By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – The old saying is something like “put your money where your mouth is.”

For new Parish President Bill Hubbard, that would apply to him when it comes to the future hopes for the mostly-vacant St. John Community Center.

The beautiful, $15 million facility that sits on Highway 51 for all to see as they drive up and down the main LaPlace thoroughfare, continues to be an albatross around the neck of the St. John government.

But if Hubbard has his way, that won’t be the case much longer.

Completed nearly two years ago with high hopes for bringing lots of big-time events to St. John Parish, the center has barely been used, even as a monthly maintenance fee of between $10,000 and $15,000 continues to be paid by the parish.

While some have called for the building to be put up for sale, Hubbard has an aggressive plan to try and make the Community Center an asset to St. John Parish, and his first target is to get the movie industry to use the center.

That plan began to show some results on Friday, when a tentative deal was agreed upon with one company, which will now rent

the center for three months in producing a $20 million movie.

When the 2008 St. John budget was completed by outgoing Parish President Nickie Monica last year, there was no money allocated in the budget to market the center, according to St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe.

Boe added that there was $35,000 allocated to market the Community Center in 2007, but only $5,000 of that money was spent.

Hubbard changed the 2008 St. John budget and has allocated as much as $25,000 to marketing for the center this year, and is now supporting a big push to make the center a prime hub to bring in more Hollywood movies, something that could completely change the fortunes of the facility.

Parish government is now using the River Parish Tourism Commission to handle the marketing of the center, and has just gotten a number of new items completed by Louis Giancona Advertising, a marketing firm, which will enhance the work by the Commission.

The Community Center now has a new logo, an upgraded web site, a DVD and folder full of information that the Tourism Commission will be taking to conferences they are attending. And the first of those conferences is coming up soon in Santa Monica, Cal. this month, where Tourism Commission Director Jesse Lambert will be trying to get the movie industry to see the value in doing work over here.

“I think you are going to see the Community Center become a big asset for St. John Parish,” Lambert said. “We have a proven soundstage facility to offer, and we should really begin bringing a lot of productions here.”

Boe said that the popularity of the center as a movie site is so obvious that the parish had two other movie companies standing in line to rent the center had the first company not agreed to the deal last Friday. And Hubbard has raised the rental cost on the center from the previous price of $15,000 a month, to the new price of $25,000, plus paying utilities.

This month Lambert is attending a location trade show for movie companies, and she said the St. John Community Center already has a leg up on the competition.

“When I go in there and start naming the movies that we’ve already done here, and the fact that we are the only ones there who have a big, new, beautiful facility, we will be very successful,” she added. “I believe the movies are going to make the Community Center a success, and it’s also going to be a big boost for the entire parish since these people come in and use all the local services we have as well. They spend a lot of money here.”

One of the early tenants the Community Center did have for a while was LIFT, a movie company which produced a number of pictures from here, including their most recent with Carmen Electra on site. As long as LIFT was using the facility, they were paying $15,000 a month, which paid for all the maintenance costs. But once they left for good last year, the center has been spending plenty of money to meet maintenance costs, with little coming back in return.

The parish has also spent $25,000 to buy a large, moveable stage that can be rented out for $3,000 to $5,000. The stage will also be used for local events such as the Andouille Festival, whereas the parish previously had to pay the high cost of renting the stage itself.

“That is also an investment for the parish that will pay for itself in no time,” Boe noted. “And it will be another thing to entice movie producers to use our facility.

“We see the movie industry as the prime player who could help us make this thing a quick success,” Boe said. “But we’ve got to go after them. We think all of our slick, new marketing pieces will help us a lot.”

Boe also said that the web site is much improved, with a streamlined process that offers information on booking the center, right from the web site.