 dollars.

4. Domaine de Canton: This is a French Ginger Liqueur that is loaded with intense ginger flavor. It is seductively sweet and tastes like ginger snap cookies. This is also Cognac-based and makes for some interesting cocktails. www.domainedecanton.com

Around $24 dollars — Try

a. Muddle a few strawberries and put in 1 part vodka or gin and 2 parts Canton.

b. Add 1 part Domaine de Canton and 3 parts Champagne.

c. Muddle 6 frozen black cherries and add a splash cranberry with 1 part vodka and 2 parts Canton.

d. Add to your favorite Mojito recipe.

5. St. Germain Elderflower: French in origin, this has to be the most versatile liqueur I have seen. Add it to Vodka or Gin. Add it to anything and it seems to work. It has an intense aroma and taste of white peaches. www.stgermain.fr

Around $35 dollars — Try

a. Substitute St. Germain for triple sec used in making a margarita or cosmopolitan.

b. Add 1 part St. Germain to 3 parts Champagne.

6. Ty Ku Liqueur: Asian in origin, this is brand new in Louisiana. It is a blend of Asian super fruits and teas. It contains green tea, ginseng, honeydew, mangosteen and yuzu. It is advertised as low in sugars, carb, and calories. When picked up, a button releases from the bottom activating the world’s only illuminating bottle. www.trytyku.com

Around $25 dollars — Try

a. Mix with tequila and add a squeeze of lemon and soda (only 96 calories).

b. Mix 1 part vodka with 2 parts Ty Ku, splash lemon (only 98 calories).

Enjoy!

BAN ON BOWFISHING REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:48:13 GMT

Normally this column deals with hunting, but this month there is an issue that crosses over to hunting known as “bow fishing.” Bow fishing, simply put, is shooting a fish with an arrow propelled from a bow. A line attaching the arrow to the bow allows for retrieval. It is really more like hunting than fishing, but those who participate in it are required by law to have a fishing license, not a hunting or archery license like bow hunters who hunt deer. It requires stealth and shooting skills. What began as a survival skill has evolved into a sport, one which is primarily done at night since it is more conducive to seeing the fish. Bow fishing is as old as primitive man, but there is a movement afoot to end it.

You see, Louisiana Senator Dan Claitor has authored Senate Bill 573 that would eliminate the taking of red drum with bow and arrow. It's nothing new. There was a similar attempt a few years back that failed to become law. This bill is slightly different in that its only rationalization is that redfish are classified as "gamefish" in Louisiana. Other game fish species such as bass, bream and sacalait cannot be taken with bows and arrows even though any other species fresh or saltwater can. Incidentally, no one seems to care about all the other species like sheepshead that far outnumber the number of redfish taken. Other "game" that can be legally taken by bow and arrow include deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, ducks, quail and many other species.

Some of the common objections to bow fishing are: it's done at night with lights that "immobilize" the fish making them easy targets; bow fishermen cannot live release any undersized fish that are shot; and redfish bag limits are commonly exceeded and could cause redfish to be pushed to extinction. None of those arguments are valid. Anyone who believes lights "freeze" fish has never bow fished at night. Not only will they swim away from boats and lights, the phenomenon known as "light refraction," an optical illusion adds to the degree of difficulty pointing and shooting accurately at a target that is not really where it appears to be. Fishermen do have the responsibility not to shoot at undersized fish, just as sportsmen have many other judgments they are expected to make. These include properly identifying similar species of duck in both flight and in low light situations, hens from tom turkeys, does from bucks, not to mention the identity of many species of offshore fish that must be released if caught during a closed season. I think most bow fishermen can estimate a fish less than 16 inches long and, when in doubt, don’t shoot. If they are caught with undersized fish they can be cited like any other angler. An undersized fish shot with an arrow is less likely than a rod and reel fishermen hooking a 13 inch fish in the gut.

As far as the potential of wiping out redfish, there is absolutely no evidence that redfish are in any trouble. In fact, if anything, population estimates suggest an increase in limits could easily be withstood. If redfish were ever to get in trouble, why would a 1or 2 percent harvest method get cut instead of the much larger source of harvest, namely rods and reels? If an accident victim is bleeding profusely from a severed femoral artery, would a surgeon try to stop a finger cut first? But that's not even worth discussion, since redfish are nowhere near in peril. It’s not a conservation question, it's a social issue.

It's also an economic issue. Bow fishing has become a popular charter business bringing in valuable tourists dollars while providing an exciting and challenging sport.

So, what's the motivation? Some people who don't particularly care for bow fishing, who would never do it, don't want anyone else doing it even though it does them no harm other than to provide some insignificant competition for the same resource. And competing for resources fairly is not illegal the last time I checked. So they try to legislate competitors away.

If it's being done on private property, we have laws to prevent trespassing. In fact, we have many laws to protect redfish whether you call them "game" or not. They cannot be sold into commerce, cannot be gill-netted, cannot be kept if caught in federal waters, have slot size limits and a very conservative 5 fish per angler daily limit. What difference does it make whether a fish is killed with an arrow or with a treble hook? It's all in the eye of the beholder. My prediction – there's not enough evidence that bow fishing should be banned. It's not unethical, immoral or a detriment to resource conservation. My guess is that an informed legislature will (pardon the pun) shoot it down, again.

The Creole Bagelry

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:46:41 GMT

Growing up in New Orleans, the only breads I ever ate were French bread and Bunny Bread (white, of course!). Was there really a need for anything else? However, as the bread world and I matured, new and exciting varieties of breads such as whole wheat, multi grain and even pita breads, were being introduced into the mainstream market. I developed a new love and respect for these breads, but I still had yet to meet one of my favorite doughy treats.

It was not until I started working in New York City did I begin to understand the allure and, oftentimes, the addictive power of a good bagel. On my way to work, it was my morning ritual to get off the subway, walk to my favorite corner breakfast shop and order an “everything” bagel with a schmear (a light spread of cream cheese) and a regular coffee (coffee with a little sugar and a little cream). What was it about these round pastries that would become such an integral part of my life that I would find myself bringing dozens of them home to family and friends whenever I would come home for a visit?

For a better understanding, I would have to go back to the history of bagels to see where it all started. There is some dispute as to how the bagel came about. One version says it was invented in Krakow, Poland back in the 16^th century as an alternative to the lean Lenten bread, Bublik. Others say it was created to commemorate the victory of Poland’s King Jan Sobeieski III over the Ottoman Turks. There is even controversy over how the name bagel came into existence. The most plausible origin of the word “bagel” comes from the Yiddish word “beygl” which comes from the German word “beugal”, meaning ring, bracelet or, sometimes translated, as a round loaf of bread.

One thing is for certain, immigrant Jews brought bagels here to America at the turn of the 20^th century selling them, stacked up on sticks, on the streets of the lower east side of Manhattan. Today bagel shops are all over the country, but why haven’t they made their way down here?

Before Katrina there was one large bagel operation with several shops, but they left the area after their bakery was destroyed by the flood. So what is a bagel lover like me to do? Just when I was about to give up on ever having a fresh bagel anywhere in the area I happened to catch a glimpse of a sign which I thought said Creole Bagelry. Was I reading that correct? Yes, I was! The Creole Bagelry, home of the authentic New York style bagel, right there on Gause Boulevard in Slidell.

Bernadette and Dominick Lala are the owners of the Creole Bagelry. Their lifelong dream of owning a café came sooner than expected for this young couple when they were faced with relocating to New York when their employer, Delta Airlines, moved their base up there shortly after 9/11. Bernadette, the former flight attendant and Dominick, a private pilot, knew that was not what they envisioned for their future, so they decided to speed up their dream and open up their café earlier than planned. They wanted to be different from the other breakfast and lunch places in town and decided to open a bagelry offering fresh, baked on site bagels. After all, how difficult could that be?

Bernadette and Dominick soon found out that you just don’t mix some flour, salt, water and yeast together, form a ring then throw it in the oven! There is a reason bagels taste better up north and, as all good cooks/bakers know, there is always a secret to making something special.

The couple decided to purchase their equipment from a baker 30 years in the business, but one of the stipulations was that he help them receive the training they would need to make a great bagel down south. He agreed, and Bernadette and Dominick left for training at a New York deli where they spent two months, seven days a week working twelve-hour days learning the “right” way to make bagels.

Yes, there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way. If you have ever eaten a bagel out of a bag from the grocery, frozen or “fresh”, then you are eating a steamed then baked bagel. This process results in a dull outer crust and, oftentimes, jaw aching chewy centers. Now if you have ever had the pleasure of having a fresh (within 6-8 hours of being baked) “real” bagel that has been properly prepared by being boiled first, then baked, you will know what bagel love is all about. The boiling process is what gives the “real” bagel its crackly, shiny, caramel-colored crust and its slightly chewy center.

But, don’t think that is the only secret to great bagels! Bernadette and Dominick have worked long and hard to perfect their bagels by bringing in an entire water filtration system, importing special dough conditioners from New York and even using malt (baker’s syrup) to sweeten their bagels, which bagel purists say is the only way to sweeten a bagel.

This dedication to detail has paid off for this couple. They are now in their sixth year and they do a whole lot more than bagels. The Creole Bagelry offers a full breakfast and lunch menu in addition to their sixteen varieties of fresh, daily made bagels and assorted flavored cream cheeses. If you feel like something other than a bagel, they make delicious salads like, my favorite, the bleu bayou or you can try one of their homemade soups. They also offer specialty sandwiches, which you can get on a bagel, or other any other type of bread. My favorite, of course, would have to be the Salmon soul, which is sliced smoked salmon with a “schmear”, thinly sliced red onions and capers all piled atop your choice of bagel.

If you are like me and love an everything bagel or a cinnamon raisin bagel you will have to get there early, these popular ones always seem to run out quickly! I laugh to myself now when I say that I am making a bagel run to Slidell and I come “back” to Covington with a few dozen bagels to share with friends and family. They might not be from New York, but I have to admit they are by far the best you are going to find anywhere in the New Orleans area.

Creole Bagelry

1337 Gause Blvd.

Slidell, LA 70458

985-649-6151

Tue-Fri 7-3

Sat-Sun 7-2

Breakfast and lunch served

Catering available

TIME TO GET SERIOUS IN BATON ROUGE

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:45:04 GMT

With a legislative session poised to begin on March 29, state lawmakers are grappling with a difficult budget situation. The financial picture is so bleak that the Civil Service Commission has recommended that annual pay raises be suspended for 60,000 state employees beginning July 1. Long gone are the days post-Katrina when federal money was pouring into the state. Almost five years after the hurricane, the level of federal funds being allocated for Louisiana has declined sharply. In addition, Louisiana tax revenue has been falling. For example, in the month of February, “both income and sales taxes did not meet expectations,” according to LSU economist James Richardson. This situation has created a mid-year budget deficit that could reach $400 million. Several months ago, the Jindal administration made painful budget cuts of almost $250 million, which severely impacted higher education and healthcare services. The need for additional budget cuts should provide legislative support for the work of the state streamlining commission chaired by State Senator Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville). There will be a number of bills that will be introduced in the session that will contain the spending reductions recommended by Donahue’s commission.

One method to deal with the crisis is to tap the Rainy Day Fund, which totals approximately $774 million. The state constitution allows legislators to withdraw no more than one-third of the total amount in any given year. In the last session, legislators used $86 million to balance the budget, leaving $172 million available for use in this session. It is a real travesty that any money has been withdrawn this year and removing more money would just compound the problem. To remove the funds, a two-thirds vote of the legislature would be needed, but if the Governor gets involved, the votes may materialize. Raiding the Rainy Day Fund is the easy way out for spineless legislators. Louisiana has been living beyond its means for many years. It is time that fiscal sanity is restored and the budget is brought in line with our neighboring states.

