After word came down early this week from the East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters that the St. George incorporation effort is nearly 2,700 signatures short of the 17,859 needed to bring the measure to a vote of the people, a spokesman for the effort told Daily Report he’s optimistic supporters will be able to collect the necessary signatures within the legally prescribed 60 days.
“The volunteers and people involved are fired up and ready to get it finished, and we’re hoping to get a lot of people on the fence excited,” says Lionel Rainey, a St. George spokesman. “We feel confident we’ll be able to get this done and get above and beyond what we need and put this thing on the (fall) ballot.”
The Registrar of Voters office says the petition, submitted last July, fell 2,694 signatures short of the total needed. In the months since it was submitted, however, Rainey says volunteers have collected some 1,500 signatures and that they now only need about 1,200 more. But attorney Mary Olive Pierson, who represents the city in a series of legal issues related to the incorporation, says the signature shortage is proof that support for the St. George movement is waning.
Also this week, Baton Rouge General Medical Center officially closed the doors of its emergency room at its Mid City campus and turned its attention toward transitioning employees to its Bluebonnet Boulevard facility.
“Over the coming days, employees and physicians housed at the Mid City ER will transition to the Bluebonnet campus. In addition, a logistics team has been established to assess equipment, medications and supplies and to recirculate to other areas of the health system,” the hospital says.
Read the complete Daily Report Week in Review for a full recap of the top stories making headlines this week.
—Steve Sanoski
