By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – The annual &#8220Parish President’s Forum,” sponsored by the River Region Chamber of Commerce, is supposed to be a time for the tri-parish leaders to give their update on just where each of the River Region parishes stand in the new year.

But if you had closed your eyes at the Quality Inn on Thursday, and allowed your mind to drift away listening to the update from each parish president, you might have believed you were in the &#8220Land of Oz.”

Perhaps it wasn’t that rosy, but each of the three parish presidents presented a picture of their own area as seemingly better than the next, highlighting almost entirely positive reports as opposed to any real problems.

Even though there certainly are challenges in each of the three parishes, even if they were barely discussed, all three parish presidents did have many positive things to point to, with clear evidence that the River Region is growing economically.

&#8220It’s good to talk about things, but when you see things coming out of the ground, with mortar and brick, you know things are really developing,” St. John Parish President Nickie Monica said. &#8220We’ve had many projects that have done just that, with others underway.”

Monica again highlighted the near completion of the Veterans Retirement Home in Reserve, and the beginning of construction for the National Guard Readiness Center. He pointed to the homebuilding industry which put $75 million of investment in St. John last year, and said the growth by area industries will only aid the economy.

&#8220With Marathon starting their $3.2 billion expansion, and the Cargill sugar mill expected to begin construction by the end of the year, those are just a few of the big businesses which are growing here,” he said.

He stole a little of the thunder from St. James Parish President Dale Hymel, talking about the potential billion dollar steel mill that may come to St. James, as well as the Louisiana Transportation Center that is still on the horizon as a possible giant boon for the area in the future.

&#8220If those two things come to St. James, you better look out, because the whole area will benefit,” he added.

Hymel described St. James as a soda bottle which had been shook up.

&#8220Think about shaking up a bottle of pop, and that describes our economy-ready to explode,” he said.

Hymel saved the most talked about piece of news for last, which is the possible steel mill in St. James. Louisiana and Alabama are the final two candidates, and Hymel said a decision is expected May 21.

&#8220We are talking about 20,000 construction jobs over the time of building it, and 2,700 permanent jobs. Just to give you an idea how big this thing is, it is going to be on 4,000 acres, and if you walk around the exterior wall of the entire building, it is just over six miles,” he said. &#8220It’s like running a 10K.”

Highlights for St. James included the construction of a new hospital, almost $2 million in road overlay projects, and a new court administrative building. He said tourism is picking back up, with 6,000 visitors to their welcome center in 2006, compared to just over 10,000 before the hurricane.

St. Charles Parish President Albert Laque spent a lot of time on his pet project, the hurricane levee work for his parish.

&#8220We are spending $700,000 of our own money each year to work on it, but we have told the Corps we need about $6 million more to finish it. Even when I leave office, I will keep hollering for it until we get the money,” he said.

&#8220Laque also pointed to extra work to improve their communication system, in-house and for the public, since the hurricane pointed out some weaknesses for the region.

&#8220Now we have our government access channel available on the Internet, and you can get news on the radio station as well,” he stated.

Hymel is the only parish president not term limited out this year, with Monica and Laque in their final year as parish presidents.

Henry Sullivan and Linda Prudhomme from the Port of South Louisiana also gave an update on the port activities and growth, particularly pointing out its importance to the region since it is the largest tonnage port in the United States.