Instead of raiding our fund of last resort, the legislature should focus on significant budget cuts. Louisiana has not come anywhere close to cutting the budget to a satisfactory degree. The state still has too many employees per capita and too many state colleges and universities. For a state that is one fourth the population of Florida, it is amazing that Louisiana has more colleges and universities than the Sunshine State. Louisiana also has four boards of higher education, leading to millions in unnecessary spending.

While difficult budget decisions loom, too many legislators are worried about trivial issues. Every year, some of our misguided legislators waste time debating the merits of the state poem, flower or fruit. This year, a host of ill-advised bills have been introduced, including one to outlaw low riding pants. State Representative Rickey Hardy (D-Lafayette) is following in the footsteps of former legislator and convicted felon Derrick Shepherd and introduced a bill to outlaw sagging pants. Shepherd tried on numerous occasions to criminalize low riding pants, but failed in both 2004 and 2008. The effort did make national headlines and was ridiculed by Comedy Channel hosts among many others. If Hardy’s bill becomes law, any person wearing clothing that intentionally exposes undergarments could be subject to fines and community service. After multiple offenses, the penalties would increase substantially. With our fiscal problems, is bad fashion really a matter that deserves legislative attention?

Another questionable bill has been introduced by State Senator Robert Adley (R-Benton). He wants to outlaw the sale of energy drinks to anyone under the age of 16. Adley is acting on the issue because of a constituent who claimed that her son was rendered unconscious and started vomiting after consuming an energy drink.

This youngster may have other health problems that could have caused this reaction. The federal government has no prohibition on youngsters using these beverages, so neither should the state government. If the energy drinks were harmful to youngsters certainly the federal government would have already issued health warnings. It should not be the business of the Louisiana Legislature to regulate energy drink sales.

There are much more important issues to address than energy drink usage, but Senator Adley will call witnesses and waste precious legislative time on an issue that should not be a priority for this session.

Louisiana is in desperate need of massive fiscal reform. Senator Adley and his colleagues need to focus on how to create more private sector jobs and make Louisiana a more competitive state. In the last economic report, the fastest growth sector of our economy was government jobs. This trend must be stopped, but, instead, legislators are wasting time on fashion, energy drinks and other trivia.

Over the years, the Louisiana Legislators have enacted too many laws. They are on path to pass more counter-productive measures in this session. A better use of time would be to remove laws from the books and make life easier and less regulated in Louisiana. The people of our state do not want more government, they want less. Maybe one day, our politicians will get the message.

Thinking Ahead: Northshore Parishes Launch, Revise Zoning Rules

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:42:54 GMT

If you’ve lived or worked on the northshore for more than about 10 minutes, you’ve probably discerned the one constant: growth – and we’re not talking about the grass.

Immediately after that nasty hurricane nigh onto five years ago, it seemed St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes were the place to be. The ONLY place to be. In the whole wide world. Everybody – yes, EVERYBODY – was here. The surge in population brought a surge in tax revenue and retail sales, but it also brought growth even more accelerated than the most clairvoyant of demographers and planners had predicted. “Exponential” became the number-one descriptor, replacing “steady” as the word of choice to pair with “growth.”

Boomtown we were, and boomtown we are.

In the months that followed, as many folks repaired or rebuilt their southshore abodes and drifted back towards the now-medium-sized city on the Mississippi River, things settled down just a tad. The housing market, flooded with spec homes during the diaspora, faltered, failed, and has now begun a significant correction. The commercial building sector, already flush with projects, surged a bit, then receded, but may now be moving in the upwards direction, as well.

Trouble is, nobody had planned for this stuff.

New subdivisions were installed practically overnight, without the drainage and streets infrastructure they should have had. Commercial corridors became clogged with traffic as more and more consumers sought and bought more and more things at more and more places. It was almost too much to bear, and not just for one’s nerves: The infrastructure was strained, too.

“We’re no longer a quiet, laidback community,” said Tangipahoa Parish President Gordon Burgess.

Indeed, not. Are there any of those left?

Faced with a burgeoning population and enhanced demand for commercial and residential development, Tangipahoa Parish leaders found themselves in a bit of a pickle. For more than 30 years, the parish had a Planning Commission, but its function had been limited to subdivision approval. There was no zoning, though, which means anyone could build virtually anything, virtually anywhere – and nobody could stop them, or even regulate them.

The result was the ongoing initiative to build, so to speak, a set of zoning regulations that would help protect property-owners while guiding new development to appropriate places.

“We’ve been working on it for about three years,” Burgess said. “We’ve got our Planning Commission on board and we’re looking at possible zoning at this time.”

To advance the process, Burgess has appointed Alyson Lapuma, an 18-year veteran of the parish’s Building Department, as planning director.

“We opened this office in January 2007,” Lapuma said. “We haven’t been here that long. We didn’t have a Planning Department and the Building Department did most of it. Zoning has been needed, but after Katrina we saw a lot of development. We didn’t have the infrastructure in place but we couldn’t turn them down.”

While an ordinance passed in 2008 set a two-year timetable for completing zoning of Tangipahoa Parish, a short time after its passage the parish was named a “model community” by the Center for Planning Excellence, and given a template ordinance from which to build its own. The process then became two-pronged: adapting the ordinance to fit Tangipahoa’s needs while evaluating infrastructure and properties to discern appropriate zoning classifications.

It is not an overnight project.

“We’re having to make quite a few changes to (the CPE template) to meet our rural needs,” Lapuma said. “We worked on the map for quite a while, seeing what will and won’t work here. We’re waiting on a revised model. If the committee is OK with it, we’ll have plenty of community input.”

As the process moves forward citizen participation will be key, and Lapuma hopes to start that component of the zoning undertaking in mid May.

“We’re doing it not to just put regulations on people, but to protect their property and way of life,” Lapuma said. “The more development we allow in rural areas, the more people are unaccustomed to rural life. There’s a lot in (the CPE ordinance) not related to rural areas. They limit the number of stories of buildings, for example, and we just don’t deal with those types of things.”

Not yet, anyway.

“Everybody should have some type of plan,” Burgess said. “It’s just time. It protects your property rights.”

“When you hear ‘zoning,’ you might think we’re telling you what to do with your property,” Lapuma said. “But it’s usually those people who are the first to complain about what their neighbors are doing with their property.”

In St. Tammany Parish, where zoning ordinances have been on the books for 30 years, Planning Director Sidney Fontenot is finishing a three-year process that involves rezoning the entire parish to update the ordinance with new designations and more clarity. Completed in several phases, the last of which was approved by the Parish Council on April 1, the new ordinance should make real estate transactions easier and the permitting process smoother for property-owners and developers.

“We did it in three groups,” Fontenot said. “The ordinance was adopted in May 2007. Area 1, which was South Central St. Tammany, was adopted in April 2009. The two southern corners were adopted in September 2009. We had dozens of meetings. We had a kickoff meeting in each study area.”

The primary goal of the process, Fontenot said, was to update the 1980s version of the parish zoning ordinance, which had become outdated through nearly 30 years of growth.

“The old ordinance was 20-plus years old and was outdated,” Fontenot said. “We needed to zone property so we could plan for it with regard to infrastructure, and get ahead of the curve. And that ordinance (the 1980s version) was the second one. The first one had a rural description that allowed pretty much anything.”

Everything is a process.

“When you’re rezoning 800 square miles over three years, the fact of being able to do it within that time frame shows it was a good effort,” he said.

Nonetheless, Fontenot said he recognizes that not only will minor tweaking be expected for the new ordinance but that it, too, will eventually become outdated and require revision.

“If the Commission and Council hold with existing (new) zoning, people will stop buying cheaper land and seeking rezoning afterwards,” Fontenot said. “There may be some areas where changes will become appropriate over time. Things change over time, just like they did from the ‘80s when the last ordinance was adopted.”

While there may be adjustments to be made on all sides, the smoother sailing should become evident in short order.

“Realtors no longer have to negotiate a sale and then seek rezoning,” Fontenot said. “Agents can target clients to appropriate areas. From a resident’s viewpoint, you pretty much know what can be beside you now. It gives us some basis to plan for infrastructure. We’re trying to build infrastructure before land is developed.”

In both the short- and long terms, however, the results should be favorable for all involved.

“Over time, people will see the benefit of having determination of where things should be,” Fontenot said. “There should be fewer cases of residents having to worry about what can go next to them, as opposed to the hodge-podge that had occurred.”

Impressive Female Figures!

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:40:23 GMT

I was asked a few weeks back if I knew of any larger-than-life female figures of bygone eras who played a major role in the history of the local area. An organization was looking for such a person to serve as an icon for a planned recognition and awards program. Let me go on record as saying that despite rumors spread by my ageist critics, I didn’t personally know, or date, any women during the early years of Mandeville. However, a possible candidate did come to mind fairly quickly. And, I’ll get to that name in a minute, following my traditional random, nonlinear reasoning and writing process.

It’s not an easy question however. It’s certainly not difficult today to come up with countless names of women who have made great contributions in government, science, business, and every other facet of national and community life. Our parish and municipalities have many female officials in high positions, and many of our local businesses have women in charge. It also seems like almost all of our not-for-profit and community service organizations are led by women. I sometimes feel like the drone I always aspired to be.

But this was obviously not always the case. There were notable exceptions, but before the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified around 1920, women were generally treated as chattel around most of the country. In the 1800s, they couldn’t vote, or be elected, or be doctors, lawyers, or other professionals. Married women also had it particularly bad with respect to the ownership of property. What this meant was that unless they were actresses or ax murderers, their names didn’t appear much in newspapers, books, business transactions, etc., and most were rather anonymous, known to history only through family Bibles, letters and other personal papers, or their relationship to famous men.

It was a little different in Louisiana, where the tradition of French and Spanish Civil Law could give women control over significant assets while they were married. As a result, a great deal can be learned about particularly influential ladies of earlier days from property transactions and other legal proceedings they were involved in. These acts were passed before notaries, who at the time were very important individuals under Louisiana’s civil law system, not the part timers with little signs on their mailboxes that hold the title today. These earlier notaries also served as the custodians and archivists of these official records. When they died, they passed the records on to successors they had trained. If you wanted to look up a property transaction, you didn’t go to the courthouse, you went to the notary involved, or to whoever succeeded him, to look at his (certainly not her) records. The problem with this system was that you’d have to know who that notary was to begin your search, and there was no centralized system that would help you locate this individual. And during the boom years of the early 1800s in the Queen City of the South, there were millions of transactions filed somewhere and a whole bunch of notaries who might have them.

To solve this growing problem, shortly after the Civil War, the New Orleans Notarial Archives was created to act as a central repository for the city’s notarial records. Initially, only old records were stored there and notaries continued to keep their most recent ones, but for the last forty years, all notarial records have been sent there. Currently, the Archives store over 40 million pages of notarial acts dating back to the early French Colonial Period of the 1700s. Since New Orleans notaries handled St. Tammany transactions during its early history, many of the original documents relating to these acts are also stored there.

