Good Growth Awards skip 2011, will return in 2012

The Baton Rouge Growth Coalition plans to skip holding its annual Good Growth awards this spring, but will hold the event in 2012. Scott Bardwell, who was recently named executive director of the growth coalition, says because 2010 was a slow year for construction, the decision was made to postpone the event. The awards, which honor commercial and residential development projects that are good neighbors, have been held the last 14 years. “We want to maintain the integrity of the awards,” Bardwell says. Nominations for the awards will be accepted all year long through the growth coalition website, which will allow the event to come back strong in spring 2012. In lieu of the growth awards, Bardwell says, the coalition will sponsor an educational program on the evening of March 30 with David Altig, director of research with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. —Timothy Boone