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Dear Members,
PABI’s mission is to provide private sector leadership to advance the quality of life in Plaquemines Parish. The past leadership of PABI has been extremely effective in positioning our area for incredible opportunity and, as your new chairman I stand ready to continue the vision for a prosperous future for all.
Our travels to neighboring parishes, Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C. have afforded us the ability to showcase our resources and position Plaquemines Parish, particularly Venice, as the ultimate gateway to the riches of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to partner with Plaquemines to study the feasibility of deepening the Baptiste Collette waterway from its current 16 feet to the 27 feet depth required to make it a viable route for larger ships. The parish’s state and federal delegations and Governor Jindal back this project, in addition to another issue important to Plaquemines: rebuilding the wetlands to act as a hurricane shield, which will lower the elevations to which residents will have to raise their homes. The plan, championed by Parish President Billy Nungesser, will be funded by the parish’s oil and gas revenues.
We continue to promote the Peters Road bypass to provide an industrial corridor linking Peters Road and Engineers Road with Venice. This will remove heavy industrial traffic from the heart of Belle Chasse and provide an alternate route for anyone traveling from the Westbank to South Plaquemines.
PABI will also continue to explore avenues within the tourism industry and how that will benefit our charter fishing industry….the 3rd largest fishing destination in the country!
In an effort to make PABI more visible locally, our new headquarters in Belle Chasse, at 8207 Kimble, fronts Belle Chasse Highway. Here we continue to stand ready to partner with private and government agencies to provide prosperity in Plaquemines Parish.
Sincerely,
David Pavlovich
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