Despite the centralization, researching history through these records is still a daunting task that involves having a good knowledge of local families, their general history, and the names of their favorite notaries. To do this, there is none better than Sally Reeves, a retired archivist from the Archives, who I understand is doing special projects for them as a consultant again. Sally has done a great deal of research on property transactions in Mandeville involving its historically important Old Town homes, and it is from her reports that I select my candidate for Heaviest Hitter and Most Interesting Historical Figure (Female Division) in Mandeville before the Civil War.

And the winner is … Sophronie Claiborne Marigny. Ah, there’s that name again, and she was indeed related to Bernard Marigny, Mandeville’s founding father. Sophronie was the beautiful, bright, well-educated, witty, pampered, etc., etc. daughter of William C.C. Claiborne, the first Governor of the State of Louisiana. When her father died, her mother remarried, and her stepfather was a lawyer for Jean Lafitte. So, she had an interesting life from the outset, and it became more interesting when in 1834 she married Mandeville Marigny, a good looking, dashing soldier, duelist, and oldest surviving son of Bernard. Two of Bernard’s sons by his first marriage had died previously – one in a duel and the other under mysterious circumstances in Natchez shortly after Mandeville and Sophronie’s wedding.

Sophronie and Mandeville were very active in land transactions in the local area until the early 1850s, when the couple seems to have gone their separate ways. These transactions were all done solely in Sophronie’s name, because the couple, not wanting to be involved in Bernard’s messy financial affairs, had requested and received from the court a separation of their assets.

The ownership of the properties purchased was always for a short period of time, because she and Mandeville were basically speculators at heart. Bernard, in fact, is rumored to have encouraged his daughter-in-law to get involved in property auctions and bid up prices when land sales were flagging in the area.

The couple operated a large brick making operation on the Tchefuncte River, and owned among others, two of the most historic and interesting properties in Old Mandeville. One was the historic Morel-Nott-Hanisee house, which was moved to the 2600 block of Lakeshore Drive and restored in the mid-1960s.

The other was the property at the corner of Lakeshore Drive and Lafitte Street where condominiums now sit. The entire two blocks between Lakeshore Drive and Jefferson Street and between Girod and Lafitte Streets comprised the site of the original Mandeville Hotel and casino buildings from 1835 until 1850, when it was razed, re-subdivided and auctioned off. Sophronie bought three of the ten deep lots facing the lake nearest Lafitte. She and Mandeville built a fine home on two of the lots, and soon sold the third to Pierre Poutz, who combined it with four adjacent lots he had bought and built what became Bechac’s Restaurant and is now the Lake House. The Marignys lived in their home briefly before selling it also. This building was then operated as a small hotel for a while, and then was resold to the Mugnier family who expanded the buildings on the site and created the famous St. Tammany Hotel, a local attraction and haven for tourists well into the 20^th Century.

So Sophronie is my choice, and it wasn’t even close, although the runnerup is an interesting footnote to our history. She was the notorious Madame Louis Lalaurie, who fled to Mandeville from New Orleans after firefighters battling a fire in her Royal Street home found slaves chained in the attic and tried to kill her. She was a guest here briefly in what is known as the Coquillon home at the corner of Marigny and Lakeshore drive before permanently departing the country for France. She was therefore disqualified from consideration for conduct unbecoming an icon.

Spring will put a “Spring” in your Step!

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:38:15 GMT

After a long, cold, quite dreary winter, spring has FINALLY sprung here on the northshore. Azaleas are blooming, the sun is shining and it’s time to get out of the house and enjoy this beautiful weather! There’s a long list of outdoor festivals and activities planned for the month of April. Here are a few of my favorite picks.

The City of Covington is bringing back the popular live music series “Rockin’ the Rails”. I enjoyed these free outdoor concerts so much back in the fall; I’m glad to see them return. Held at the Covington Trailhead, the intent is to lure people into downtown Covington on a weeknight for a fabulous free show of live music, and then hopefully entice them to stay for a nice dinner at one of Covington’s great restaurants. Nice concept. And it works! That’s exactly what I did during the fall and I’m looking forward to repeating that every Thursday in April. The music is exceptionally good. There are a few northshore favorites included in the line-up, but also some southshore musicians that don’t make quite as many appearances over here, so it’s a real treat. First up on April 1 is Soul Revival, followed on April 8 by Ingrid Lucia, April 15 is Paul Sanchez (this show is not to be missed-Paul is an incredible singer-songwriter!), April 22 The Blackened Blues Band, and closing things out on April 29 is Paula and the Pontiacs. All concerts are from 5:30-7:30. You can bring food and drink if you like, however, local non-profits will be on hand selling an assortment of refreshments. If you need more details check out www.cityofcovingtonla.com

This next event is special to me because it’s in Abita Springs, my hometown, but also because it is being held by the non-profit Friends of the Park. A small group of Abita Springs citizens, myself included, started this non-profit a few years ago with the goal of building a playground in our park. Well, we did it – with the help of over a 1000 volunteers, our community playground was constructed. But Friends of the Park hasn’t stopped working, and they continue to identify and address the needs in our town. Earth Fest 2010 is one of their projects. Regan Contois, Friends of the Park board member and Earth fest organizer, says that the objective with Earth Fest is to simply use their talents locally to improve our place on Earth. “Earth Fest provides new ideas, inspiration and encouragement to our citizens to do their part…joyfully to make Abita Springs a better place to live and play” This is the second year in a row Abita will celebrate this event. Everyone is invited. Along with great food, Abita Beer and live music all day, Earth Fest will be giving away free trees. There are lots of activities planned for children including recycle relays and scavenger hunts with fun prizes, too. There will be plenty of booths to check out with green crafts and informative booths from folks like the Nature Conservancy and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. Also, they’ll have artisans on hand with crafts and even jewelry made from recycled materials. It’s all for fun – and to raise awareness and appreciation for the beautiful planet we call home. National Earth Day is celebrating its 40^th anniversary and is actually on April 22. Abita Springs is proud to join in the celebration nationwide by having our own Earth Festival. Join everyone at Earth Fest on Sunday, April 18, NOON- 5:00 at the Abita Springs Trailhead and Park. The admission is free.

This next event is new to the northshore. The Greater New Orleans International Dragon Boat Festival is huge and I’m so pleased that they have chosen Madisonville to host their inaugural event! For those of you wondering (as I was…) What in the world is a Dragon Boat? Well, Dragon Boat racing includes teams of at least 20 people. They paddle, in unison, competing for the best time. Although speed is a necessity, it is the teamwork of paddling in perfect synchronicity that makes a winning team. The banks of the Tchefuncte River in downtown Madisonville are perfect for viewing the race. This event is expected to be one of the premiere events of its kind worldwide and is happening right here in our own backyard! The sport (yes, although new to me!) is evidently one of the fastest growing sports around, particularly in the southern part of the United States. The Dragon Boat Festival will be Saturday, April 17. Admission for spectators is free. The races start around 8:30 in the morning and should wrap up around 5:00. More information is available on the website www.gwndragonboat.com

I plan on enjoying every little bit of this beautiful, cool spring weather before the hot, sultry days of summer set in. I hope you have every opportunity to do so as well!

If you have a northshore event that would be of interest to my readers here in On The Seen, please let me know about it! Email me any information about fabulous northshore events at: scampbell@northshoreconifer.com.

Playmakers Indoor Sports. Game on!

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:33:55 GMT

A new state-of-the-art indoor sports arena is set to open for business on June 1st in the Northpointe Business Park at the intersection of highways 1077 and 1085. Playmakers Indoor Sports, LLC will operate the facility which is being constructed by Voelkel McWilliams for the developers, Indoor Sports, LLC.

The facility will boast a 175 x 80 foot field outfitted with boards and glass, similar to a hockey arena, and premium artificial turf as the playing surface, along with a 45 x 90 foot turf-covered mezzanine for additional play. Primary offerings will be adult and youth leagues for soccer, lacrosse and flag football as well as team play in “Reball” – an indoor version of paintball. Other offerings will include clinics, private coaching, camps and sports-themed parties.

Playmakers will bring to reality a vision conceived by their principals and St. Tammany residents Ryan Enk, Todd Giustiniano and Rick Honsberger, nearly three years ago. Enk is the local franchisee and operator of the successful SoccerTots and HoopsterTots franchises. He began working on feasibility studies for an indoor arena several years ago hoping to turn his passion for soccer and working with kids into a career.

Giustiniano and Honsberger headed down a similar path independent of Enk. They decided to pursue the idea after Giustiniano took a team of 11 year old girls across the lake to play indoor soccer as a fun summer activity and wondered why there was no similar facility on the northshore. At Honsberger’s urging they began to work on a business plan. Enk, unbeknownst to them, was already further along in his pursuit. Both sides had hired national consultants recommended by the U.S. Indoor Soccer Association to help them determine the feasibility of the project and guide them through the process.

A chance meeting of Enk and Honsberger resulted in the three deciding to work together to bring their idea to fruition. “The three of us quickly realized the synergy and benefits of working together to bring one first-class facility to the northshore instead of competing against each other with two. Our skill sets complemented one another perfectly and gave us all the pieces to the puzzle to make it happen,” said Giustiniano.

By joining forces, Enk was able to capitalize on the others’ business and capital fundraising experience, while contributing his previous facility management and operations experience.

The group decided to continue with Enk’s consultant- Kent Gold out of Seattle, Washington. Gold is a highly regarded national indoor sports arena consultant and has a stellar track record of successfully developing more than 40 similar facilities across the country. After initial feasibility studies convinced the group that the project would succeed, they embarked on a two year odyssey to locate a site and secure investors. The first major hurdle was cleared when the group secured startup capital, with the biggest and key contribution coming from New Orleans investment banker Marc Bonifacic.

The next step was to find investors/developers to build the facility and lease it to the operating group. After several months and pitches to numerous groups and individuals, a local group of private investors committed to the project.

All the pieces were in place in October 2008 when the economy collapsed and their real estate investors had to back out. Undeterred, the group began a new search and connected with Paysse McWilliams, owner of local construction firm Voelkel McWilliams and an avid soccer enthusiast. McWilliams was sold on the idea and put together an investor group to finance the building and land which will be leased to Playmakers.

After spending another year negotiating the purchase of the land, working out the details of the operating lease and drawing up the building plans, McWilliams began construction in November 2009. It is moving forward on schedule with an opening date targeted for June 1st. Registration for summer leagues and camps is now open via the company’s website: www.playmakersindoor.com.

Playmakers’ mission is to provide a first-class facility that offers recreational and competitive indoor sports leagues for players of all ages and abilities. The principals hope to capitalize on the national trend of high participation rates in indoor sports and enhance the quality of life factor for the northshore community. Its focus will be on enjoyable, recreational play in a clean, wholesome, family-friendly environment. “We’re driven not only by the opportunity to build a successful business, but also by the chance to contribute a significant community asset to St. Tammany Parish,” said Honsberger.

Over 2,000 Acres of Highly Threatened Louisiana Longleaf Pine Woods Saved

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:31:46 GMT

Business and conservation partner to restore a key part of the Talisheek Pine Wetlands Complex

The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana and Ecosystem Investment Partners announced today the permanent protection and restoration of 2,263 acres of wet longleaf pine savanna and associated habitats, which comprise one of the country’s most threatened ecosystems. Less than 5% of the original savanna habitat remains in Louisiana today, having once dominated the Gulf Coastal Plain and covered more than 2 million acres in Louisiana alone.

“This property is one of the largest restorable wet longleaf pine savannas in the region,” said Latimore Smith, Director of Science and Stewardship for Louisiana office of The Nature Conservancy. “It represents a rare chance to turn back the ecological clock, to restore something to its natural state for the benefit of people and wildlife.”

