Rome is new rec board president

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 7, 1999

By MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / April 7, 1999

LAPLACE – For the first time in six years, the St. John the Baptist ParishRecreation Advisory Board has a new president.

Danny Rome took over for Phil Helm at the meeting of the board Monday night. Helm, who is moving out of the parish, had announced hisresignation at the board’s meeting in March but said he would stay on until the position was filled.

“I am stepping into some big shoes,” Rome said. “Phil did a good job.”Rome said his goal is to have a good working relationship between the board, the parish president’s office and the recreation department. He saidthere has been a lack of communication between all three parties and that needs to be cleared up and stopped.

“We need to have all three parties working together and knowing what is going on to make it work,” Rome said. “We have to stop the arguing and geton with the program and get the kids in the parks.”Rome has already gotten together with Parish President Arnold Labat to create four baseball fields at Regala Park. Rome said the plan is have allparish games played there to clear up some of the confusion that separate sites have posed in the past. The four fields also opens up the possibilityof bringing in tournaments in the future.

Helm had been president of the board for six years. When he and the boardgot started, the budget for recreation was $125,000 a year. In those sixyears, Helm and the board started the parish’s aquatic program for physically and mentally challenged children, the land-based program for children with behavior problems and the parish’s summer camp as well as the parish Biddy Basketball program. Helm and the board also wrote amaster plan for recreation.

Helm said he would have liked to have seen more happen, saying that programs need to be expanded for all ages. During those years, a millagefor recreation was defeated by the voters. An attempt to create anindependent recreation board also failed. Helm said one of those two needsto be implemented in order for recreation to go forward.

“They have to move to a self-sufficient board or pass a millage so that recreation can be supported more,” Helm said.

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