Chamber of Commerce opens door to Gateway Project

What would home really be without a cute doormat reading, “Welcome” or “Wipe Your Feet?”

Well, it would still be your home. It just wouldn’t be as inviting as it could be to visitors.

The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce and others are working to give Houma its own “Welcome Houma” mat with the Gateway Project.

The project, which is still in its early stages, is essentially about putting up a pretty sign to welcome visitors into Houma and Terrebonne Parish.

Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce board member Sharon Bergeron of Coastal Commerce Bank said she has been interested in the project for several years, but started working on it actively in the chamber a year and a half ago.

She said the common complaints about the entrances into Terrebonne Parish are they aren’t beautiful. They are not well marked. And there is no “trailblazing,” once visitors get off the highways to get into town.

“If we’re trying to attract people to do business in Terrebonne Parish and to come visit, then at the very least they need to be able to get here and know how to get to the place they’re looking for,” said Bergeron. “And number two, that we would like to have at least one entrance that exemplifies the beauty of south Louisiana. I think that we forget sometimes that south Louisiana is really very beautiful.”

She said she thinks the current entrances fail to communicate the area’s beauty to visitors.

The Gateway sub-committee is currently looking at examples of how other areas “sign” entrances. They’re looking for ways to sign professionally and beautifully, while incurring as little maintenance cost as possibly.

“We’re in the getting the information stage,” said Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce director Candy Theriot. “I’m talking with the people in Lafayette that did one. I think they actually dug out a little pond. We don’t know what we’re going to do, yet, because it depends on what kind money we can get to get it done.”

Bergeron said the interchange between La. Highway 24 and U.S. Highway 90 will probably be the start of the beautification process. But the other three entrances into the parish could follow.

She said whatever the committee decides to do it has to find a way to pay for the maintenance. It is considering corporate assistance for this aspect of the project.

The project’s cost is still unknown, Bergeron said, but put it in the ballpark of several thousand dollars to build and possibly several thousand more to maintain.

It’s possible TEDA or the Tourist Center – or both – could eventually play a part in actually paying for the gateway’s construction.

Theriot said she hopes TEDA, as well as the Tourist Center, will be able to get grants to help pay for the project.

“The Tourist Center may be able to find funds through the Department of Tourism,” said Theriot.

Bergeron said the Department of Transportation and Development also has to be consulted. The DOTD has requirements for building on a state highway.

Theriot said the Gateway Project works hand in hand with the improved signage project.

Bergeron said last year the economic development committee for the Chamber of Commerce worked on getting improved signage along the highways leading to Terrebonne and Houma.

Part of the reasoning behind this was to inform commuters of the other entrances into Terrebonne Parish, as well as helping them find more direct routes to specific sites like the Industrial District, the Houma Civic Center, Houma’s downtown and the L.E. Fletcher Technical Community College.

Several of the signs are already up.