Algiers meeting tonight will focus on Crescent City Connection tolls and ferries
So some neighbors and I went to this meeting last night. The “sunset” of the tolls was discussed along with how everything like the CCC police, landscaping, maintenance and the ferries are going to be paid for after.
The nagging feeling I had was that most Algiers residents were going to show up because they love the ferry and don’t want to lose it. So, as a way of helping us Algerines out, and because of the public outcry over the lose of the ferries, La DOTD needs to get the tolls extended. So this meeting and the others like it are merely a way to get enough outcry going to get a vote.
The questions from the attendees was done very poorly. Cards were handed out and people wrote their questions on them. Put them in a basket and they were then sort-of read aloud to David Heitmeier, Jeff Arnold, Kristin Palmer and Sherri LeBas and company. Not sure if that’s the best way to handle a Town Hall. Let the people get up there and say it in their own words and in their own way so no one is misunderstood. That way, people won’t have to holler from their seats when the person reading the question rephrases it or the question isn’t really answered. That actually happened a few times.
What came up several times is the use of CCC tolls to fund the project on LA 1 in Leesville, slated to be the second-longest bridge in Louisiana after the Causeway. There was some shared use and they were all sorry about it.
I’m not exactly sure of how the ferries were lumped into the CCCD to begin with but it seems like someone’s clever decision to pay for them in the past has now started to catch up to them with the sunset of the tolls.
I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say the tolls are going to be extended.