Top 10 in 2013 – News
January 1, 2014
Top 10 in 2013 – Sports
January 1, 2014
Listed are some of the stories that kept the Tri-Parish Times’ newsroom on the run in 2013.
An 11th hour save keeps TEDA’s hope alive
Terrebonne Parish’s legislatively-created economic development agency had a roller coaster year in 2013. The agency said goodbye to its Executive Director Steve Vassallo, who resigned amidst rumors Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet intended to rescind TEDA’s operating budget. After moving TEDA’s chief duties to the parish’s Planning and Zoning Department, Claudet issued a letter to TEDA members seeking the return of the agency’s remaining budget. However, in an 11th hour move, Claudet told members he is willing to aid a restructure of TEDA. Just as a board committee gathered to talk about the potential of severance pay for its office staff , Claudet suggested the board relocate to the Government Tower building in Houma and that the organization be revised and reconstructed. Afterward, funding would be returned to the agency. Claudet said the parish intends to hire its own economic development chief. The parish’s long-standing cooperative endeavor agreement with TEDA expires in February. The full TEDA board meets next Wednesday, at which time the committee’s recommendations will be presented.
Work begins on Fletcher’s BP IPT facility
Work is in full gear at Fletcher Technical Community College on its new BP Integrated Production Technologies building. The tech school is readying to train the next generation of deep-water oil and natural gas workers in preparation of what is being called “the Great Crew Change.”
“In the next few years, 40 percent of the oil-and-gas industry’s workers will be retiring,” BP North America Vice President Crystal Ashby said earlier this year at the groundbreaking ceremony. “With this new building, we will have a better educated and more highly trained workforce than ever before.”
The 29,999-square-foot building, located at the college’s Schriever campus just north of BP’s Houma Operations Learning Center, is scheduled to be complete this month. It includes 10 classrooms, a 3,200-square foot laboratory and four offices.
Weimer Gros and Crump Wilson Architects of Thibodaux designed the facility, and JF Juge Construction Company of Prairieville is building it. The total cost, half of which is being donated by BP, is $8 million. The remainder will be generated from a cash line-of credit match approved by the Louisiana State Bond Commission.
The land on which the facility is being built was purchased with a $2.7 million Community Development Block Grant committed in 2009 by the Jindal administration.
TRMC unveils $63M wellness center
Thibodaux Regional Medical Center unveiled plans to build a $63 million, 200,000-square-foot wellness center earlier this year.
CEO Greg Stock said it was part of the hospital’s mission to keep the region healthy. “We need to focus on adult health issues like obesity, heart disease and diabetes,” he said.
The new facility, expected to open in the summer of 2015, will be located at the corner of Bowie and North Acadia roads. It will feature medically-supervised fitness programs, state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, the latest in ultrasound technology, an eight-lane competition pool, conference center and an education center for diabetes, nutrition and health management.
“The center will also offer a sports medicine element,” Stock said. “We need to monitor the health of athletes, and we help to serve the 10-to-12 areas high schools. We will look at the effects of dehydration and conduct concussion testing.”
Stock said the center is expected to have a $300 million impact on the area, generating about $6 million annually in payroll for its estimated employees.
Seafood icon Mike Voisin dies
Community activist and seafood businessman Mike Voisin’s death after a sudden onset of a heart condition shocked many.
As a member of the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife Commission, founding member of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board and CEO of Motivatit Seafood, the pioneering oyster company he directed for many years, Voisin made an indelible mark on the industry he embraced and loved. His civic involvement also made a huge difference in Terrebonne Parish, where he served on the governing board of the hospital where his life ended, and where his stewardship of the Chamber of Commerce led to the consolidation of Terrebonne Parish government.
He was a former chairman of the National Fisheries Institute, the Louisiana Oyster Dealers and Growers Association, Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation, Southeastern Fisheries Association, Louisiana Seafood Processors Council, Gulf Oyster Industry Council and the Louisiana Oyster Task Force.
Chevron lands in Galliano
Chevron announced it’s spending $29 million to move its Gulf of Mexico airbase facility from its home in Leeville to the Galliano-based airport.
Once complete, the oil conglomerate said close to 6,000 workers will be able to be transported into and out of the Gulf of Mexico each month. The new facility will also allow the company the ability to bring workers home quicker in the event of special circumstances like a hurricane or other unexpected events. The base is slated to open this year.
HT Chamber president resigns
The president and CEO of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce resigned his post after roughly six months as the chamber’s top executive.
Suzanne Carlos, a Terrebonne Parish native, was subsequently named president and CEO of
the organization, which represents more than 900 members.
Carlos previously worked as a project director for the Lafourche Parish School District. She replaces Gordon Crow, a former Idaho state senator whom was tabbed by a seven-person, in-house search committee in late February after a three-month search. The chamber accepted applications throughout the nation in its hunt to replace Drake Pothier, who resigned in 2012 to go into private insurance work.
“I am thankful to have been brought to this area that we have fallen in love with,” Crow said in a printed statement that did not detail the reason for his departure. “I am confident the chamber will continue to serve business and our community.”
