Fast-Tracking Expansion
The City of Alexandria held a press conference today at the municipal building. Mayor Randolph read a statement about the need to fast-track road expansions, infrastructual improvements, and recreational facilities improvements. Four projects are slated for immediate fast-tracking: Versailles Boulevard, Jones Avenue, Lincoln Road, and Sugarhouse Road.
The Versailles expansion will add an estimated $25- $30 million to the tax base– that’s just in the land, without the improvements, according to Rod Noles. Noles also pointed out that no one in city government owns land in this area (and that no one in his company owns land in this area).
Additionally, the City of Alexandria will also be fast-tracking $3 million in recreational facilities improvements. Most of the parks in town will benefit, including Frank Hunter and Bringhurst; however, Compton Park and the Johnny Downs facilities are not included in this package.
CenLamar 
looks good unless the downtown sports arena is included in this. is it?
Nope. I don’t think so.
I saw you sitting next to Delores, Lamar. Was that awkward? Hehe.
Seriously, I noticed that Jacques was there as well.
Where was Dr. Sams? Too busy with his medical practice to attend, I suppose.
No way. Delores has always been extremely kind to me, and we both see eye-to-eye on the issues of smart growth and urban renewal (which I wrote about a few months ago).
In other news, did anyone just see Steve Coco at the Council meeting? He made a few good points about the utilities problem. (He says his last water bill was 1400% higher than the previous month). He advised people with outrageous bills to take regular photographs of their meters.
Are people’s meters just messing up? What’s the story here?
I have seen a lot of water meters that are unreadable. They are covered with dirt and have not been read in years. Some of the gas meters are hard to see. you actually have to get out of the truck and look behind a bush! The electric meters are most likely to high to see. With city employees so bummed all the time they only look down at the ground……….
This what most folks think. It’s a combination of lazy employees, home owners burying the water meters so they don’t have to look at tem in their yard, a few malfunctioning meters of various types and a real problem in the Utility department at 16th and Jackson.
In case your wondering, the Utility Department that handles the billing and meter reading is not a part of the Utility divison. It falls under finance.
How come everytime “Tom David” is “helping” the city by serving on some “study committee’ that he gets the work? Isnt that a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. david did not get a thing today. He presented a plan. No engineering contracts were awarded to PAE or any other firm for that matter.
Most of the jobs he talked about have been planned and had funding approved years ago. They are just finally getting around to doing them. It is all about politics.
He sure acts like he has brought it home. Is he the ONLY engineer in this Parish?
I gues you didn’t see Robert Hughes was there as well. He is the CEO of Meyer Meyer LaCroix & Hixon. They will most likely get a good portion of this work. It’s not like we have an abundance of Civil Engineers here anyway. The 8-10 percent fee they get doesn’t leave much room for huge profits.
Look at it this way, you hire someone to design a project and manage the construction and they get 10 a percent fee for about two years worth of work. The damn realtors get 6 percent commission and what they do pales in comparison.
Hey Folks, its election time and even though we appear to be incompetant and self absorbed, we are trying to show you that we were thinking about taking care of your business by putting all of the projects that should have been done in a nice little press release so that you all would be fooled into voting for us again. Yeah, we know that they have been on the books for awhile, but it is all about the money. The budget was getting kind of tight while we spent on consultants and studies and attorneys and other stuff until we found a way to get you guys to pay more through the utility overcharges. Anyway, things are better now and it was time to announce just how much we are going to do to you, (oops, for you)just before the election. Don’t mind those non-interest real estate developers talking about the increased tax base, they are just trying to get one last pet project done just in case we don’t get re-elected.
politics and the timing of the fast tracking aside, the Versailles project is a great idea and will greatly increase construction and the tax base.
Biff, It is a great idea that has been on the books awhile waiting for funding. It will relieve traffic pressure on Jackson Street, boost property values and access along the way and hopefully wake people up to the need for intelligent, cohesive planning for new expansion that requires additional infrastructure versus revitalization & re-use of already established areas of the city that would lessen urban sprawl. How is it that our population is less than 15 years ago and yet our need to develop and expand the city limits is greater? If we are not careful, whether our population increases or not, we are going to have a city with a dilapidated hollow core with fingers reaching into the outer rings of newer development and diminish our ability to maintain the greater area to standards that are attractive to current and future residents.
Biff, It is a great idea that has been on the books awhile waiting for funding. It will relieve traffic pressure on Jackson Street, boost property values and access along the way and hopefully wake people up to the need for intelligent, cohesive planning for new expansion that requires additional infrastructure versus revitalization & re-use of already established areas of the city that would lessen urban sprawl. How is it that our population is less than 15 years ago and yet our need to develop and expand the city limits is greater? If we are not careful, whether our population increases or not, we are going to have a city with a dilapidated hollow core with fingers reaching into the outer rings of newer development and diminish our ability to maintain the greater area to standards that are attractive to current and future residents.
I see I’m not the only one who thinks that this is just an opportune time for the sorry-ass politicians to shove some PR down our throats that they’re actually doing something more than drawing a paycheck. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit to know that the ones behind this public event were CFS, Roosevelt, and all.
Pisses me off!
IF this was a committee appointed by a governmental body then ANYONE who serves on that committee is prohibited by law from receiving any of the work. SO NO NO TOM TOM.