- Perhaps the most significant change in decades to Harahan's landscape comes before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday. It's he potential resubdivision and rezoning of the former Colonial Golf and Country Club, one of the largest green spaces on the east bank of Jefferson Parish.
- Jefferson Parish Council members thought the latest pricetag for the Jefferson Performing Arts Center, $54.5 million, would complete the budget-busting, schedule-shredding building. But no. Ben Myers reports that the figure does not include telecommunications wiring (estimated at $200,000) and security equipment (cost unknown).
- A new non-profit, Fat City Friends Inc., is working with the Regional Planning Commission on whether to add pedestrian lighting, new landscaping, bicycle lanes and widened sidewalks with furniture on Severn Avenue in Metairie. Jefferson Parish officials also have requested drainage improvements alongside the pedestrian-focused cosmetic changes.
- Kenner officials turned up for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting Wednesday at the new Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy. The charter school opened Aug. 15.
- The Jefferson Parish Planning Advisory Board has three cases on its agenda when it meets Thursday at 5 p.m. in Elmwood. All three are from West Jefferson.
- The Lafreniere Park Advisory Board convenes Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Foundation Center in the Metairie park. Among the topics on the agenda is a progress report on the Al Copeland performance stage.
- Attorneys for Jefferson Parish property owners whose homes and businesses flooded during Hurricane Katrina paint former Parish President Aaron Broussard as an ineffective leader during the crisis, out of touch with the emergency operations plan that called for drainage pump operators to evacuate the day before the storm hit. As such, the attorneys allege in new court filings, a judge should rule that Broussard's "uninvolved behavior" amounts to "willful and wanton misconduct."
- Raylyn Beevers plans to take her seat on the 2nd Parish Court bench on Thursday. The former Gretna City Council member is closing out matters in her private law firm and getting up to speed on the docket over which she will preside.
- The Jefferson School Board, in an effort to raise student achievement and lower the dropout rate in middle school, approved a pilot partnership between Riverdale Middle and Riverdale High schools in Old Jefferson. The board also agreed to let principals use their school money to create an academic dean position.
