ANNOUNCEMENT OF CANDIDACY FOR PARISH PRESIDENT

I want to express my sincere appreciation to you, the people of Natchitoches Parish, for allowing me to serve you as your Parish President over the past two and one-half years. It has been an exciting time of change and opportunity and many positive results have been achieved. Still, there is much more we must do to bring Parish services to the level they need to be. With a deep sense of gratitude and humility, I will be a candidate for re-election on October 24th.
I ask for your continued support because we have made significant progress in the following key areas:

1. Financial Management: Because of the critical nature of Parish finances, our first task was to put Parish government on firmer ground. We are pleased to report that all funds ended the year 2014 (the first budget established by the Home Rule Charter government) with balanced budgets. According to Parish records, this is the first time this has been achieved in the past 18 years. We will continue to work diligently to make sure that your government understands the necessity to balance its budget just as you must do with yours. One way we achieved a balanced budget was by asking all departments to focus, first, on their individual service priorities. Another way was through the adoption of effective purchasing policies that require written requisitions for all purchases, supported by and supervisory approvals.

2. Accountability & Transparency: We emphasize the fact that your Parish employees work for you and are accountable for performing their respective job assignments. All government activities are reported openly and requests for public records and information are met promptly.

3. Business Development & Jobs: We led the effort to create the Natchitoches Community Alliance, an organization that brings together the Parish, City of Natchitoches, Chamber of Commerce, Port of Natchitoches, NSU and other entities to work together for greater economic development. Closer coordination and cooperation will improve our ability to keep our existing jobs and to create new ones.

4. Improve Critical Services: The Parish has been successful in obtaining capital outlay and grant funds for road improvement projects. It is also developing a long-range plan for major road improvements across the Parish. In addition, the department has implemented new systems to track road repair work and expenses, and to prioritize repair requests on the basis of road condition, public safety, daily traffic volume, and impact on medical and other key services. The Parish has entered into a new 5-year agreement with Progressive Waste Solutions for the disposal of solid waste in the Parish. This new agreement contains terms that are more advantageous to the Parish than the previous one and is designed to allow the Public Works Department to replace its unmanned bin sites with manned mini-compactor stations.

5. OCS/Head Start: The Office of Community Services and the Head Start program have also been key areas of focus. OCS is continuing to provide those services needed by certain members of our community. Last year, Head Start was approved for a new 5-year federal grant, as a result of the improvements made to the program. Both Head Start and OCS are now operating within budget and, in fact, we were able to squeeze enough funds from the federal grant to begin the process of restoring the MLK center gym for use.

In summary, we have made a good start under our new form of government and we cannot afford to turn back now. I believe that the key to earning your confidence is an open dialogue, and toward that end I ask that you share your questions and concerns. I pledge to provide a clear and straightforward answer to all your questions.

Thank you, again, for allowing me to be of service to you. I sincerely ask for your vote and support so that our Parish can continue to advance and take its place as a leader in our state.

Rick

Week of June 1, 2015 – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In the spring of 2013 (just 4 months after the new Home Rule Charter government took office), we created the Advisory Commission on Economic Development.  The objective of the Commission was to investigate the economic development efforts of the different public and private agencies in the Parish and to consider the benefits of creating a single entity to coordinate the activities of these various agencies.   For too long, it seemed that each group was working independently with little, if any, communication among them.  Further, the Commission was to prepare a draft plan to promote Parish economic development activity.

As a result of the excellent work of the Commission, a second smaller group was named to do the work of actually designing the entity to make the economic development consortium a reality.  That group created what we now know as the Natchitoches Community Alliance (NCA).  In order to get the NCA started, the Natchitoches Chamber of Commerce Foundation accepted the task of running the NCA.  Mr. Tony Davis, Executive Director of the Chamber, was named the director of the NCA.  Mr. Mike Wolff was named vice-president for economic development.

The NCA includes representatives of the Parish of Natchitoches, City of Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish Port, Chamber and NSU.  They work closely together with the goal of protecting the jobs we have now and of attracting business expansion in our area.  The bottom line is creating good paying jobs for our people.

We have already seen the first fruits of the NCA.  Working closely with the Central Louisiana Economic Development Authority, North Louisiana Economic Partnership and CLECO, we were able to bring 5 of the most prominent “site selectors” in the country to Natchitoches on May 19, 2015.  These gentlemen represent firms that are hired by major corporations to identify locations in which the corporations could build new manufacturing plants.  While here, they met with local officials, higher education leaders and industry leaders, and toured industrial sites and the Natchitoches port.

This visit by the “site selectors” provided us with the opportunity to show off our area assets and to describe how we could assist them with the workforce training programs in Natchitoches Parish.  Afterward, a dinner was held in their honor at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and History Museum.

It is too soon to know if the visitors were impressed enough with our area to recommend it to their clients.  The point is that major manufacturers depend on these types of firms and we have taken the first step to getting our name before them.  By continuing to promote our area, and by addressing those characteristics in our area that may be of concern to companies, we will eventually land that business we have been striving to get.  And with a new manufacturing concern in the Parish, we will get the good jobs that come with it.

Rick

Week of July 06, 2015 – PARISH SCORES BIG IN STATE CAPITAL OUTLAY 2015-2016

The Parish of Natchitoches is pleased to report that it was successful in getting tremendous support for our much-needed infrastructure improvements from the State of Louisiana.  This was accomplished by the inclusion of a number of critical projects in the State Capital Outlay Program for 2015-2016.

Our ability to get these projects into the Capital Outlay bill signed into law by Governor Jindal is due to the leadership of Senator Gerald Long and the support of the other members of our legislative delegation.  We are grateful to all of them for their continued support of our Parish.  We also believe the strong relationship of our Parish administration with Senator Long and the Governor’s office was a key factor in our success.  The trips to Baton Rouge and meetings with various State officials appear to have paid off.

The primary Parish projects in the bill are the following:

Parish Road Improvements:  (in order of Parish priority as selected by the Parish Council)

1. Payne Subdivision Streets $1,015,000
2. Harmony Road   $1,890,000
3. Goldonna Road   $1,835,000
4. Fish Hatchery Road   $1,250,000
5. Blanchard Road      $280,000

These road projects are in addition to the $280,000 approved in the 2014-2015 program for the Coco Bed Road improvements.  This project is in the design phase and it is anticipated that the work will be completed this fall.

Bridge Improvements:

1. Old River Bridge Replacement $1,505,000

Other Projects:

1. Courthouse Security Improvements $760,000 ($480,000 from prior year)
2. Office of Community Services $350,000 ($40,000 from prior year)

Getting a project into the capital program is a six-step process.  A project must be accepted by a House committee, then the full House, a Senate committee, and then the full Senate.  The fifth step is the Governor’s approval, which we now have.  The final step is to get State Bond Commission authorization of  the project funding and we are already making plans in this area.  It remains to be seen how many of these projects will make it past the State Bond Commission, but we are optimistic a number of them will be funded this year.

Under State law, the Parish must contribute 25% of the total cost of any project funded by the State.  Some of this local match will be met using Parish services, primarily engineering and construction phase services provided by Mr. Nick Verret, who is our Director of Public Works and a registered professional engineer.  The remainder will be met with local cash contributions.