After kicking several significant issues down the road in recent months, the Metro Council got down to business on Tuesday evening during its regular meeting—which followed a special budget hearing Monday evening—approving a neighborhood annexation, a Complete Streets policy to guide future roadway development, and new Capital Area Transit System routes and creating a committee to review applicants for the vacant parish attorney position.
Also this week, ClearEdge Wholesale Glass announced it’s moving operations from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and will spend $2.65 million to renovate a 41,000-square-foot facility here for manufacturing operations.
ClearEdge, which began operations in New Orleans in 2009, says about 20 employees will be moving to Baton Rouge as part of the relocation. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the company’s move will create 120 more new direct jobs in Baton Rouge, as well as 113 new indirect jobs.
And while many airports around the country will be packed with holiday travelers over the next few days, the Baton Rouge Metro Airport only expects a modest uptick in travelers. An estimated 8,000 people are expected to fly in and out of the airport between Wednesday and Sunday, the peak travel days of the Thanksgiving weekend. Those figures are between 1% and 2% lower than the number of people who passed through the airport last Thanksgiving, but airport spokesman Jim Caldwell says once travel has been completed and final data is tabulated the numbers should be comparable.
Other stories making headlines in Daily Report this week include:
— Some of the major industrial projects fueling Louisiana’s expected economic boom could be at risk if the price of oil continues to fall, says economist Loren Scott, including one of the largest in the pipeline: Sasol Ltd.’s gas-to-liquids complex outside Lake Charles that alone could represent as much as a $22 billion investment. “The main thing is the Sasol [gas-to-liquid] plant. That’s more and more in jeopardy as the price falls,” Scott says.
— With the televised announcement on Wednesday morning of the recipient of the Community Cares $50,000 Home Remodel Giveaway, Homebuyer Discounts—a local startup with a unique concept—is celebrating its first successful charitable campaign and hoping the promotion will help further the company’s continued growth.
— As early as next spring developers eyeing projects along the Government Street corridor could be subject to new zoning codes that aim to more efficiently implement and convey regulations, according to city-parish Planning Director Frank Duke. Duke is championing a revamp of the city-parish zoning code that would clean up the language of 13 special design districts and would create new rules governing five levels of city density, from urban to rural.
—Five Latin American entrepreneurs will travel to Baton Rouge to learn how to do business in America at the Louisiana Business & Technology Center at LSU. The LBTC has been selected to participate in a mentoring program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Five entrepreneurs will be selected over the coming month to participate in the program at LSU’s incubator.
— During his appearance at the Baton Rouge Press Club this week, Former Gov. Edwin Edwards was in attack mode, taking full advantage of the absence of his Republican challenger in the 6th Congressional District runoff, Garret Graves. Edwards charged, among other things, that Graves wrongfully attempted to undermine a New Orleans area levee board lawsuit against oil and gas companies, contracted with his father’s engineering firm for state work while leading Louisiana’s coastal policy department, and did not graduate from college.
— Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel is optimistic voters will approve the proposed reorganization of the Department of Public Works, which is on the Dec. 6 ballot. Still, he and consultants who have worked with the city-parish on the reorganization plan for the past two years are making the rounds to editorial boards and community gatherings in an attempt to spread the word before the election that the new plan will streamline the unwieldy department and make it more efficient and effective.
— Also this week, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister Jr. announced his endorsements for candidates and judges in the Dec. 6 election, and he also says East Baton Rouge Parish voters should approve the proposed reorganization of the Department of Public Works.
