Ok, I am a glutton for punishment.
In August when Mayor Perkins announced he would have town hall bond meetings, I decided to attend them. ALL of them.
Little did I know at there would be nine meetings.
My parade through Shreveport---all parts of Shreveport—started on Aug. 22 at the Southern Hills Community Center. The last stop was Southfield School at a meeting of the Historic South Highlands Association.
All together there were 9 of the these meetings. Seven were at community centers. Along with Southfield School, a meeting was held at the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church for the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association.
The in-between presentations were made at SPAR community centers: Marie Hicks; Valencia; Airport Park; A.B. Palmer; Billbery, and Bill Cockrell for the West Shreveport Alliance.
All the meeting were well attended. The mayor, his CAO Sherricka Fields-Jones, department heads and SPD Chief Ben Raymond and SFD Chief Scott Wolverton were all in attendance, along with SPORTRAN director Dinero Washington.
The meetings were very informative—even for me after listening to the bond presentation to the city council and studying the bond information online at the city’s website(shreveportla.gov).
I must admit that I had never—as in NEVER—been in a SPAR community center before starting my town hall tour. I learned that SPAR has 16 of these centers scattered throughout the city. And that these are great community resources for organized sport activities, computer labs, workout facilities, meeting rooms and activity areas for people of all ages.
I also learned that SPAR does NOT stand for Shreveport Parks and Recreation. It is an acronym for Shreveport Parks, Assemblies and Recreation. The city has more than 8 million square feet of buildings that are managed by the department. Yes—the city is one of the largest building owners in Shreveport.
The community centers are major quality of life features of our city. Unfortunately, WalletHub and other national rating organizations rarely consider this fact. And that is one of the reasons that Shreveport often does not grade out well.
Councilmembers who supported the bond propositions were in attendance at one or more of these meetings—Jerry Bowman JR, James Flurry, Willie Bradford, and James Green.
To his credit, Grayson Boucher made an appearance at A.B. Palmer---coming late and leaving early. Boucher along with council members Levette Fuller and John Nickelson opposed putting the bond propositions on the Nov. 16 ballot.
Fuller’s absence from the Valencia meeting was a topic of conversation among those in attendance. Nickelson’s absence from the last meeting at Southfield School was also mentioned by a few attendees.
One thing is for certain. Shreveport citizens have had ample opportunities to learn about the three propositions. The town hall meetings, the city’s website, and substantial media coverage should have reached every concerned citizen. Now the question will be how they vote.