Now, thanks to a unique partnership between a private investment fund and a conservation group, this property will stay forever wild. Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) purchased the site in 2008 and is today granting to the Nature Conservancy a conservation servitude that, among other things, will permanently extinguish the development rights associated with critical habitat land. The property, located east of Abita Springs in St. Tammany Parish in an area known as Mossy Hill, was previously planted with loblolly and slash pine for timber harvest. EIP has contracted with TNC to initiate a massive restoration effort that is expected to bring the land back to its rich native wet forest state that could support more than 20 rare, threatened, or endangered species including Henslow’s sparrow, mud salamander, parrot pitcher plant, pine woods lily, and bog flame flower.

This restoration work will be extensive. Over the next 10 years, the groups anticipate cooperating to remove non-native or out-of-place vegetation, smooth out the mounded earthen rows where plantation trees were once grown, plug up drainage ditches to restore the land back to its naturally wet condition, plant thousands of individual longleaf pine seedlings, and implement a prescribed fire regimen. The restoration and long-term management are being funded though the establishment of a 2,263-acre wetland mitigation bank, the Mossy Hill Mitigation Bank (www.mossyhillbank.com), which was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on March 5^th, 2010. The mitigation bank will provide offsets to help compensate for unavoidable impacts to wet pine habitat from commercial, residential, and infrastructure development in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes.

“The Talisheek Pine Wetlands project is a prime example of how business and conservationists can partner to achieve significant environmental outcomes,” said Nick Dilks, a Partner in Ecosystem Investment Partners. “We are very pleased to work with our longtime partner, The Nature Conservancy, to help ensure that when impacts to natural resources are unavoidable, we can offset those impacts with restoration work of the highest caliber that’s based on expert science.” The Nature Conservancy is considered one of the leaders in pine flatwood wetland restoration and has successfully operated its own preserve complex and pine wetland mitigation bank in St. Tammany Parish since 1991.

The two groups have also partnered to protect and restore a 1,000-acre in-holding in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in southern Virginia. That property is also a wetland mitigation bank.

The 2,263 acres protected today will become part of one of the largest complexes of restored pine savanna wetlands in Louisiana. Since 1998, The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana has been adding acreage to its core of protected lands in the Talisheek area, and today’s victory brings that total up to 6,548 acres. The Conservancy approached EIP in 2007 to discuss how the groups could partner to restore and protect additional land to continue expanding this unique Preserve complex. “We’re thrilled to partner with EIP to protect and restore one of the last intact properties in the Greater New Orleans area,” said Keith Ouchley, the Conservancy’s state director in Louisiana. “By partnering with like-minded private investors, the Conservancy is able to leverage our limited resources to achieve tangible conservation at a scale necessary to ensure long-term viability of these fragile ecosystems.”

“Knock ‘em out John!”

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:29:52 GMT

“Shoot low boys-they’re riding Shetland ponies.” This satirical retort authored by now-deceased columnist Lewis Grizzard, seems to be good advice as we prepared for a series of political “cat-fights,” the likes of which we’ve never seen! The end result will be a budget crisis at all levels of government that trickles down from federal to state levels, eventually saddling local citizens with the brunt of the tax consequences. Seeking solutions at state and federal level will prove mostly fruitless. Tax payers must lower their sights and focus on local solutions.

Now is the time to see if our elected officials in Baton Rouge and St. Tammany Parish are prepared to step up the pace and lead, or will they collectively sulk about in denial, displaying zero political courage while our local communities circle the drain.

The preliminary bouts have begun with opening volleys fired. State legislatures have already come to blows on leadership and committee assignments to determine who will steer us through this impending budget storm. The legislative slate will include a bevy of tax related bills that eventually will be “playing at a theater near you.” This is a movie you can’t afford to miss! At present it reminds me of a Disney movie where all the animals are talking to one another. Comedy is surely not pretty.

“Trickle down taxes” will be the end result of the fracas, surely to ensue, as dwindling revenue and protected funds and mandated appropriations force troublesome budget decisions. Raiding “fenced funds” such as the “Rainy Day Fund” will only postpone the inevitable choices. This movie cannot afford an intermission. Tough times require tough decisions and tough leaders.

Regardless of outcome, citizens at the local level should prepare for an onslaught of pressure from every tier of government to raise taxes. As the “cat-fights” continue, let’s fight to make sure the tax payers don’t wind up in the litter box or up a tree.

The “trickle down” tax effect will, sooner than later, impact the local level. State coffers will be bled dry with little or no funds to support traditional non-government organizations as well as local government financial support we have come to rely upon. Matching funds and supplemental appropriations will most likely be impacted. This reduced state support, coupled with declining local tax revenues and increasing costs, will trigger another round of railing by local officials with a solution we’ve heard so often times before… raise taxes.

It seems that every bureaucrat believes that raising taxes is the answer to the problem. This plot is a re-run of an old movie we’ve seen before. Using the well being and safety of our children and the reduction of essential services as rallying cries will not work this time around.

The solution may be found in a true and objective reassessment of our total tax base and local system. There will still be the regular hue and cry about tax rates, bonded indebtedness, fund balances and the need for public sacrifice, but for the first time there is hope that local governments will finally address fixing what is wrong…our broken tax structure.

The dilemma faced is, while new sources of revenue such as enhanced impact fees, parcel fees and “hidden taxes” through increased usage fees may temporarily be helpful in balance, these are only short-term solutions. Fee increases have a negative impact on businesses and individuals alike. Fees have the same result as taxes, regardless of how they are defined.

There are no long-term solutions until a new tax structure is created to better balance need with equity. A revision of the present system must include a broader property tax base and a careful implementation of economies and efficiencies in local government through consolidation and elimination of duplicative services. In previous articles, I’ve discussed numerous recommendations to streamline the public sector. Consolidation of school and public library systems, shared accounting, finance and payroll functions, the use of consolidated transportation pools and fire departments are just a few of these recommendations. Increased outsourcing of common functions is another option. What is urgently needed is an independent review of governmental roles, missions and functions within the Parish and a comprehensive restructuring plan presented to the voters.

The impending budget crisis can be used as the genesis for very positive solutions to our tax problems. Let’s not get ourselves embroiled in “cat-fights” if we can help it. We, the tax payers, need relief from the ever growing need to “feed the beast” we call government. It all reminds me of comedian Jerry Clower’s anecdote about a famous coon hunt entitled “Knock Us Out, John.” It’s about John Eubanks, a “professional tree climber,” Marcel Ledbetter, Jerry’s best friend, and of course Jerry. Seems they went hunting.

As the story goes, John was up one of the biggest trees in the Amite River Swamp. The object of John’s climb is what is presumed to be a coon nestled among the giant sweet gum’s top most branches. As he nears his prey, Eubanks is repeatedly admonished to “knock “em out, John!” Upon his arrival in the upper branches of the tree, however, the unfortunate John encounters not a coon but a lynx. The cat proceeds to attack him, resulting in a cacophony of screams from John, screeches from the lynx, and continued encouragement from the ground in the form of, “knock ‘em out, John.” John’s plight is finally understood by his colleagues, and he begs them to, “shoot this thing!” They reply that they are afraid to, lest they should hit John. In response, a desperate John can only plead, “Just shoot up here amongst us, one of us has got to have some relief!” I, along with most other tax payers, can identify with John. We have got to get some tax relief!

St. Tammany: The Growth Parish for the 21st Century

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:27:39 GMT

If you ask St. Tammany Parish residents what their top concerns are for the parish, you’re likely to hear uncontrolled growth, traffic, and drainage. When Scott Chotin asked the League to spearhead the Citizens Agenda Project in 1998, we heard it time after time. These same concerns are expressed at every Zoning, Planning, and Council meeting. And now you’re telling me we’re the “Growth Parish” for the 21^st Century? It had better not be a replay of the past forty years! St. Tammany Parish’s population in 1970 was approximately 63,585; the Louisiana State Census Data Center projects our 2010 population at 246,910; and in 2030, we’re projected to have 459,160 people living here. Many demographers think that St. Tammany is poised to become the largest parish in the state.

These projections are based on demographics, geography, and hard work. St. Tammany is BIG: 854 square miles of land and 270 square miles of water; higher land elevations; and much of our land is located north of I-12. According to recent reports, 63% of St. Tammany Parish is undeveloped land. This percentage is expected to change as some developments are added to the tax rolls, but we’ve got plenty of undeveloped land. We have good schools, a low crime rate, proximity to New Orleans, Jefferson, Baton Rouge, and the Gulf Coast, and new job opportunities.

Last month, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) organized an information-packed workshop attended by approximately 130 people. Poitevent Interests, LLC and The Steeg Law Firm sponsored the event. Presenters included Parish President Kevin Davis; Executive Director Brenda Reine-Bertus with the Economic Development Foundation; Edward Poitevent, Principal with Poitevent Interests, LLC; Rose LeBreton with The Steeg Law Firm; The Honorable Judge Jay C. Zainey, President of St. Andrew’s Village; and Larry Schmidt, the Executive Director for the New Orleans office of the Trust for Public Lands.

Davis discussed the comprehensive rezoning process, road and drainage projects, and something we haven’t heard before: Advanced Planning for Roads and Drainage. Detailed, project-specific drawings for transportation and drainage improvements are in the planning stages based on the new zoning and watershed analysis.

Ms. Reine-Bertus discussed the parish’s past successes in bringing businesses to St. Tammany and the current and future outlook for more growth. Judge Zainey talked about St. Andrew’s Village, the proposed new community for adults with disabilities. Mr. Schmidt discussed St. Tammany’s Green Print.

The bulk of the time was spent learning about the Poitevent Tract development plans. I first met Edward Poitevent at the kick-off meeting for the parish’s comprehensive rezoning project on March 1, 2008. He had an arm-full of architectural drawings with him. When I first approached him, he was friendly and expressed his strong desire for a comprehensive planning strategy. He and I have exchanged emails periodically over the past two years; . He has continued to state his intent and commitment to smart-growth principles. Before the meeting started, he stated that “We don’t want to turn St. Tammany Parish into Jefferson Parish anymore than it already is…we love this area…we spent our summers growing up here…We don’t need to construct a development that is too big for the parcel.” The land has been generally rezoned as single family residential, industrial, and Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND).

The Poitevent land dates back to 1869 and at its largest, encompassed 95,000 acres in St. Tammany and Washington Parishes, and Hancock County, MS.

The company owned and harvested timber and operated a lumber mill first in Pearlington, MS and later in the area that is now old Golden Shores in Mandeville. They entered into long-term timber leases with Weyerhaeuser Company in 1953. The State of Louisiana purchased twenty thousand acres in the 1970’s to create the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area and other tracts were purchased and sold over the years. The Poitevent family now controls some 43,500 acres in central St. Tammany. Put another way, this is about seventy square miles! Most of the land is contained within the boundaries of I-12, and Highways 59, 41, and south of 435. Much of the land is accessed via Hwys 1088, 434, and 36. How this land is developed will be the major factor in determining what St. Tammany looks like in the future.The focus of development will take place south of Highway 36. As Mr. Poitevent quipped, “We’re the big elephant in the parish.”

Poitevent and Rose LeBreton (The Steeg Law Firm) discussed the maze of surveys, deeds, titles, expropriations, donations, purchases, sales, and successions that have been organized and electronically catalogued in an interactive ownership map. Prior to this work, fifty-nine signatures were required for the smallest transaction. Today, only five signatures are required for any transaction. Abstract costs have significantly decreased and more importantly, closings may take place in a reasonable amount of time.

