East Baton Rouge and Central officials released the following joint statement:

March 31, 2009

For release: IMMEDIATELY
For more information contact: Rannah Gray, 225.205.3735 or Rannah@cox.net

Central Officials Announce Plans to Work to Find Acceptable Loop Route

Officials from Central met yesterday with City-Parish officials and the Baton Rouge Loop project team and have announced their support for the Loop if the route for the Northern Bypass is acceptable to the Central community.

Project team leaders added that they are confident an acceptable route will be found and applauded the cooperation from those involved.

Attending the meeting were Central Mayor Mac Watts and his Executive Assistant David Barrow; State Representative Clif Richardson whose District 65 includes the Central area; Mayor Kip Holden’s Chief Administrative Officer Mike Futrell; Mayoral Advisor Walter Monsour; Central Planning & Zoning Commission Committee Members Rodney Bonvillain and Wade Giles; Central City Council members Louis DeJohn and Lucky Ross; East Baton Rouge Metro Council Member Scott Wilson; Central resident Graydon Walker who sits on the BR Loop Stakeholders Committee, and BR Loop project team members Mike Bruce and Craig Gardner.

“I’m very pleased that we can move forward together,” said Mayor Holden. “This project is critical to solving traffic congestion throughout our parish and we should be working together to keep this important project on schedule. I appreciate the time and cooperation of the Central officials.”

Mayor Holden’s Chief Administrative Officer Mike Futrell reiterated the intent to work together to move the Loop project forward. “We are committed to holding one or more public meetings in the Central community during this phase of the project to keep this project moving.”

Futrell said that moving forward, leaders from the City of Central area will have a prominent seat at the table in the process of determining the route through Central.

In addition, regular meetings between the Loop team and leaders from the City of Central will be held.

Representative Richardson, who represents the Central area said, “I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this process and look forward to finding a consensus route.”

Central Mayor Watts added, “We support the Loop as long as we can agree on a route acceptable to the people of Central.”

Mike Bruce, a principal on the Loop project said the use of land around the new loop, such as zoning, access, feeder roads and other issues that affect the Central area will be decided by the people of Central during a land use planning aspect of the current phase.

He added that the financial model for funding the loop appears viable, especially for the Northern Bypass of the loop where tolls could produce a great majority of the construction costs.

Bruce said that historically, toll roads similar to the Baton Rouge Loop have also generated revenues for improvement and widening of local feeder roads.

The Loop will provide multiple access points in the Central area and will not cut off existing routes.

Mayor Holden’s office released the following News Advisory:

NEWS ADVISORY

Statement from Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden and Mayor Pro-Tempore Mike Walker

Mayor-President Melvin L. “Kip” Holden:

I am working closely with my administration and Mayor Pro-Tempore Mike Walker to assure everything is in place for a full and speedy recovery from this severe weather event. We have signed an emergency declaration and I have spoken with state officials and have been assured we have their full cooperation and will be provided any resources needed.

DPW is working with Entergy to make sure they have everything they need to restore power as quickly as possible. We are also working to put emergency contracts in place for debris removal so we can get the affected neighborhoods cleaned up quickly.

We have been told by the weather service that we could have other storm activity, so it is important for everyone to be careful and make sure you have adequate emergency supplies for the potential disruption of power. We will be providing the public with more updates as information becomes available.

Mayor Pro-Tempore Mike Walker:

I am at the Mayor’s Office and have been speaking with the Mayor all morning to assure the appropriate declarations are signed without any delay.

The administration has my full support to expedite any actions in the Mayor’s absence to keep things moving smoothly.

Various city-parish departments have been on the ground since early morning working to restore the affected neighborhoods as quickly as possible and I will remain available to help in any way until the Mayor’s returns to Baton Rouge this evening.

I would also like to encourage everyone to be very careful around down power lines and to exercise caution when driving in the affected areas. Unless you live in the neighborhoods affected, please avoid these areas so that our city-parish workers and Entergy can get the areas cleaned up and power restored as soon as possible.

You can watch the “Council Roundup” from last night’s Metro Council meeting below:

You can download a copy of the agenda for tomorrow afternoon’s meeting by clicking here.

The Council meeting begins at 4pm, and you can watch it live on Cox channel 21 or on-line here. You can also get real-time updates beginning at 4pm from Twitter.

As part of my continuing efforts to make local government more transparent and accessible to the citizens we serve, I’m proud to introduce our latest effort, the “Council Roundup.” Within hours of each Metro Council meeting, I will post a short video that citizens can watch highlighting some of the issues the Council addressed as well as comments from the key players involved.

The first ever “Council Roundup” from last night’s Metro Council meeting is below:

This morning I had a chance to stop by the 2009 Louisiana Federation of Republican Women Convention and welcome them to Baton Rouge. The Republican Women group is near and dear to my heart as they have always supported me and helped me along. But even more than that, these outstanding women give so much back to their communities in the way of volunteer work. We’re lucky to have such a terrific group here in Louisiana, and it was my pleasure to help them open up their convention.

Construction crews have been busy improving the intersection of Coursey and South Sherwood Forest since we broke ground in January. I’m happy to say that we’re running ahead of schedule. As a result, the construction company is going to try and wrap this project up in the next few weeks.

What this will mean to you is that starting this weekend (March 7 & 8) and continuing for the next two weekends (March 14 & 15 and 21 & 22), traffic will be reduced to ONE lane in all directions. This will NOT affect weekday travel as two lanes in all directions will remain open. This only applies to Saturday and Sunday.

This is one of the busiest intersections in town, and when this project is complete it’s going to get traffic FLOWING. I can’t wait to cut the ribbon!

Today I had the honor of joining Mayor-President Kip Holden and others to cut the ribbon on the North Harrell’s Ferry Road improvements. This is the third Green Light Plan project to be completed, and we did it for less money in less time than originally projected!

This project has significantly upgraded a vital link between Sherwood Forest Blvd. and Old Hammond Highway, making it a safer road to travel for residents in our community. You can see a picture from the ceremony below as well as a video with highlights and interviews from key people involved.