By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

GARYVILLE  — Bill Hubbard only began as St. John parish president three months ago, but he is now involved in a decades old problem.

And that is the point Geri Baloney wants people to understand when looking at the current issue of whether the town of Garyville will become incorporated or not.

“This is not a personal issue between myself and Bill Hubbard,” Baloney, chairperson for the Garyville Incorporation Committee said. “This is about taxation without representation. It’s been going on for decades in our area.”

The Garyville group is currently awaiting word from Governor Bobby Jindal’s office about whether their petition seeking a vote of the people for incorporation will be approved.

Meanwhile, the matter has gotten heated as Hubbard, along with two other top ranking parish officials, have sent a letter to Jindal asking the petition to be thrown out for what they consider several legal issues.

But Baloney said she would like all parties to step back and allow the people of the Garyville region to simply be given a chance to decide their future.

“This is no reflection on Bill Hubbard, or his administration, or what he might plan to do for Garyville,” she said. “This is about improving the quality of life for the people here. It’s not about Bill Hubbard or Whitney Joseph.”

Baloney said that the people in the Garyville area have sat by for decades as their region has been virtually ignored by the parish. She cites the need for better ditch cleaning, street improvements, junk cars to be moved, and a multitude of blighted buildings to have been dealt with, as just some problems never addressed by the parish.

“Money has not been spent here, that is what the problem has been, and goes back for decades of administrations with the parish,” she remarked. “If you go through Garyville, you see areas where it has become a dumping ground, and I assure you it has not been from the people here. Some of these people may be poor, but they don’t dump stuff in their town.”

That is why leaders of the Garyville group, including local developer Carl Monica, have long been stating the claim that the region has had “taxation without representation” for many years.

Hubbard did not disagree with some of the claims, but said he was sad to see this matter erupt when it did, since he had many plans to address some of those problems.

“There may have been people in the past who promised things and didn’t carry through, but the one thing I will tell you is that if I promise something, I’m going to do it,” he said. “I had definite plans for things in Garyville to help them, including a Historic District in town. But now it doesn’t look like we will have a chance to do any of it. That’s disappointing to me.”

Whether the timing of the incorporation effort was, in fact, unfortunate since Hubbard’s administration has been getting strong reviews for a multitude of positive projects in his three months in office, the Garyville petition now sits on the governor’s desk, awaiting a yes or a no.

Baloney said her group is simply trying to look out for its future.

“Our area has been totally ignored for years,” she said. “But we have to do this now since we will be here long after Mr. Hubbard’s four or eight years.”

Baloney also addressed the question of why the group set their boundaries to include a portion of Reserve, all the way to West 10th Street.

“We have been called greedy for doing this, but we have signatures on our petition of people who live on West 10th Street and want to be a part of this town,” she said. “Historically, that area is a part of what we have put together and those people also just want their tax dollars spent in their area. We know this will be a new concept for St. John, but it’s the right thing to do.”