Poitevent assured attendees that many of the areas that are zoned residential will not be built on, but will instead be used for green space, parks, and lakes. “We will not build in the floodplain.” Development will be concentrated in the TNDs. They will be creating new towns that are not heavily urbanized. The University Square/Tamanend development off of Highway 434 preserves around 200 acres of wetlands.

They have already donated or partnered with local governing boards and nonprofit organizations on several St. Tammany projects including a new Wetlands Mitigation Bank, Recreation District 11 donation, Poitevent Park ball fields on Highway 41, land for the Abita Middle School, 360 acres located at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River preserved for conservation, and a partial land donation to St. Andrews Village.

Several conceptual plans designed by Jordan, Jones, & Goulding from Mandeville were shown including one in Abita Springs next to St. Andrews Village. Typical of the plans is the conceptual plan for a development on Honey Bee Road. It contains 747 acres total and is comprised of a town center (65 acres), single-family homes (305 acres), parks (2 + acres), and permanent green space (375 acres). It shows bike paths throughout the development.

It will take decades for these developments to be fully built out. The timber industry and forestry production will be greatly reduced. However, if these conceptual plans move forward, we have a real opportunity to diminish suburban sprawl and support some of the principles outlined in the New Directions 2025 plan such as towns, corridors, and countryside; land conservation; and cluster development. The current residents of this area will experience a lot of change and the transition is not likely to be smooth or without controversy. We have to stay engaged in this process for the long haul and make sure that these developments are the best they can be as if our very future depends on it because it does.

Access Denied: How the healthcare system is putting the squeeze on specialists

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:25:02 GMT

You haven’t been able to escape it. People are talking about it incessantly. It’s in the news every single day. That’s right: healthcare reform.

Perhaps you don’t think it affects you. After all, you have insurance right? Or maybe you’re retired and on Medicare. All that healthcare reform talk is about the uninsured and their need for access to affordable, preventive healthcare, right? Think again. The current system is putting significant pressure on many physicians that specialize in areas like neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery and unless these issues are tackled by healthcare reform, you may find your access to these services restricted, whether or not you have insurance.

Take Dr. Gustavo Gutnisky as an example. You would be hard-pressed to find a more experienced or personable doctor. He is a neurosurgeon, practicing in St. Tammany parish for 27 years. When you talk to him you can tell right away that his patients are his first priority. He has put in his time tending to trauma victims on nights, weekends, and holidays in the parish’s emergency rooms. He has done his share of complex brain surgeries. “I think you have to give something back to the community,” said Gutnisky. But doctors like him could become a thing of the past and here’s why:

Medical Liability Crisis

According to Dr. Gutnisky, malpractice insurance and tort reform are the primary issues affecting his practice. Louisiana is one of eight patient-compensation-fund states in the country. Patient compensation funds (PCFs) are pools of money established by state law and formed by surcharge payments from doctors to provide additional funds in order to spread the risk of multi-million-dollar court decisions across a wide number of doctors.

Louisiana’s fund was created in 1975 — during the nationwide malpractice insurance crisis, where costs were skyrocketing and availability was dwindling — by the state legislature’s passage of the Medical Malpractice Act (MMA). The purpose of the act was to guarantee that affordable medical liability coverage was available to all healthcare providers, as well as provide a stable source of compensation to victims of malpractice. This act currently caps non-economic medical malpractice damages at $500,000.

Despite this law, medical malpractice insurance accounts for almost 50 percent of Dr. Gutnisky’s total overhead costs, with doctors who perform spinal surgeries paying the highest rates. What’s more, physicians who perform emergency surgeries further increase their exposure to litigation. Accident victims are more likely to sue and their surgical outcomes are more likely to be worse. “Doctors face an enormous amount of liability for traumas,” said Melissa Hodgson, Director of Communications at St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington.

“Without tort reform or malpractice reform, we are not going to be able to contain healthcare costs,” said Gutnisky.

Medicare and Other Compensation Issues

A recent survey by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) revealed that while most neurosurgeons still participate in Medicare, many indicated that if Medicare payments continue to decline they would stop providing certain services, reduce staff, defer purchase of new medical equipment, reduce time spent with Medicare patients, and begin referring complex cases elsewhere. According to the AANS website, physicians faced a 22 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement on January 1, 2010, with total cuts in excess of 40 percent to come over the next five years. “Eventually it will get to the point that specialists will no longer be available to take Medicare patients because of the poor reimbursement,” said Gutnisky, who still routinely sees Medicare patients.

Unfortunately, private insurers tend to follow Medicare’s lead when it comes to reimbursement. “When I started my practice here more than 20 years ago, I made more per procedure than I do now,” said Gutnisky.

There are also problems of payment distortions. For instance, why should surgery for a brain tumor, which may take 8-10 hours and be fraught with complications, be compensated at the same rate as a relatively simple, straightforward spine procedure that may take one hour? “There’s just not much incentive to perform complicated surgeries. I feel everything is upside down in the sense that the more complex, difficult surgeries in the sickest people are relatively the worst compensated,” said Gutnisky.

Then there are the situations where there is no payment at all, which usually occurs for services rendered in emergency departments. “Uncompensated care is a big issue for specialists,” said Hodgson. While insured people account for the vast majority of emergency room visits in the U.S., the proportion of visits by uninsured people is rising. “It’s very simple, when you go to the ER, many times you don’t get any money,” said Gutnisky.

An Artificial Shortage in Emergency Departments

The traditional role of physicians taking emergency call as part of their obligation for hospital admitting privileges is unraveling and posing risks for insured and uninsured patients alike. And while this is predominantly an issue for hospital emergency departments, it is also becoming an increasing problem for inpatients requiring urgent specialist care. Driven by medical liability and reimbursement issues, specialists are seeking revenue generation elsewhere.

Many specialty surgeons are now performing routine, scheduled surgeries at physician-owned hospitals and are no longer taking call at larger, full-service hospitals. “The northshore’s biggest problem, by far, is the lack of specialists on call In the region’s ERs,” said Dr. Chad Muntan, Emergency Department Medical Director for Lakeview Regional Medical Center in Covington.

There are only nine neurosurgeons practicing on the northshore and six full-service emergency departments struggling to provide services from these specialists. Many doctors advocate regionalization to address the problem. “There are just too many ERs for the northshore – the only solution is to create a single full-service ER on the northshore and then compensate specialists for trauma cases,” said Gutnisky.

Luckily, the state of Louisiana, St. Tammany parish, and at least one area hospital are being proactive in addressing this issue. The Louisiana Emergency Response Network (LERN) operates two call centers to advise and assist EMS personnel on the best facility for trauma victims at any given time and place within the state, based on the patient’s specific injuries. Every hospital emergency department keeps information on staffing, wait times, and specialist availability up-to-date in the LERN network. In addition, St. Tammany parish operates the Medical Control Line, a call center at St. Tammany’s Emergency Operations Center staffed on a rotating basis by each of the parish’s five ERs.

EMS personnel follow specific protocols when on the scene to determine whether the parish or LERN network is accessed and to get patients to the hospital that has the appropriate resources to deal with their injuries. “The LERN network and parish protocols make it a lot easier than it used to be to move patients from the scene to where they need to be quickly and efficiently,” said Lewis Taylor, Operations Manager for Acadian Ambulance Service, Inc.

St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington also recognized this problem and in response started their Community Emergency Services Program in 2008. “We wanted to ensure appropriate care through our ER and be able to meet the community’s needs. Physicians who commit to provide services through our ER know they will be compensated and patients know we will have the specialist coverage they need,” said Hodgson.

Will the Healthcare Reform Act Help?

“It’s premature to tell what the effects will be. The fact that more people will be covered is not a bad thing and maybe we’ll get paid for emergencies now,” said Gutnisky.

While the Healthcare Reform Act addresses the issues of the uninsured and preexisting conditions, it doesn’t begin to address the larger issues of tort reform or compensation levels. In fact, if the trends in Medicare compensation portend of things to come, access to specialists could get a lot worse, regardless of whether you’re insured.

Sticks and Stones

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:19:19 GMT

Despite the children’s rhyme to the contrary, words do harm, particularly in the political arena. Here, words need not have substance behind them to do enormous and sometimes irreparable harm. This is particularly true when their delivery is timed to make rebuttal difficult, if not impossible.

Negative campaigning, also known as gutter politics, has typically been defined as the use of ad hominem attacks and/or relevant but untrue negative publicity to discredit one’s opponent, thereby edifying oneself. In most cases, negative comments about one’s opponent are made in lieu of positive comments about oneself, or as a last desperate measure to influence undecided voters. Voters are asked to vote against one’s opponent instead of for oneself. Although long a staple of the political scene, there is much disagreement about whether such campaigning is effective. In Louisiana, however, a law enacted in 2008 has made much of it illegal.

Much of civil society publicly decries the “politics of personal attack,” ostensibly seeing it as a distraction from the relevant issues, as well as a clear indication that a candidate has run out of good things to say about himself or herself. President Theodore Roosevelt once commented on negative reporting, noting that, although these men did good work when they scraped up the ‘filth’ of America, "the man who did nothing else was certain to become a force of evil.” One needs only to read the online political forums to determine for one’s own whether some among us have reached the tipping point. As I wrote in an earlier article (Whither the Blog, Conifer, November 2009), ugliness begets ugliness, particularly when the commenter can lurk in anonymity.

Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that a certain segment of the population is in fact influenced by negative campaigning, particularly when its delivery is timed to prevent an effective rebuttal. In many cases, this involves a press release, press conference or direct mail piece that arrives within days before an election and makes negative allegations about one’s opponent. The opponent is then left with little time to respond categorically to the allegations, and even when doing so, necessarily appears defensive. On the other hand, a candidate who chooses to not respond will necessarily appear aloof or arrogant. It is the classic case of “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” Of course, this could have been prevented by releasing the negative barrage early, allowing weeks to respond, which should automatically call into question the true intentions of the negative campaigner. If the intention were truly to illuminate and educate the voters, why wait until the last minute?

State Representative Tim Burns introduced legislation to dissuade unfair and untrue negative campaigning, and it was passed in 2008. Act No. 812 enacted Louisiana Revised Statues (R.S.) 42:1130.1 through 1130.6 relative to the code of ethics. R.S. 42:1130.1 provides that the Legislature “finds that an election cannot be held in a fair and ethical manner when any candidate or other person is allowed to make false statements, allegations, or insinuations about a candidate…” R.S. 42:1130.4 provides that “[n]o candidate in an election shall, with the intent to mislead the voters, distribute or cause to be distributed an oral, visual, or written material containing any statement which he knows makes a false statement about another candidate in the election.” Discussions with Representative Burns indicate that it was the legislature’s intent that these statutes dissuade such conduct in the future, for the reasons stated.

Several years ago, I witnessed what was, to me, the height of negative campaigning, in a race where each candidate had publicly pledged to refrain from mudslinging. Three days before the election, one candidate’s wife mailed to every voter a personal letter, denying and decrying the horrible things that had been said by her husband’s opponent. The opponent, who had said nothing, then faced the unenviable task of proving that he had not said anything, while not even knowing what it was that he had allegedly said. He lost, in a close election in which he had been favored, apparently providing evidence that this tactic, while morally and ethically bankrupt, can be effective. I’m left with the unfortunate conclusion that if one is willing to sell one’s soul to win an election, one should carefully consider whether this is a fair exchange.

