Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso Jr. told an Iberville Chamber of Commerce breakfast Monday he would like to run for one more term – if voters approve a proposition lifting the three-term limit on him and the Parish Council.
“I have no problem walking away, but there is still a lot of gas in my tank,” Ourso said.
The issue is the sole item on the ballot of a March 27 election. Early voting starts Saturday.
Ourso left the topic for a question and answer period after a speech on the state of the parish. When no one gave him the opening for it, he provided the cue: “I can't believe nobody asked about term limits.”
“I want to run one more time. I have one more thing to do,” he said, adding he was not ready to unveil the plan yet.
Describing Sheriff Brent Allain as his friend and classmate, Ourso said explicitly that he does not intend to run for sheriff if he is term-limited out of a new race for parish president.
“I want to run again. I think I've been successful,” he said, adding that if voters reject the proposition, “I'm going to find a soft place to land.”
“I don't own the job,” he said. “You own the job. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve.”
Ourso announced the grand opening of the Welcome Center on Bayou Grosse Tete at I-10, an event scheduled for noon Friday, March 19.
“This is the most beautiful building I've ever been involved with,” he said. “It is also the most costly building per square foot I've ever been involved in.”
Equipped with amenities for travelers, such as WiFi, the building is intended to provide a gateway for tourists into the parish.
The parish is rebuilding the Parish Barn, badly hit by Hurricane Gustav, with $1.5 million in federal and insurance funds and $1.5 million of local money, Ourso said.
A $1.6 million state-funded North Iberville community center will get underway once a legal argument with an existing tenant on the land the parish bought for the project is cleared up, he said.
Ourso said he expects a May start of construction on Enterprise Boulevard South, from Bayou Road near the Iberville Parish Jail to Belleview Road at Tenant Road, and said he was talking to people interested in developing projects near Belleview.
All the parish roads have been overlaid or reworked since he took office in 1997, including 80 miles covered by a $17-million road program completed in October, Ourso said.
He said he has “begged and pleaded” with the parish's legislative delegation to find state money to repair two state roads that are in bad condition, La. 1 between Plaquemine and White Castle and for La. 405 (River Road).
He held out little hope for Iberville Parish to get a Mississippi River bridge as part of the Baton Rouge Loop project.
“I'm going to be honest with you,” the parish president said. “I think we're out of the Loop.”
A bridge is important for the parish's development, he said, but “there are too many politics with that Loop committee up there.”
“If you think I'm wrong about that, then don't vote for me no more [sic].”
Ourso said the parish is at a crossroads and needs more than infrastructure to move ahead, including workforce development, a hospital and improvements to the educational system.
At Ourso's request earlier this year, the Parish Council authorized him to explore the parish's buying the former River West Medical Center facility, with the idea that it would be easier for the public body to qualify for hurricane recovery funds to repair the building. If the parish does acquire it, the plans are to lease it to an operating company to operate at no expense to the parish.
“As long as I'm parish president, there will be no tax passed,” he said.
Ourso said architect Jerry Hebert is expected to finish an assessment of building by the end of the month, and Chief Administrative Officer Edward A. “Lucky” Songy Jr. has chosen Chicago firm to appraise the property. The appraisal is expected within 30 days.
He thanked Chamber Executive Director Hank Grace for his hard work to attract SNF to build a plant that will offer well paying jobs here.
“What did all that accomplish...if we don't have qualified people to fill the jobs,” he asked.
Ourso expressed support for Superintendent P. Edward Cancienne Jr., whom he said was hired to turn the school system around.
“We cannot afford to lose this superintendent we have,” he said. “He's taken some hits.”
The parish president said he would seek additional state funding for a new Westside Louisiana Technical College, since the $3.1 million the Legislature allocated does not appear to be enough.
The Iberville Parish School Board had offered land on the Plaquemine High School campus for the new technical college building, but now it appears the school system will have to acquire additional land next to the high school to accommodate it, he said.
