The first in a series of implementation strategies to improve the quality of life in Jefferson Parish was released today at a meeting of government, business and community leaders.
Comprehensive flood protection is the focus of the first strategy. In early June, JEDCO and the Steering Committee of the Jefferson EDGE 2010, Jefferson Parish’s economic development strategic plan, conducted an in-depth strategic review of economic and demographic trends that have been occurring in the parish long before the hurricanes of 2005. These trends are being driven by quality of life issues which in turn affect the economic development climate in Jefferson. In addition to economic development, seven (7) issues will now become the focus of Jefferson Parish’s economic development plan through the year 2020. Strategies to address flood protection, crime, insurance, education, beautification, hospitals, and the redevelopment of Fat City are being prepared with an action agenda that the community as a whole can support.
A strike force of local flood protection and drainage experts, headed by Tim Whitmer, the Parish’s Chief Administrative Assistant, working with JEDCO and GCR & Associates, developed the comprehensive implementation strategy, a specific set of action items, dealing with flood protection. The strategy addresses the “external” flood control system of levees and surge control structures and the “internal” system of canals and pumps. Both systems rely on different combinations of funding mechanisms and implementing agencies. Furthermore, the strategy describes improvements that have been made to the external and internal flood control systems, the enhancements that are underway, and the specific policies that must be undertaken in the short-term to build an even higher level of flood protection in Jefferson Parish.
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