In the interests of full disclosure, it should be noted that I consider Mandeville mayoral candidates Trilby Lenfant and Donald Villere to be long-time personal friends. I am also friends with many members of their respective families. I supported Mrs. Lenfant in the recent Mandeville Mayoral election, and provide legal counsel to her. The text of this article will find application where it will, in this election or others.

Transforming the Backyard into a Personal Vacation Spot

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:17:09 GMT

Northshore residents apparently have a new vacation destination: the backyard.

“More people are focusing on lifestyle improvements so they can vacation in their backyard for a long time to come,” said Paul Gagliano, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Louisiana Landscape Specialty, Inc. in Covington.

Landscape architects on the northshore report that the past two years have been some of the slowest they’ve seen. “Most people have been keeping their wallet in their pocket. It’s a trickle-down effect from the northshore real estate market bust. Everyone’s been hunkering down and not spending money,” said Gagliano.

This year though, spring brought new signs of life in the residential landscape market along with the usual flowers. Local landscapers say the number of phone calls is up tremendously over the past two spring seasons and attendance at the recent New Orleans Home and Garden Show was high.

“We expect residential projects to be the lead out of this slow time and are confident things are headed in the right direction,” said Gagliano, who also noted that he doesn’t expect to see commercial work bounce back as quickly.

Perhaps homeowners have rediscovered the simple joys of spending time with family, friends, and neighbors during this tough economy and those with a little money to spend are choosing to spend it by transforming their backyards into functional living spaces that can be enjoyed year round.

The Saacks family of Mandeville is a great example. Last year they renovated their backyard with the addition of a pool, hot tub, lush tropical landscaping, lighting, and a cabana complete with bar, full kitchen, fireplace, flat-screen TV, and living area.

“We have used our backyard more in the past 10 months than we did the previous eight years,” said Beth Saacks, adding that the pool is utilized about eight months of the year, but the addition of the cabana, spa, and fireplace maximizes usage of the backyard to all 12 months. The Saacks’ backyard redo incorporated many of the current top trends in residential landscaping.

The Living Room Moves Out

People want more than just a patio and some lawn furniture. Outdoor areas are becoming more and more elaborate with all the creature comforts normally associated with indoor living rooms. Think cushy couches, ottomans, coffee tables, rugs, flat-screen TVs, and fireplaces or fire pits. Many people are now creating two living areas outdoors: one for dining and the other for more intimate conversation space.

The interest in outdoor living rooms is also being spurred by the wide availability of high quality outdoor materials and furnishings currently on the market. Manufacturers are making comfortable furniture designed to exist outdoors without staying soggy or mildewing in the high humidity of southern Louisiana. All of these products are more moderately priced than ever before.

Not Just Grilling in the Garden

Just as in the indoor kitchen is normally the gathering place for family and friends when entertaining, the outdoor kitchen has become the center of the party. People are building more sophisticated and useful outdoor kitchens with built-in appliances that can stand up to the elements. Typically included in outdoor kitchens are built-in grills, stoves, sinks, refrigerators, icemakers, even dishwashers. One of the newest trends: pizza ovens. And what’s food without drink? Bars and built-in taps are must-haves in Louisiana outdoor kitchens.

The Water Element

While certainly not anything new, adding water elements to the backyard remains at the top of homeowner’s priorities. “Eighty percent of the interest at the Home and Garden show was pools,” said Gagliano. While pools and hot tubs may be the most popular backyard water features, also in style are ornamental pools, waterfalls, and disappearing fountains. The latest trend: adding outdoor bathing facilities with tubs and showers tucked away in the garden.

Green Living

While the trend toward outdoor living is on the rise, the trend toward environmental responsibility and sustainability is also booming across the nation, if not so much here on the northshore. “We see it in smaller ways here,” said Gagliano, who noted trends like switching from cypress mulch to more sustainable pine mulches and using native plants.

If you’re planning a backyard makeover, you may want to look for ways to not only enjoy the outdoor environment, but be kind to it at the same time. Consider things like energy-efficient LED lighting, permeable pavers that allow for storm water drainage and manage excess runoff, drip irrigation systems for flower beds, and minimizing turf areas. “When our climate is normal, you really don’t need irrigation, but due to climate change we’ve recently seen extended periods of dry weather,” said Gagliano.

Having a Plan is Key

While the Saacks family added all their backyard elements at once, not everyone can afford to do it that way. “Many people will phase things in – most people will stage the pool first and later add in other things like kitchens and outdoor living areas,” said Martin Romero, licensed landscape architect for Smoketree Landscape Services, Inc. in Madisonville. Romero emphasized that having a master plan will assure that later additions will form one cohesive design. Master plans can range from $500 to around $2,000, depending on the complexity of the design.

“People always want to try to save a dollar, but by investing this up front you make sure it’s done the right way as opposed to winging it. You wouldn’t want the contractor building your house to wing it, would you? No, you would want it planned,” said Romero. “Whether you’re spending $10,000 or $100,000, if you plan it right, it can be done,” said Romero, who stressed that each plan is specific to a client’s desires and budget.

Some suggestions for achieving the same atmosphere with less money include extending your hardscape with pavers to increase your entertaining area, adding new furniture and an arbor for shade, instead of a cabana with a full living area. Or, in lieu of a full outdoor kitchen, add a small covered area and upgrade your grill. Whatever your budget, a landscape architect will have great ideas on how best to utilize your space.

Before you hire a landscape architect, gather ideas on what you’re looking for. Do you want a space for entertaining, or a play area? How much time are you willing to devote to maintenance? Develop a realistic budget for the project.

One thing most people forget to consider: drainage. “Drainage is a big issue here, probably the biggest, and many people don’t think about this as part of the infrastructure and cost of landscaping,” said Romero.

An Investment with Rewards

According to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), landscapes can add as much as 15 percent to the value of your home compared to other houses on the street. If you’re unsure what to budget, one rule of thumb is to start with 5 to 10 percent of your home’s worth.

One of the great things about investing in landscaping is that it has rewards both now and later. While some people are concerned with resale value, many people who plan on staying in their homes for a long time, aren’t as concerned about this factor because landscaping improves the quality of life in the here and now. “The intrinsic value far exceeds anything else you can buy,” said Romero.

Now is a Great Time

There has never been a better time to make this investment. Due to the slow economy and a marketplace flush with a wide variety of materials and furnishings, prices are more reasonable right now than ever. “Thankfully for the consumer, there is increased value now. You can get more for your money right now in both materials and labor. Everyone’s prices are a little more competitive,” said Gagliano.

So this year, make your backyard your first resort and start your permanent vacation. Saacks said, “The weather is so nice here, why spend the money for a condo in Florida? Having young children, I want my house to be the gathering place. The kids have their birthday parties here, we entertain here, and all our friends want to come here for the weekend. The beauty of it is that we don’t have to pack up and go somewhere – we just walk outside.”

Northshore Elections: Contentious Races, Recount and No Challenge!

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:12:52 GMT

In Slidell, we observed a very contentious election between the two top vote getters for Chief of Police and in Mandeville; the mayoral race has come down to a photo finish and a recount of the votes. It brought back memories and similarities of the 2000 presidential election with “swift-boating” and “hanging chads”.

Slidell Chief of Police

Candidates for Slidell Chief of Police has now pitted political newcomer Randy Smith, who garnered 48% of the vote in the general election while former Slidell Police Chief and current Mayor Ben Morris pulled in 41% of the vote. The two candidates are now pitted once again for the May 1^st run-off election. J.J. Jennings and Jason Zar garnered 10% and 1% of the vote respectively.

The City of Slidell is the only municipality on the northshore that elects a chief of police. With exactly 48.7% of the vote on election night, Randy Smith said, “The strategy we have at this point is to get the voters back to the polls. That’s the key and we can’t say we have this in the bag.”

Although his opponent has a plethora of experience as former police chief and the current mayor, Smith said, “I believe Ben has a lot of name recognition here in town with over 20 years of public service in the area, for me to do as well as I have in the general election, it shows that the citizens of Slidell have spoken and they want new leadership in Slidell. I am very excited about my candidacy and campaign at this time.”

Former Slidell Chief of Police and current Mayor Ben Morris, who captured 41% of the vote to earn a spot in the run-off election, said, “I have been running the past six weeks while my opponent has been running for that past two and a half years, I am not disappointed at all. I am in the race for the long run and will wait to see what happens.”

While voter turnout was dismal, Morris said, “It’s such a shame that the voters don’t take the responsibility of voting more seriously. I am taking these last four weeks of the campaign very seriously and my opponent certainly will have a fight on his hands. We’re working extremely hard.”

Mandeville Mayor

In Mandeville, mayoral candidates Trilby Lenfant and Don Villere traded barbs during the last weeks of the campaign, which has yielded a razor sharp finish with Villere edging Lenfant by a mere four votes before the sun had set. Lenfant had challenged the election and asked for a recount of the votes. At week’s end, with the recount complete and certified, Villere still held his lead, but with only three votes instead of the four on election night.

There will be no legal challenge to the March 27^th election on Monday April 5^th (the last day to file a lawsuit challenging the contest) and Villere says he plans on moving forward by taking his oath of office as mayor of Mandeville as early as Tuesday morning.

Villere said, “It’s been a long week of ‘Who Won’ and ‘Let’s certify the vote’! Right now, as far as I am concerned, I am the official winner. The secretary of state’s office has officially declared me the winner and I plan to take my oath of office and have my father swear me in on the steps of city hall.”

This mayoral race will probably go down in the history books as one of the closest elections on the northshore in recent history. Villere says, “If there were just two people who would have voted for my opponent instead of me, I would have lost by one vote. That’s how close this race was for the residents of Mandeville.”

Slidell Mayor

In Slidell, the mayoral race was much more subdued with current Chief of Police Freddy Drennan drawing 56% of the vote to an easy win in the general election by outpolling his challengers Jay Trainor with 29% of the vote and Rickey Hursey with 15%.

Mayor-elect Freddy Drennan said, “I am very humbled and deeply honored that the residents of Slidell have seen fit to elect me as their mayor. It’s kinda sorta sinking in now, but I don’t officially take office until July 1^st. I have already started to put together a transition team and I have appointed the current city attorney, Tim Mathison, to be my chief of staff. I feel Tim and I will work well together and I look forward to working with my council.”

In following the footsteps of Mayor Ben Morris, who was at the helm of the city during the aftermath of Katrina, Drennan knows there is still a lot of work yet to be done in bringing Slidell back and taking care of some unfinished business is foremost in his mind. Drennan says, “One of my priorities is to make sure we bring flood protection to the City of Slidell. Although most of the work needed will take place just outside of city limits, it vitally important that we work closely with parish, state and federal agencies to make sure these projects come to fruition. Additionally, and as I said in my campaign, I will work hard to bring economic activity back to Slidell. We have to continue building our business base.”

Slidell City Council

In Slidell’s district “B” council race, Sam Abney won this seat with 57% of the vote with his opponent, Richard Reardon, garnering 43% of the vote.

The district “C” council race will go to a run-off between incumbent district councilman Warren Crocket who received 46% of the vote with political newcomer Buddy Lloyd receiving 36% of the vote. Both will face-off on May 1^st in a run-off election. The third candidate, Val Vanney, finished the race last with 19% of the vote.

The district “F” council seat was settled with Jay Newcomb getting 56% of the vote, while his opponent Terry Youngs received 44%.

