In an effort to consolidate his offices, parish president V.J. St. Pierre plans to renovate the third floor of the courthouse to create more space for both him and his executive staff.
Money in the budget to begin the project totals $1.8 million, and while that amount will start the project, it’s too early to tell how much money will have to be spent to complete it.
“We know that everything up here is made of steel,” Tim Vial, chief administrative officer for the parish, said. “It was once used as the parish jail, so all of that steel has to be blow torched, and this won’t be done overnight.”
Vial says some departments, like the district attorney’s office, are overcrowded and could definitely benefit from the renovations.
“We haven’t determined exactly who will be using the other offices that are currently being used by the parish administration,” he said. “But we do know it will free up some space so they can look at some other options as far as housing employees.”
Vial says the area is now being used by the different departments to store documents.
“We’ve got a lot of departments using the different cells for storage,” he said.
Tab Troxler, director of emergency preparedness, is overseeing the project and he says it shouldn’t take longer than 18 months to get things renovated. Currently, the Sheriff’s Department is using part of the space on the third floor. The area is no longer used to house inmates.
“We meet daily for briefings and executive sessions with Mr. St. Pierre and this has been the main topic of discussion,” Troxler said. “We want to have the renovations complete in a relatively short amount of time. The money is already in the budget.”
Troxler says the parish is now in the process of securing an architect and an engineering firm to do the design, and then they can begin to seek bids for the project.
“Right now, we’ve got $1.8 million in the budget to begin to make the upgrades and changes,” he said. “We’re looking at using the 15 to 20,000-square-feet of space where the jail used to be housed on the third floor.”
Troxler says this shouldn’t impact or affect any of the other offices.
“Sheriff (Greg) Champagne’s office is on that floor and we don’t intend on disrupting his department in any way to get these renovations accomplished,” he said.
The courthouse was built in 1976 and Troxler says upgrades are needed.
“When we redo the third floor, we will move the information and technology department up there, and we will have a digital database set up so that we can store information,” he said.
Troxler also says this is important because of storms like Hurricane Katrina.
“With the digital data base format created, we won’t risk losing valuable information and it will be easily accessible this way,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have a system like that in place.”
Troxler says the executive secretary, the parish president’s office and a few other executive staff members will be relocated to the third floor of the courthouse once the work is complete.
“I’m not sure at this point who else will be moving, but I definitely know that we are gearing up to make the changes and they’ll come sooner rather than later this year,” he said.
Troxler is still looking at options to get a new Emergency Preparedness Office built and moved out of its current location, the basement of the courthouse.
“The Emergency Operations Center office is located in the basement and definitely needs to be upgraded,” he said. “I’ve been looking into some funding to build an EOC office separate and apart from the courthouse where we are currently housed, but at this point I haven’t received any funding to begin this project.”
Troxler says building a new emergency center for the parish will take between three to four years.
“We do know it’s something that needs to get done, but right now we’re focusing on the current project,” he said. “We’re prioritizing what needs to be done when.”
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