ish ar rt o P po Cadd Re ual 2007 Ann President’sHighlights Messageof 2007 Sometimes a year can seem longer than a year. 2006 due in part to his resolve to open lines of communication with all the agencies And sometimes a year is longer than a year. and people that the Caddo Parish Commission serves and with which it interacts. By definition, that includes everyone in the Parish. Both of those possibilities applied to my ‘year’ as President of the Caddo Parish Commission But Woody’s vision extended beyond the borders of Caddo Parish: he, like numerous during 2006-2007. others, sees that the issues confronting Caddo Parish and Shreveport are in fact regional concerns. The clear reality is that Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Bossier City and My term as president began a couple of months Bossier Parish, which together form the population and commerce center for a large ahead of schedule in late 2006 in the midst area of three states, will be the driving force behind any regional initiatives affecting of and as the result of a period of change all within the area. Both problems and opportunities lie ahead for the region; by concerning several local elected officials. Three working together, the problems can be minimized and the opportunities maximized. Parish Commissioners, including then-President Ron Webb, moved over to seats on the Shreveport Examples: Water is a thing that many of us have largely taken for granted through City Council in the fall elections, causing me to the years. We are surrounded by water in our lakes and rivers and bayous. Yet the Carl A. Pierson move up from Vice President to President. warning signs are already flashing, signaling that in years ahead good, usable water may 2007 Commission President well be a scarce commodity that will influence many of our everyday decisions. Some The three vacancies left on the Commission by of our communities are already experiencing problems with safe drinking water. the departing new Council members were filled by Sam Jenkins, replacing Joyce Bowman in District 5; former Commissioner John Escude, replacing Michael Long, and Jim Smith Solving future water needs—perhaps through a Parish-wide or even regional replacing Ron Webb. They joined new Commissioner Doug Dominick, who had earlier utilities district—is a component of another common regional consideration: replaced Jim Morris in District 1 when Jim won the State Legislature seat vacated by the death economic development. New businesses and industries contemplating establishing of Roy ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins, former Commissioner and 18-year State representative. themselves here will require dependable water sources. So will the residential developments that will accompany new business growth. Thus was begun my second tenure as President of the Commission. This term was punctuated by a number of noteworthy events and accomplishments in which I was It is exciting to think of the possibilities that exist for this area, particularly for the next honored to be a participant. generation of citizens. A common-sense evaluation of known factors tells us that there will be growth: Interstate 49 is getting closer to completion; when that happens Of those, I can think of none that is more historic and significant in its occurrence, or that holds there will be connection from New Orleans to Kansas City. Interstate 69 is still nothing more potential for future reward, than the strides that were made in bringing local and area more than lines on a map, but much effort and headway is being made to make it a government bodies and individuals together for the purpose of talking about matters of part of the actual landscape. When completed, the highway will stretch from the Canadian concern to us all. We share a common geography, so we inevitably share many of the same border to the Mexican border, creating what is being called a “NAFTA Superhighway”. problems and needs: water, infrastructure, economic development, housing being but a few. In conjunction with Interstate 20, these new commerce lanes will position this area In December of 2007 the Caddo Parish Commission and the Shreveport City Council as one of the major traffic hubs in the South. In conjunction with the Caddo-Bossier met in an unprecedented joint session, attended also by members of the Caddo Port—which is growing exponentially with the addition of new major industries to Parish School Board and other agencies and entities. The main purpose of that the Port Industrial Park—this area will be able to serve any transportation demands meeting was to ensure that there will be future meetings—to begin, establish and placed upon it by the hoped-for economic growth that is expected to result from maintain a process whereby the governing bodies can work toward common goals the fortuitous convergence of preparation and opportunity that many foresee here. and needs, rather than each moving in different—or opposite—directions and addressing different and sometimes contradictory imperatives. One prime example of preparation and opportunity coming together concerns a concept that few could even envision just a few short years ago, most of us had This concept—that the Parish Commission, the City Council and the School never heard of until recently, and that few even now comprehend. That concept Board should all be talking to each other and planning common and compatible is “cyberspace”. It pertains to the various ranges of physical (as in ‘physics’) strategies—is such a simple, basic and common-sense step that it is difficult to activity that occurs within the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from low explain why it had not been done long before. frequency waves up through high frequency, ultra high frequency, infrared, visible light, ultra violet, gamma and others—or so I’ve been told. Cyberspace is not Much if not most of the credit for bringing City and Parish people to the table should about computers, though computers are obviously one of the more valuable tools go to Commission Administrator Woodrow ‘Woody’ Wilson. He won that position in to access this environment. 2 Whatever it means, the military has identified cyberspace as a new warfare In 2007 Caddo Parish followed the lead of Bossier Parish in retaining the services of a domain, like land, air and sea, and a highly critical factor in our nation’s defense. federal lobbyist. The same lobbyist works for both parishes, giving us a unified voice and a Cyberspace is the element in which we communicate and in which the military cohesive plan when seeking federal funding for such issues as water resources, highways, operates its weapons systems, so we must be able to utilize and monitor and etc. We have already seen results from this effort, and we anticipate more to come. Similarly, master cyberspace in order to control our defense and our fate. we have worked to strengthen our relationships with our State legislative delegation and other state-level officials to ensure that both this Parish and this region are heard in Baton Rouge. Our own Barksdale Air Force Base has been singled out by the Defense Department and the Air Force to lead the way in cyber defense, creating at Barksdale the Cyber The year 2007 was fruitful and productive in other ways also. In May the voters Defense Command. It is a provisional command at present, but it may ultimately approved three propositions that authorized us to re-allocate tax revenues that we be located—in whole or in part—at Barksdale permanently. were already receiving, allowing us to use them in other places where they were needed most. As a result we now have more flexibility in using some $30 million in bond proceeds The importance of Cyber Command to this area is that it promises to create here to pay for capital projects up front, and not piecemeal. It also allows us to divert funds not just some new jobs, but an entirely new economy based on knowledge, science to share up the operational budget of the Juvenile Justice System, whose 1957 tax base and technology. That process has already begun, and it is not waiting for an is in 2008 far too inadequate to deal with modern juvenile behavioral issues. announcement by the Air Force about a permanent home for the Cyber Command. The technology elements that will support the Cyber Command are already being During the year several changes were implemented at the Animal and Mosquito developed here; a Cyber Innovation Center that will form the nucleus of an ever- Control Department. These, in conjunction with new animal control laws implemented expanding research park is already on the drawing boards in Bossier City. the previous year, bolstered by the involvement of private capital and citizen volunteers in an accelerated spay-neuter program, and impelled by a management commitment The leaders of this process envision a research park that may someday occupy to excellence, are making strides toward a goal of quality service and accountability 3,000 or more acres; that will employ 75,000-plus highly-educated, well-paid in the operation of that important department. people. Their work and research and innovations will benefit not only the military, but they will also spawn the creation of new products, new materials, new The close of 2007 saw more change in the Commission body itself, with some processes that fuel the development of new industries here and in other locales. Commissioners being unable to run for another term because of term limits, and others choosing to run for seats at the State level. The fall elections saw Matthew This potential is enormous and far-reaching. It is also a reason we must be ready Linn succeeding Gilford ‘Gif’ Gillen in District 4; Herschel Brown succeeding Lindora as a community, a parish, a region, to embrace the possibilities and prepare for them Baker in District 6; Mike Thibodeaux succeeding Bob Brown in District 9, and former The City, the Parish, Bossier City and Parish, and the smaller towns in our two Commissioner Ken Epperson replacing Clifford Collins in District 12.