Jabez Weeks Of Louisiana

Blight Busting

Http://business.fsjna.org/fight-the-blight/

Jeff Hebert announced that the “Fight the Blight” days are planned to occur quarterly giving participants more time to plan. Mr. Hebert also noted that would give more time for setting up demolitions, for police to tag cars for towing, and identify more partners… especially corporate partnerships. Brook Smith and Westley Bayas will be coordinating with neighborhoods.

While there were fewer people in the audience for this meeting, the room was still mostly full. There were also 3 video cameras, two of which filmed the entire meeting.

Winston Reid noted 1006 inspections for the period from Nov. 29 through Dec. 11. He attributed the large increase to sweeps around schools and work done at the Fight the Blight Day.

Mr. Reid stated that his department is becoming more strategic in their attack on blight noting that he insists on precise and thorough inspections while sustaining a high number of inspections.

Charlie London followed up on last session’s question about the possibility of using the National Guard to help in the fight against blight. It was said last time that the National Guard would be contacted.

Andy Kopplin stated that the National Guard has not yet been contacted but he would be meeting with Colonel Paul Rainwater in a few days and would discuss it with him. Mr. Kopplin stated he was thankful for the follow-up on the issue.

Anne Duplessis stated that the City is still focusing on training City employees to fight blight. It was announced also that consolidated hearings (code & health) began this week.

Kristen Philips announced that the hearings will be moved to the 21st floor of the Amoco Building at 1340 Poydras. There will be 3 days of hearings each week. The goal is to have 225 hearings each week. Currently they have about 175 hearings each week.

Many officials expressed deep gratitude to Maria Goretti Church in New Orleans East for allowing the code enforcement hearings to be held there free-of-charge for years.

Oliver Wise noted the huge increase in conditional guilty judgements. Kristin Philips stated that was due to hearing guidelines being emphasized in training sessions and that Jeff Hebert worked in partnership with Code Enforcement.

Ms. Philips also noted that the hearing officers will change in the next two weeks. The hearing officers lay out specific requirements in conditional judgements which require the property owner to take action or face consequences.

One dozen pre-Revoluntionary War families of eastern North Carolina, and some of their descendants

The Rudolph Matas history of medicine in Louisiana

Lincoln herald

The Encyclopedia Americana, the international reference work

Agricultural history