[StBernard] President's Report by St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro, Jr. issued at the June 15, 2010 Parish Council meeting

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Sat Jun 19 18:51:43 EDT 2010


President's Report by St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro, Jr.
issued at the June 15, 2010 Parish Council meeting





Dear Council members, Ladies, and Gentlemen,



Today marks day 56 in the Horizon Deepwater Oil Spill disaster. Over the
last several weeks, we have seen many scenarios and trajectories unfold-
some have been more accurate than others. What has remained consistent in
this disaster situation is the continued presence of oil being released into
the Gulf waters. Currently, the estimated amount of oil being captured is
nearly 16,000 barrels a day with a continued amount not being captured. Oil
impacts now stretch from Florida to Western Louisiana. St. Bernard
continues to be somewhat more fortunate than our Louisiana neighbors to our
west in that we have experienced approximately 1.5 miles of oil landfall
which has primarily been on our island masses, specifically Brush Island,
Free Mason Island, and parts of the Chandeleurs as well as a few land
points. There has been approximately 250 bbls (over 10,000 gallons) of oil
picked up in the outer waters of St. Bernard to date. As long as the leak
continues, the threat to St. Bernard will be real and heightened. Our
planned response to the presence of oil is multi-faceted and involves both
offensive and defensive strategies. The offensive strategies include
vigilant reconnaissance by boat as well as air operations. We are currently
conducting four recon flights a day and have requested an additional air
asset to produce real time photos and video recon that can be used along the
Mississippi and Louisiana on shore and off shore areas. Additionally, our
offensive strategies include test trawling and crab-trap booming. While we
have some skimming assets within our command, we continue to reach for
additional assets in order to adequately implement our plan. The defensive
aspects of our plan include the deployment of hard and soft booming
operations. Hard boom has been deployed throughout the St. Bernard
boundaries and we have officially begun booming operations in our adjacent
Plaquemines Parish waters as well. Our local fishing fleet along with the
Oil Spill Response Organizations have deployed some 50 miles of hard boom
and another 30 miles of soft boom. We have a staged another 25 miles of
hard boom to be deployed in some of the more high maintenance areas as the
appropriate time as well as thousands of feet of pom pom and absorbent boom
as a matter of inland response, should the need arrive. The Chandeleur
Island berm project for St. Bernard is underway on the northern portion of
the island and the design for internal sand dams is nearly complete.



The current workforce at Breton Sound is averaging around 1200 including the
local commercial fishing fleet which has recently been folded into the USES
ranks. The assignment based rotations are evolving into specific tasks that
will allow more work time for many of our fishermen but the least amount of
work will be 12 days per month per vessel. Several vessels are being
converted for specific skimming operations which will pull them out of their
ability to actually fish.



The financial impact of the oil spill continues to be calculated on both the
revenues and loss category. BP has advanced the administrative funding for
the disaster at one million dollars which has been used for some coverage in
fishing fleet payments but will now be freed for greater administrative
coverage of employees, support activities, and materials and supplies.
Additionally, there is approximately a burn rate of 5 - 10 million dollars
per week to date within the St. Bernard Branch of operations by BP. Just
over 2.5 million dollars have been paid in claims and we should top 4.5
million dollars in work related payments to the local fishing fleet by next
week.



The opportunity to use local vendors and suppliers has been a priority and
several businesses have been utilized to this point with more referrals
being made every week to BP. As you are aware, Camp Hope is undergoing a
major face lift as part of BP's anticipation to use the facility as a camp
for oil spill response workers. The volunteers are being accommodated at
the Marina Motel and will return to a vastly improved facility in hopefully
just a few months.



There continues to be a growing impact from this oil spill and the
difficulty of keeping an interest and support of the local economy through
fishing, tourism, and the restaurant industry has been challenging. At the
local level, we will be asking our local restaurants to feature local
seafood as a featured item each week in an effort to promote the Louisiana
Seafood industry. The governor's new testing and marketing proposal to BP
will certainly go a long way to asssit with this effort.



An added need in the overall response to the oil spill crisis is the very
real effects of the moratorium on the exploratory wells in the Louisiana
waters. President Randolph in Lafourche Parish, President Claudet in
Terrebone Parish and President Nungesser in Plaquemines Parish all fear the
severe impacts to these wells being put out of operation. Today we will
consider a resolution asking for a reconsideration of the moratorium and I
ask that all council members please support our neighbors in opposing the
moratorium. While much of our oil and gas impact is on shore activity, it
is estimated that between almost tem percent of our population is impacted
by the off shore exploratory moratorium.



In other areas of operations, we continue to see positive growth in our
local sales tax revenue and the overall forecast is appearing to be
conservatively optimistic. The forecast does not include the obvious
financial impact of the commercial fishing and seafood down turn to this
point. We will monitor closely the financial support provided to our
fishermen and businesses affected by the oil spill to determine if our
positive growth will be neutralized by the negative impact of the spill.



Val Riess Phase I officially opened this past weekend with over 800
participants making use of the new facility. Overflow parking was made
available through the use of LLT properties on Volpe Dr. and the early
attendance numbers are encouraging to make the facility a self-sufficient
operation. Phase II is about 70% complete with two fields being usable for
practice now and the full use of the facility being planned for several end
of the season tournaments. The Adult mixed league cabbage ball league is
set to start up this week at Val Riess as well and will round out a full
plate of scheduled activities for almost a seven day a week use of the
facilities.



Additionally, it is with certain sadness that I announce that our legal
counsel, Mr. Mike Gorbaty has accepted a non-to-oft opportunity to join the
Office of the District Attorney. While Mr. Gorbaty and his dedication and
leadership will be missed, we certainly support his aspirations to join an
office that he has long wanted an opportunity to be a part of and wish him
well in his future professional and political aspirations. Mike has been a
true team player and we thank him for his service and dedication to the
people of St. Bernard Parish and to the colleagues of St. Bernard Parish
Government.



Our department recognition today focuses on the Mosquito Control Department.
Often driving and coordinating the flights of protection, these guys are
always quick to respond. Even in a strained budget, the mosquito control
team will often extend beyond their regular duties to assist in any way they
can. Recently, the department took on assisting both added protection for
the crews involved in the levee building projects as well as the oil spill
response areas in the eastern end of the parish. Special recognition today
is afforded to Mr. Will Schulte for his 44 years of dedicated service to St.
Bernard Parish Government. Mr. Schulte will be retiring this week and his
service will certainly be missed.





Respectfully submitted,

Craig P. Taffaro, Jr.

Parish President












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