In Slidell, Incumbent Council Members At-Large Landon Cusimano and Kim Harbison were re- elected without opposition. Incumbent Council Members from District A - Lionel Hicks, District D - Joe Fraught, and District G - Bill Borchert, Jr. were re-elected without opposition as well. The new Council Member from District E, former Mayor Sam Caruso, was elected without opposition.

Let us not forget the Charter amendments that were proposed in Slidell. Of the nine proposed charter amendments, ranging from the mundane deletions of obsolete sections, to more contentious changes that affect the Mayor’s and Council’s compensation, to title changes for Clerk of the Council and employment timelines, only eight were passed. Charter amendment seven was defeated with 53% of the vote. This proposed amendment was to authorize the council to pass ordinances in emergency situations, which were allowed to become law within 12 hours after its ratification, even without the mayor’s signature.

In Mandeville, the proposition of a half-cent sales tax renewal for 10 years for paving, improving, repairing and maintaining streets (including sidewalks and bike paths), repairing and maintaining existing bridges and constructing, acquiring and maintaining roadside drainage improvements was approved by Mandeville voters with 60% of the vote. The week of the election, The St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce recommended voters reject this proposition.

The Folsom area overwhelmingly approved a vote on a 10 year 19.68 mills property tax for their fire department with 97% of the vote. The Folsom fire department had this election delayed by the state’s bond commission, which had been a source of controversy late last year when the fire department feared it would run out of money to keep its operations up and running.

Early voting for the May 1st election will begin on Saturday, April 17th and run through Saturday, April 24th.

Official election results for the March 27^th election:

Mandeville Mayoral Special Election

Trilby Lenfant – 1,369 – 50%

Donald J. Villere – 1,372 – 50% - winner

Slidell Mayoral Election

Freddy Drennan – 3,250 – 56% - winner

Rickey Hursey – 896 – 15%

Jay Trainor – 1,666 – 29%

Slidell Chief of Police Election

JJ Jennings – 591 – 10%

Ben Morris – 2,377 – 41% - run-off

Randy Smith – 2,810 – 48% - run-off

Jason Zar – 57 – 1%

Slidell Council Member District B

Sam Abney – 511 – 57% - winner

Richard Reardon - 390 – 43%

Slidell Council Member District C

Warren Crockett – 398 – 46% - run-off

Buddy Lloyd – 310 – 36% - run-off

Val Vanney – 162 – 19%

Slidell Council Member District F

Jay Newcomb – 556 – 56% - winner

Terry Youngs - 442 – 44%

City of Slidell Home Rule Charter Proposed Amendment Propositions

Proposition No. 1

Summary: Provides for the deletion of the following obsolete sections.

2-02(A) of the Slidell Home Rule Charter

Yes – 2894 – 59%

No – 1995 – 41%

Proposition No. 2

Summary: Provides for the deletion of the following obsolete sections.

Section 8-11 of the Slidell Home Rule Charter

Yes – 2942 – 60%

No – 1940 – 40%

Proposition No. 3

Summary: Changes the term “clerk of the council” to “Council Administrator” throughout the Charter.

Yes – 3056 – 63%

No – 1767 – 37%

Proposition No. 4

Summary: Provides for annual establishment of Council member compensation through the budget process.

Yes – 2680 – 55%

No – 2034 – 45%

Proposition No. 5

Summary: Provides for annual establishment of the Mayor’s compensation through the budget process.

Yes – 2874 – 59%

No – 2034 – 41%

Proposition No. 6

Summary: Provides for annual establishment of the Police Chief’s compensation through the budget process.

Yes – 2916 – 60%

No – 1951 – 40%

Proposition No. 7

Summary: Provides for emergency ordinances of the City Council to become law without the Mayor’s signature after 12 hours of submission.

Yes – 2287 – 47%

No – 2600 – 53%

Proposition No. 8

Summary: Provides for elected officials to take office on July 1 following their election.

Yes – 3352 – 68%

No – 1549 – 32%

Proposition No. 9

Summary: Provides for the deletion of the prohibition of City Council members being employed by the City within one year following the end of their term.

Yes - 2531 – 51%

No – 2387 – 49%

City of Mandeville Sales Tax Proposition (1/2% Sales Tax Continuation)

Summary: 1/2% sales tax continuation for 10 years for (i) paving, improving, repairing and maintaining streets (including sidewalks and bike paths), (ii) repairing and maintaining existing bridges and (iii) constructing, acquiring and maintaining roadside drainage improvements.

Yes – 1520 – 60%

No – 1022 – 40%

Fire Protection District No. 5 (located in the Folsom area)

Summary: 10 year 19.68 mills property tax for acquiring, constructing, improving, maintaining and/or operating fire protection facilities in and for the District, including equipment, and paying for the cost of obtaining water for fire protection purposes, and the cost of providing services to injured or ill persons in emergency situations as permitted by law.

Yes – 643 – 93%

No – 48 – 7%

MAY 1, 2010 GENERAL ELECTION & PROPOSITIONS

Early Voting – April 17 - 24

Fire Protection District No. 7 Millage Renewal

(Precincts – partial: P01, 406, 502-505; Precincts—all: 501 & 602)

Authority to levy a 10 mills tax renewal for a period of 10 years for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, improving, maintaining and operating fire protection and emergency medical service facilities, vehicles, and equipment, including movable and immovable property, to be used by Fire Protection District No. 7 directly or indirectly to provide fire protection and emergency medical services in this district.

Fire Protection District No. 9

NOTE: Districts No. 9 & 10 have merged.

(Precincts—partial: 409, 503-504, 601-605, 607, & 801; Precinct—all: 606)

30 years 35 mills tax for acquiring, constructing, improving, maintaining and operating fire protection and emergency medical service facilities, vehicles, and equipment, including movable and immovable property, to be used by Fire Protection District No. 9, including paying for the cost of obtaining water for fire protection purposes and paying charges for fire hydrant rentals and service, said tax to be in lieu of certain existing taxes.

Vroom-vroom — Car Dealers Racing to a New Finish Line

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:08:45 GMT

With the announcement that the federal government will require a 90-percent improvement in fuel efficiency by 2050, one could almost hear the collective sigh of economists thinking, “Well, as if they don’t have it bad enough….” Thing is, you could place every economist in the world end-to-end and they won’t reach a conclusion. And car dealers hereabouts say things are looking pretty good.

“Business last month was great,” said Mark Campbell, general sales manager at Bill Hood Ford in Hammond. “We’re up about 25 percent year-over-year.” “Business is very good,” said Adam Bowen, general manager of Rainbow Suzuki Imports in Covington. “Business is picking up” said Kenny Bothner, general sales manager of Eddie Tourelle’s Northpark Nissan and Hyundai, also near Covington. “We have taken the turn for the better. From last year at this time to now is just incredible. We’ve seen the turn in the last three months.” Not bad for an industry that a year ago was on the serious skids.

Shifting gears hasn’t been easy in an automobile market – or an overall economy – that has proven about as reliable as a Ouija board. “We stayed pretty steady (during the 2008 gas crunch) but we had to adjust to the market,” said Bowen. “When gas was $4.50 a gallon, we didn’t carry SUVs.” Rainbow also has a seriously diverse inventory, which broadens the scope of its potential customers.

“I sell cars from $12,995 to $100,000,” Bowen said, mentioning a list of pre-owned brands from Jaguar to Mercedes – and, of course, new Suzukis. And Rainbow also has a huge Internet presence. “We do a lot of Internet business, so it’s all over the country,” he said. “We’ve sold cars all over the world. You’d have a hard time shipping Chevys, but the products we sell get a lot more business that way.” That’s certainly one way to keep it balanced and the business flowing.

And while Rainbow maintained its stock-in-trade with diversity and market adaptations, mainline dealers without a diverse portfolio or an Internet side, bided their time, working with manufacturers’ incentives while they waited for a more open credit market. And now?

“The primary reason is that banks are lending money now,” said Bothner. “Consumers have more confidence. With the credit tightening in the last two years, people would rather fix their cars than buy a new one. Our parts and service business picked up.”

“Everybody has a little more positive attitude,” Campbell said. “It’s springtime. There is pent-up demand for automobiles. Incentives have been better than usual. People are just ready to spend money again.”

“In tax season, things generally pick up,” Bothner said. “We’ve seen new-car volume pick-up drastically just in the last month. “Consumer confidence is back, to a degree. There’s a trend of folks buying new cars. Bank rates are low. Rebates are larger than normal. As far as Nissan, we have a tremendous product line.”

Ah, yes. The products themselves do have a little something to do with sales volume. With the Big Three automakers reducing the number of brands and models barely a year ago, it seemed manufacturers were adjusting to a new and different market – a market which had, perhaps, been flooded with too many choices and production that exceeded demand. Then there was that pesky credit crunch that had lenders more willing to give you a toaster than a loan.

Among innovative marketing strategies that emerged in recent years was the “hybrid” craze, offering consumers a chance to buy cars that used gas and – and/or, maybe – electricity, reducing fuel costs… in theory. “They build them but they don’t build enough of them,” said Campbell. “Since the gas crunch went away from 2008, they’re pretty much dead. Two years ago, we had a waiting list.” These days, Campbell said, he might sell four or five hybrid cars a year.

“I’m a little biased on hybrids,” Bowen said. “It takes five to seven years to make up the cost in gas savings.” Bowen said depending on options and models, hybrid cars in general cost about $4,000 more than a standard, gas-drinking automobile. “They’ve never been that popular,” he said. “They were a little popular when gas was $4.50 a gallon, but they’re never going to be the biggest market out there.”

Bothner said, however, that Nissan is poised to launch a new electric car called the Leaf, which will debut in California in 2011 and gradually drift into markets across the country. “It’s not like the old electric cars you think of, that were like golf carts in terms of pick-up,” he said. “This one has serious horsepower. It’s going to debut in California in the next 11 months and then make its way to Louisiana. I think the leaf has wheels, no pun intended.”

Those looming new fuel-efficiency guidelines, while not fully in place until most of us are dead in 2050, will start a trend moving now towards alternative transportation. “With the standards the government has set, there’s going to be a push to electric cars” Bothner said. “And just like cell phone batteries that improved over time, the same will be true with car batteries. Every few years you’re going to get a better battery. They’ll get more miles per round-trip.” Haven’t we heard this before? Like in the ‘70s and ‘80s? Yes, but things are different.

“I don’t see this being a fad,” Bothner said. Maybe not. But in the meantime, car-buyers are still looking for fuel efficiency – and a little bit of bling, too. “Fuel economy is still mostly what people are asking for,” Bothner said.

“We’ve seen an increase in F150, Fusion, Focus and Mustang sales,” said Campbell. “Everything is up. It’s good. If it upticks more, we may hit a slowdown because of inventory levels.”

“Pre-owned luxury cars are what’s hot right now,” said Bowen, pointing to his dealership’s business in Lexus, Mercedes, Jaguar and Infiniti brands, among other higher-end brands. “Most of the time, our customers are younger couples to middle-aged folks, ranging from 32-60,” Bowen said. “Most of the time, they’re also looking for someone willing to give them a shot at financing. It just depends.”

Whatever your taste in vehicles, there’s something out there – even with last year’s reduction in brand choices. Whatever your priorities – whether spaciousness, fuel-efficiency, or showiness – there are options. But certainty – that a brand will continue, that a model will endure, that fuel standards won’t change again – is about the only thing you can’t pre-select in a vehicle.

