Plans/Objectives:

"What our parish needs is leadership with the ability to visualize our future while having the drive and desire to get us there. In order to achieve this, we must first accept the problems we currently face. Only then can our solutions become realities."

Objective 1: Concept of One

For our community to be truly successful today and in the future, we must abandon the "me" or "us" mentality and simply replace it with "we". To make this happen, I would implement and promote a parish wide campaign called the "Concept of One."

This campaign brings the parish government, its entities, our town, and all other public and private interests that are located within our community together to work as a team towards one common goal: the ultimate enrichment and betterment of our community. By working, networking and promoting each other in an innovative way will produce a local synergy and a renewed excitement in West Feliciana that will entice new residents and business interests to relocate to our community.

Objective #2: Develop a realistic plan for economic growth to include retail along with industry with the assistance of BRAC and the cooperation of our state officials.

As Parish President, I plan to stay in constant communication with our district's state representatives along with BRAC for large economic opportunities that could locate in our parish; but how many years have we been chasing big industry or that home run? While I believe it is important to keep all doors open, having neither a working railroad nor a feasible port puts our parish at a distinct disadvantage and keeps most industry locating south of Baton Rouge. Furthermore, any new industry will be tax exempt for many years. Early in my career, I learned that a stronger and more stable business base consisted of many small clients, and not just a few large ones. This also applies to an economic base for any municipality. It is evident that West Feliciana has become dependent on only a few industries as our main source for taxes and employment.

We need to broaden our focus on economic growth and stability by looking at opportunities unconventionally, and by creating our own possibilities. The new bridge has opened new markets for our Parish to take advantage of. One unique opportunity is a regional shopping center along the lines of Tanger Mall concept. Using a fifty-five mile distance to Natchez as a radius, there is a lack of shopping opportunity for people not only north but also west and east of our area. Shopping is very select at best within the radius, as shown below, which includes Natchez, Zachary, Marksville, McComb, and even Alexandria. Those cities, along with all the smaller communities between, create a new market. A shopping experience in our beautiful parish would certainly draw from Baton Rouge as well.