ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / December 16, 2000

LAPLACE – Wednesday was an important day in the future of St. John theBaptist Parish. Over 50 parish residents including plant managers, businessand religious leaders, educators, community activists and other concernedcitizens gathered at the Holiday Inn in LaPlace for the first St. John ParishStrategic Planning Stakeholders Meeting.

The meeting was sponsored by the Economic Development Department of St.John Parish.

“What we are doing is getting a strategic plan for the economic future of theparish,” said Julia Remondet, Director of Economic Development.

The meeting is the culmination of several months work by Remondet andJohn Vincent, parish consultant and organizer of the meeting.

First, Remondet had several public meetings around the parish with citizens.

These meetings were an opportunity for people to air their views andthoughts about what should be done for the parish.

The results of these public meetings were then compiled into one report andpresented to the “stakeholders” at the strategic planning meeting onWednesday.

Remondet said, “What was interesting was that people all had the sameanswers to these questions.”

For example, in the area of infrastructure, almost everybody wanted theparish to find a way to build an alternate east-west road because AirlineHighway was getting clogged with traffic and trucks.

In planning, residents want a uniform zoning and planning code whereexceptions are rare. Most people seem to be concerned with growth and howto manage progress and expansion.

“The trick is to manage change and progress,” said Vincent.

Remondet and Vincent divided up the group of stakeholders into six majorgoals that were discussed by the public, Education, Economic Development,Roads and Infrastructure, Tourism, Public and Social Services and PublicPride and Image.

Remondet marveled, “I am amazed at the level of expertise we have in thisroom today. There is such a diversity here, but everybody wants the samething.”

The leaders of each of these goal groups then put together what wasdiscussed and presented their findings to Remondet and Vincent.

“We’re trying to get a big picture of the future of St. John Parish,” saidVincent. “This is the first time that we are looking at the big picture andtrying to develop what the residents want.”

Richard Drexel, who was goal leader of the Economic Development table runsa company called Business Solutions Inc. and is concerned with the processof starting up a business in St. John Parish.

He and the other members of his group were trying to put together an ideafor an enterprise support group. This would be a collection of businesspeople who could help a new business get up and running in the parish.

“It’s a one-stop area where a person can get the permits and othernecessary paperwork done to start a business, ” said Drexel. “Who would yourather deal with? A group of business people or a government bureaucracy?”Other subjects covered in the meeting were a public transit system, how toimprove education, keeping the parish looking good, public safety and how toimprove tourism.

“I think it is a great start,” said Reverend Neil Bernard who is helping todefine the goals of improving education. “Starting with a vision is thebeginning of change.”

Edgar Jochum, a member of the Tourism group was optimistic about whatthe strategic plan will do for the parish.

“I think you are going to see quite a few changes in next few years,” saidJochum. “It won’t happen in a day, but we are setting realistic goals for thenext 10 years.”

There will be one more meeting with the stakeholders and then Remondet willput together a draft economic plan for the parish that she will present tothe council and parish president.

Before the actual process had started, Vincent had talked to each of thecouncil members and President Nickie Monica about what was being planned.

Surprisingly, there were no politicians at the meeting Wednesday.

Vincent said that the council had agreed not to be there, because theywanted to make sure that it was only the residents’ views and opinions thatwere being discussed.

“There is a role for everybody,” said Vincent. “Our biggest challenge is tosustain this effort and get people to put down their remotes and get off thecouch.”

Remondet said that a meeting like this has been a dream of hers for a longtime.

“I am so excited about this,” said Remondet, “We are finally getting adirection for economic development that includes the entire community.”

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