Truck Stop That Won't Stop!

This is intended to keep our various neighbors and neighborhoods connected and informed.

On April 1st - a special Chamber of Commerce meeting was held and was open to the public and included the Economic Development Committee. This meeting was a presentation by REDMAN of Louisiana , a company that would like to invest in St Bernard Parish at the intersection of Bayou Road and Judge Perez. Their investment would be a truckstop/casino with 50 seat restaurant, a general store, a 1 1/2 acre area for the 15 - 25 ft landscaping buffer around the 10 acre facility. The buffer will serve as visual and noise buffers. The facility will have 100 parking spots for trucks, 50 parking spots for cars, a retention pond for drainage, a 35 - 50 ft wide ingress/outgress off Judge Perez, a tire and mechanical and other truck repair services.

The Redman company claims the $5.5 million investment would bring 40 fulltime workers for the general store, 15 workers for the restaurant and 25 - 30 workers for the casino. Pay would be above average and the company said it has a trackrecord of hiring locals from the area. They said managers pay range would be around $35,000 to $40,000 and workers would be paid a range of $6 to $7 an hour. They will also hire local trades for the construction, excavators, masonry, etc. The metal building will be brought in (not constructed). They stated they would have a total $40,000 to $45,000 a month total contribution to St Bernard Parish.

They filed for the building permit in December 2007 so they believe they are under the older state regulations which allow for this development within certain distances from schools, churches/synagogues, historic places, etc. The proximity to the school and historic Sebastopol Plantation makes the development/casino noncompliant with new state regulations that are in effect since Jan 2008.

The developers claim because their building permit is dated Dec 2007 they are grandfathered in. They view this as an actual end economic value to the area that will spur new development and increase property values in this area.

The Chamber of Commerce not only invited the public to attend, but had contacted the Eastern St Bernard Development Committee to make a presentation as well. Presenters included an economic counter point, a social overview and a high school students perspective on what they presented as the counter view of gambling establishments effects on communities. They discredited the economic contributions stating that tax payers pay $3 dollars for every $1 contributed. The raising costs of criminal justice, social welfare, losses of small businesses, over all decline in economy due to loss of spending on other items (since the dollars would be going to gambling instead), regressive tax on the poor, increased bankruptcy, divorce rates, and such.The citizens presented over 1,000 signatures of residents opposed to any zoning change that would allow this development and also presented a resolution from the St Bernard Parish school board requesting the denial of any zoning changes or permits necessary for the casino. The school boards resolution paraphrase very close proximity to the middle school (this proximity makes the development/casino noncompliant with new state regulations that are in effect Jan 2008/ the developers claim because their building permit is dated Dec 2007 they are grand fathered in),the impressionable and vulnerable age group of middle school students, exacerbating the need for heightened supervision of students, traditional transience nature of gambling and truck stop customers.They pointed out the broken promises of gambling in the State of Louisiana, as our teachers are still underpaid, ranking 44 in the nation, and our roads and infrastructure still lack funding.

It was a very good presentation by both parties and an excellent idea on the chambers part to allow the presentation. Wish they had gotten the word out to more residents to attend the 9am meeting.