April is EXPO & Membership Month at St. Tammany West Chamber

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:06:11 GMT

April is EXPO and membership month at the St. Tammany West Chamber.

It’s an era of winning, strengthening communities and building new relationships.

This is the theme the members of our board, committee chairs and staff of our Chamber are carrying out this spring through our committees’ work, events and programs. We are building on a strong foundation established in the past decade, and for decades before that when our 1,000 member strong organization roots were established.

A membership drive is currently underway. Over 60 current members gathered at an event hosted at and sponsored by Mark and Donna Benfatti of N’Tini’s in Mandeville for a kickoff to gather applications and specifics about the benefits of membership. Several team captains, led by Mike Dugger of Runners Choice & City Soccer and Nancy Lee of Ron Lee Homes, will lead small groups of volunteers who understand why a strong Chamber is important in this growing parish and how businesses can benefit.

Team captains are as follows:

Nixon Adams, Mandeville Planning & Zoning Commission: History Committee

Michele Avery, LaPorte Sehrt Romig & Hand: Board

Nathan Boudreaux, Eaux Creative Designs: Tech Industries

Mike Dugger, Runners Choice & City Soccer: Ambassador’s Council

Chairman

Gabrielle Grant, Ochsner Health Systems North Shore: Cultural Economy Committee

Amy Edwards, Capital One: Communications Committee

Sally Kingston, Merrill Lynch: Small Business Advisory Council

Craig Marinello, Next Step Resources: Northshore Rising Professionals

Richard Muller, Lakeshore Title, L.L.C.: Finance Committee

Cynthia Thompson, Merrill Lynch: Governmental Affairs Committee

These individuals know they have to make things happen in your business. They understand how Chamber membership offers networking opportunities for you to market your products and services in direct one-on-one settings, build relationships, and prove your credibility.

They also understand why we have created programs such as the St. Tammany Healthcare Alliance, the NRPs – Northshore Rising Professionals, and a Cultural Economy Committee, all of which indirectly affect our quality of life and economic development. They see the results of our collaboration building efforts, and are proud to see collaboration growing and reaping results from the strong relationships we have built with elected officials and other business organizations in St. Tammany and across what is now being called the “Super Region” — from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and the northshore.

Of our current membership, nearly 50 have been members for over 20 years. To them, we express sincere and humble appreciation for their unwavering support of the Chamber of Commerce during the ups and downs in the economy over the years. Another 536 members have been members for over five years. It is these loyal members that can claim true ownership of our accomplishments, both tangible and intangible over the years. New members are constantly joining our ranks, and this is what we are focusing on this month—welcoming new companies to our business community.

The most visible and tangible accomplishment is the building, which houses our Chamber at 610 Hollycrest Blvd, just off Hwy. 190 north of I-12. Our building is something that each of our long time investors can be proud of; a beautiful and modern facility that serves as a true front door to St. Tammany West for newcomers, visitors, entrepreneurs, and a meeting place for our most active members that serve on committees. Our building committee members’ names grace the plaque near our front door; they received an anniversary note of thanks again this month for their historic contributions.

If you are a new business owner or a local small business owner that has not had the time to consider the benefits the Chamber offers you, or believe you don’t have the time, or that dues are too high — less than $25 per month for 85% of our members—consider joining today. Call our office or any of the following team captains to talk, or come as a guest to one of our events this month. You especially won’t want to miss our annual business EXPO from 11a.m until 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28 at the Castine Center. Over 100 businesses will be under one roof all day, exhibiting their products and marketing their services. EXPO is one of the key services we provide and is the largest show of its kind in the southeast region of our state.

The deadline to join our Chamber in order to be listed in the 2010 – 2011 Community Guide & Membership Directory is April 23.

Visit www.sttammanychamber.org to learn more about the St. Tammany West Chamber.

Hammond Chamber hosted its 2nd Annual Legislative Hobnob

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:03:03 GMT

The Hammond Chamber hosted its 2^nd Annual Legislative Hobnob and it was a great success. We invited neighboring chambers and organizations in Tangipahoa parish to participate and gave them a chance to present their priorities to the northshore delegation. This event is just one of the many ways we try to get everyone in Tangipahoa parish involved and it also gives us a great opportunity to let our northshore delegation know what’s important to us and what we would like them to concentrate their efforts on in the 2010 Legislative Session.

We all know that these are challenging times and depending upon who you ask – we have a depression/recession in full swing and more state budget cuts are looming on the horizon. Not in spite of, but rather, because of those factors, there was a need for the Hammond Chamber to continue and enhance its presence in the legislative arena. We challenged the Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Erin Cowser, to become more engaged and work toward greater education of members and greater advocacy on behalf of those same members. In order to accomplish this mission, the group once again polled our membership to determine the Hammond Chamber’s legislative priorities for 2010. These priorities meld with the Chamber’s overall mission to strengthen the business climate, promote community development and enhance the economic vitality of the Hammond community within Tangipahoa Parish. Below are the Hammond Chamber’s priorities that were presented to the northshore delegation at the Legislative Hobnob:

First, the issue of responsible state budget practices – the ongoing protected vs. unprotected funding debate – holds tremendous impact on Tangipahoa because two of our largest employer industries are higher education and healthcare. We urged the legislators to make the politically tough decisions now that will benefit our parish, our region and our state for years to come.

Secondly, we encouraged the legislators to hold true to intelligent and thoughtful reform of higher education while providing the necessary support so those efforts can succeed and grow. We cannot afford to cripple our universities’ ability to create the human capital to meet the needs of an ever-expanding knowledge-based economy. Nor can we ignore the needs of a rapidly growing technical college system. Both will be instrumental to meeting the demands of our regional workforce and, therefore, Tangipahoa’s business community.

Third, as mentioned above, healthcare is critical to the economic success of Hammond. We asked the legislators to make every effort to mitigate the crippling budgetary constraints that continue to plague the healthcare industry. We asked them to find ways to adequately support this industry so it can partner with the education community and the healthcare and allied health workforce needs of our region.

Fourth, redistricting has become a popular buzzword across the state, region and especially in Tangipahoa. We asked the legislators to keep us informed of the process and how it can impact the local business community. In turn, we promised to become engaged in the process and provide you with the concerns and comments of our membership.

Last, but certainly, not least, we asked the legislators to continue the recent strides made in coalition building along the I-12 corridor and across the northshore. We realize there is strength in numbers and that together we are stronger. We promised to do our part to foster partnerships through events such as North Shore Focus on April 14 at the State Capitol, and let them know we will depend on their leadership to help marshal the collective strengths of their constituents across the region.

In a nutshell — we advised that we will focus our efforts on restricted vs. unrestricted budget reform, higher education and healthcare support, redistricting and coalition building.

I would like to thank Senator A.G. Crowe, Senator Jack Donahue, Representative Greg Cromer, Representative Kevin Pearson, Representative Steve Pugh and Representative Scott Simon for taking the time out of their busy schedules to participate in the Hammond Chamber’s 2^nd Annual Legislative Hobnob to hear what’s important to us!

To find out more about the Hammond Chamber’s Governmental Affairs Committee please visit our website at www.hammondchamber.org or contact the office at 985.345.4457.

The Run-Off Elections in Slidell.

content@northshoreconifer.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:00:31 GMT

The City of Slidell elected a new mayor, congratulations Freddy Drennan and filled two out of three city council seats – Sam Abney, District “B” and Jay Newcomb, District “F” on March 27^th. The Police Chief and City Council District “C” remain open in a run-off. Although the Chamber does not endorse candidates, the board feels it is important to provide information to our members and the community to allow the citizens of Slidell to make smart decisions in electing our government.

The Public Policy Committee is active in creating awareness to the membership. All candidates, even the non-opposed, were invited to the chamber for personal twenty minute interviews of the same 5 to 6 questions. Additional questions were also presented for written responses and answered by the candidates. For complete responses, please visit our website at www.estchamber.com.

All four of the run-off candidates participated in the Public Policy Interview process. The Run-Off Candidates for the Chief of Police include Ben Morris and Randy Smith, both republicans. District “C” run-off candidates are Warren Crockett, Republican, and Buddy Lloyd, Democrat.

During the interviews, Ben Morris expressed “The City of Slidell cannot afford to take a step back or sideways, but primarily a step back with the police department would not be good for Slidell.” Ben explained, “Crime is at all time low. Drugs are always at the forefront and traffic. Traffic is not a threat, just the nature of the beast. The police department is the best in the state.” “As the Chief of the Police, the most important factors are having a good education system and a low crime rate that opens the door to economic development. We have one of the finest cultural arts departments for a city our size. All events are supported by the police department. The police department is a key factor to supporting the city.” Ben is familiar with the history of the department and the city and he says that is why he is running for Chief of Police.

Randy Smith explained he is running for Chief of Police because he is concerned about the quality of life that we have in Slidell and he wants to continue to serve, keep the citizens safe, and work to manage the tax dollars wisely. Two things to move the department forward that Randy is passionate about is technology and community policing. Officers put their lives on the line and he feels that the Slidell Police Department needs better equipment, including laptop computers in patrol cars for safety issues. “Having the laptops, they can stay on the streets and not have to go to office to do reports.” Randy feels strongly about getting the police department more involved in the community, he explained “Community policing and getting the Slidell Police Department more into the community, through schools, homeowners associations, and neighborhood watch will help with obtaining information from the citizens of the community.”

District “C” incumbent, Warren Crockett, is aware that a big issue in District C is encroachment of business into the neighborhoods. He understands that zoning needs to be evaluated to promote business, but reviewed to keep the quality of life people in Slidell expect. Warren understands that “Businesses need to grow, but traffic needs to be evaluated and buffer zones need to be put in place. It has to be a balance between the residences and the business to keep everyone happy.” Warren Crockett’s vision of Slidell is to see it grow economically and keep families here. He wants to see a thriving city and growth of VoTech system to develop non-college bound students. “We need a good tax base to move the city forward. Property tax cannot be the only use to depend upon.” “Small business is the heartbeat of America, but we need to attract business for industry and make money other than retail. Textron is good for the city and we need more business like them. Public private partnerships are a good avenue to market Slidell and get industry to come into Slidell.”

Buddy Lloyd has many new ideas to bring to the council including “finding a way for Slidell to be more business friendly and in saying that, it needs to be not so difficult when people want to move to Slidell to open a business and people need a reason to choose Slidell.” Buddy Lloyd envisions Slidell as a community that offers good job opportunities and streets that are not in disrepair, zoning that is friendly to business yet protects its residential areas and provides recreational opportunities. Buddy feels that things listed in the Master Plan, like sidewalks, need to be made. “People need to have inter-connectability amongst the residences and enforcement of codes so that people are aware of the rules and that they apply to everyone.”

The final elections will take place on May 1^st. The time period to request a mail ballot from the Registrar is through April 27^th, with the deadline for the Registrar to receive the mail ballot April 30^th. Early Voting begins April 17 and ends April 24^th.

Turn out for the March 27^thvoting day was very low. Some people believe their single vote does not count, this has been proven wrong in many elections, including the mayoral election in Mandeville, where it was decided by four (4) votes. If every person believes that his or her vote doesn't matter, the sheer volume of non-voters will destroy the democratic process. Make sure your vote is counted and your voice is heard – May 1^st cast your vote!

Check out the chamber website for upcoming chamber events, including our $10,000 Giveaway Party! Tickets are only $100 per couple for a night of food, dancing and fun and your chance to win $10,000! Mark your calendar for May 7^th! www.estchamber.com