Cameron Parish ‘out of recovery’ mode (9/16)

Posted September 15, 2009 at 11:50 pm
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By HECTOR SAN MIGUEL
AMERICAN PRESS

A year after Hurricane Ike’s storm surge washed over the coast, Cameron Parish is in a major redevelopment stage, the parish’s top planning official says.

Ernie Broussard, director of planning and development, said the parish has received $83 million in long-term recovery funds from the Louisiana Recovery Authority for Hurricane Rita in 2005 and last year’s Ike.

As a result, the parish is working on several major projects to help boost housing, tourism and more development along Holly and Rutherford beaches, Broussard said.

“Our efforts are very deliberate. First, we wanted to clean up the parish. We wanted to re-energize all of our necessary infrastructure such as roads and electricity,” he said.

“We are out of recovery right now. We are now in the redevelopment stage. We are kind of getting on to be the kind of community we are going to be.”

The parish redevelopment plan comprises three phases. Among the projects are Cameron Square, fisheries and a new community sewer system in the Holly Beach area, he said.

“Cameron Square is a multiphase effort that we are making a signature project down on the waterfront (near the parish courthouse). It’s kind of our final frontier,” Broussard said.

“It replaces the administration office for the Police Jury so that you have an east and west annex for government offices such as the district attorney and tax assessor.”

The plan also calls for construction of a new jail and correctional center, along with more improvements to the courthouse.

“The key feature of the courthouse development is not only bringing the courthouse up to code standard,” Broussard said. “It will also have an open-air plaza that is tied to the waterfront.”

There is a $3.1 million project approved for the first phase of fisheries improvement. It entails a wharf, a pier and a processing plant, he said.

“We have optioned properties for phase two for another $12 million in improvements. That is going to have a city dock, a landing and other things like that. This is our working waterfront for the commercial fishermen,” Broussard said.

An additional $16 million will be spent on dredging for the Cameron Loop and East Fork waterways, he said.

“We are starting a preliminary planning for a shorebase operation on the Monkey Island that is designed to tie into not only the maritime industry but the deep-water exploration. That’s our initiative,” Broussard said.

One of the parish’s biggest challenges has to do with getting more housing built.

“We have a $24 million housing program that is not only designed to compensate people who have spent money. It also addresses rehabilitation and reconstruction of housing and first-time homebuyers,” Broussard said.

There has been talk about developing condominiums along Holly and Rutherford beaches.

“We are installing a community sewer system,’’ Broussard said. ‘‘We had about 560 households there before Hurricane Rita. Now we only have about 30 permanent residents.

“We feel if we put in the sewer, we can compete for multi-tier condos. We have had developers that would like us to proceed with that if we can get the sewer.”

Engineering is being done at a cost of $500,000 on the sewer project. The entire system will cost about $5 million to construct.

“We are doing the engineering and property acquisition right now. That is going to allow us to look at layered or multi-tiered housing,” Broussard said.

“This will mean we will be able to get more replacement housing on Rutherford and Holly Beach. This will lend itself to new investments.”

Broussard said the money for the new sewer system will come from state capital outlay funds. Other money is coming from the long-term recovery funds or the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“We have gotten about another $10 million from other programs like USDA and other agencies. We have got a pretty robust agenda. It’s just coming into fruition now,” Broussard said.

“It has taken us this long, but we are really excited about our housing,” he said. “We don’t think these are dark days for Cameron. We really think by the end of the day this is going to be our finest hour.”

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