Local Officials Kick Off United Effort for Money

              Local officials kick off
united effort for money
By ROBERT MOORE
Of The Times Staff
Elected officials and adminis-trators
of Caddo Parish governmen-tal
agencies huddled Tuesday in
what they hope is a first step toward
presenting a united front to get con-struction
money from the state Leg-islature.
About a dozen officials attended
the early morning session, which
was sponsored by the Shreveport
Chamber of Commerce, and several
said they were encouraged by the
prospects of better coordination
among governmental agencies in
trying to get capital construction
funds.
Bill Peatross, president of the
chamber, said he was aware of con-fusion
on the part of Caddo Parish
residents during the recent legisla-tive
session over the projects for
which their elected officials were
seeking funding. As a result, he said
he saw a need for improved com-munication
and, if possible, a con-sensus
on major parishwide projects.
Echoing his sentiments, Jeannette
Hotard, head of the chamber's gov-ernment
and transportation depart-ment,
said, "It seemed that greater
benefit for the entire community
could be obtained if each got togeth-er
beforehand, discussed needs and
set up priorities."
The talks were kicked off just over
a month ahead of the expected Nov.
2 start of a special legislative session
where efforts will be made to reap-portion
legislative, congressional
and Public Service Commission dis-tricts.
Gov. David Treen has said he
might also charge the legislators to
decide how they will spend the $250
million expected to accrue into the
"Louisiana Investment for En-richment"
fund. He has recom-mended
that the money, which will
be derived from a windfall of taxes
due to oil price deregulation, be used
for capital construction projects
across the state.
The Caddo Parish meeting also
preceded by a month the Nov. 1
deadline set by state law for agen-cies
and organizations to submit con-struction
funding requests for the
1982 state capital outlay bill.
Among the agencies represented
at Tuesday's meeting were the city
of Shreveport, the Caddo Parish
School Board, the Caddo Parish Po-lice
Jury, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's
Department, the Shreveport Down-town
Development Authority, the
Caddo-Shreveport Metropolitan
Planning Commission, the chamber,
LSUS and Southern University
Shreveport-Bossier City. Other agen-cies
invited but not represented were
the Caddo Parish District Attorney's
office, Centenary College and the
LSU Medical Center.
Peatross said he hopes that in a
meeting planned next week the of-ficials
can come to a consensus on
some of the major construction
projects parishwide that draw
strong support. These projects would
then be touted to the Caddo Parish
delegation as well as to the entire
Legislature in a unified lobbying
effort in Baton Rouge.
Caddo Parish Sheriff Don Hath-away,
who said he would like to see a
new parish jail and criminal justice
complex built, favored the idea,
saying it would be a way to "educate
ourselves on each other's projects."
Shreveport Mayor Bill Hanna,
who favors additional riverfront im-provements
and rehabilitation of.
Shreve Memorial Library, agreed,
saying, "It's something I believe in
constantly — that's communication
between government entities."
Caddo Parish Superintendent of
Schools Walter Lee, who is looking
for funds to build a new elementary-junior
high school to satisfy a de-segregation
consent decree, cau-tioned
that "this cooperative effort
is not necessarily going to bring total
agreement or total unity." But he
said he thinks it will help "put our
entire area in a little stronger posi-tion
in lobbying for state dollars."