In response to recent calls for his resignation by Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle, Capital Area Transit System CEO Bob Mirabito released statistics this week intended to prove critics such as Marcelle wrong.
The figures show CATS ridership was up 34% in January, compared to the same month last year, to approximately 51,000 total trips. Meanwhile, fare box collections were up 29% to $145,000, and on-time performance rose 70%—the highest it has been since Mirabito came to the agency in June 2013, he says.
Marcelle held a press conference last week, at which she lambasted Mirabito for being an ineffective leader, mistreating employees and failing to deliver on bus services promised in the 2012 CATS election.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we’ve accomplished,” Mirabito says. “I don’t think that happens with a weak leader. I’ll let the results speak for themselves.”
Mirabito says he believes Marcelle and a group of the transit agency’s union workers are unhappy with him because of changes he implemented heightening accountability of CATS employees. Union workers make up less than 40% of the CATS workforce, he says.
Also this week, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and several other area hospitals announced their plans to deal with the pending closure of Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Mid City emergency room, scheduled for March 31.
Among the measures: The LSU Health Baton Rouge urgent care clinic, which is located on North Foster Drive a mile and a half from the Mid City ER, will increase its hours of operation from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, effective March 23. Also, the LSU Health Baton Rouge North Campus Urgent Care Clinic, a 24-hour facility on Airline Highway near the former Earl K. Long charity hospital, is expanding hours for advanced diagnostic services, including CT and MRI.
Our Lady of the Lake also is expanding access at its other clinics around the city. Additional pediatric coverage is planned for the North Campus Urgent Care facility, and additional hours and same-day appointments have been added to pediatric clinics at the OLOL’s Goodwood location near Mid City.
The announcement comes after DHH officials and CEOs of the four area hospitals that have emergency rooms met earlier this week to map out their strategies to deal with the pending Mid City ER closure.
“We are working on strategies to reduce the nonemergency use of emergency rooms,” she says. “We will continue to meet with community leaders and stakeholders, and will aggressively begin work with the coalition to help inform the public on when, where and how to utilize health care access points in our community,” DHH Secretary Kathy Kliebert says.
Here’s a rundown of other top local stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
- Baton Rouge’s three riverboat casinos collectively won about $23 million from gamblers in January, an 8.6% increase over the casinos’ take in the same month last year.
- In a move company officials say will position the organization to expand its footprint in the growing Chinese automotive market, Chemetall—a business unit of Baton Rouge-based specialty chemical maker Albemarle—announced completion of its acquisition of all shares of its Shanghai Chemetall joint venture.
- Groundbreaking has been set for Wednesday, March 18, for the Baton Rouge Community College’s Automotive Training Center at Ardendale, the urban village the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is helping develop in the former Smiley Heights neighborhood north of Florida Boulevard.
- Secretary of State Tom Schedler says he will be forced to lay off 24 full-time employees and reduce hours at 14 museums under his control to cope with a $930,000 midyear budget cut assigned to his office. In Baton Rouge, Schedler says that means the elimination of nine full-time positions and one part-time job at the Old State Capitol—which will also cut its operations from five to three days per week.
- Speaking to the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy dove into a wide array of local, national and international issues, from the immigration battle to falling oil prices—all of which he said ultimately will affect the local real estate market.
- Denham Springs officials are in discussions with developers who are considering building three hotels in the city—including a 12-story upscale project with a restaurant, conference center and theater or studio. Speaking to the Livingston Board of Realtors this week, Mayor Gerard Landry—in office for less than two months—said he met last week with a developer who wants to spend $70 million to build a 12-story, “five-star” hotel in the community.
- After more than 10 years in operation, Louis DeAngelo’s Casual Italian Dining is closing its restaurant at 7970 Jefferson Highway. Owner Louis DeAngelo, who founded the local pizzeria and Italian chain in 1991, says he decided to close the restaurant because his lease on the building expired late last year and the existing 5,600-square-foot location was no longer working for him.
- While in Baton Rouge to celebrate the recent opening of the new campus of Vanguard College of Cosmetology, John Paul DeJoria—co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and The Patrón Spirits Company—touted the benefits of alone time and philanthropy.
- Local entrepreneur Ned Pearson—whose company, AudioBomb, took off two years ago with the introduction of an inexpensive, collapsible, Bluetooth speaker—is rolling out two new products that won rave reviews at a trade show earlier this year.
- The Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham located at 10311 Plaza Americana Drive, near the intersection of Airline Highway and Interstate 12, has been sold for $2.47 million.
- With a goal of obtaining a 1% share of the lucrative athletic training industry, the latest tenant to join the Louisiana Business and Technology Center at LSU will specialize in developing training apparatus for next-generation athletes. Apex Resistance and Conditioning’s flagship product is a bionic suit that adds resistance to a user’s normal motion.
- A spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific says the company has no immediate plans for 13.8 acres of mostly vacant land near its woodyard and paper mill in Zachary that it has purchased for $490,000. Georgia-Pacific bought the land off Port Hickey Road from William and Mary Cranford.
- A long-anticipated $5 million interior renovation of the French House at LSU is underway and is expected to be completed by the middle of next year. LSU officials say the renovation will bring to fruition a fully modernized campus for the LSU Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College, which has been housed in the 19,000-square-foot building since 1999.
