Terrebonne economic agency revamped after temporary closure

The Terrebonne Economic Development Authority is moving forward with local development efforts, despite a downturn in revenue.

CEO Matt Rookard presented an overview of the quasi-governmental agency to the Parish Council Wednesday.

The agency was restructured in October 2015 after remaining dormant for about a year. Rookard was hired in 2016. It has a nine-member board and a three-member staff that handles economic development efforts for the parish, such as business recruitment and retention and workforce training.

Between 2016 and 2018, the organization has lost $450,000 from the parish, but that money has been used to pay for other economic development measures such as the dredging of the Houma Navigation Canal and the Schriever train station, Rookard said.

The cuts are in line with other cuts made parishwide due to declining tax revenues, he said.

The agency receives its money through a portion of fees collected through the occupational businesses in the parish.

Despite the cut, TEDA has been using reserve money to keep some operations growing, including organizational reviews, branding and strategic advertising.

When Rookard first took the job, the agency reviewed every detail as part of a larger organizational management.

There were some pretty significant issues, which were part of the reason why the agency was shut down, he said.

“It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take, but I feel confident in where we are now,” Rookard said. “It was very important to me to start with a very good foundation from an organizational standpoint where you could not come back and look at TEDA and say we’re doing something wrong.”

In terms of branding, the group has created a new logo, a new website and a promotional video.

TEDA is working to become an inaugural member of the state’s retirement community certification program, Rookard said.

The agency is also working on a plan to create a sports tourism faction, called HT Sports, to recruit major sporting events around the parish.

HT Sports could take over operations of the long-awaited Bayou Country Sports Park, but no agreement to that effect has been officially proposed.

However, most of TEDA’s efforts are focused on business retention and expansion.

“Bringing in new business is nice, but keeping businesses from leaving is absolutely crucial,” Rookard said.

As far as new businesses, the parish faces the challenge of having a surplus of land, but at a higher ticket price and with very few spec buildings, he said.

To move TEDA forward, the agency will be asking for an increase in revenue next year.

“As we go forward, we have to start making decisions on whether we’re going to fund these types of programs or whether we’re just going to continue to do the business retention and responses,” Rookard said. “I’m proud of work we did, but if we had more resources, we will continue to do more.”

Many of the council members expressed support of the work TEDA is doing.

“We definitely need to invest in economic development, to the right amount,” Councilman Darrin Guidry said. “But not over invest. That might have been some of the faults of the previous TEDA.”

“I think you’re going to a great direction. I look forward to continuing supporting you and your efforts and your outstanding committee,” Councilwoman Arlanda Williams said.

Staff Writer Julia Arenstam can be reached at 448-7636 or julia.arenstam@houmatoday.com.

CORTEC, L.L.C. wins state award

CORTEC, L.L.C. Founder Bobby Corte, Jr. accepts the Lantern Award from Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson with Stephen Corte (left), Thomas Chauvin and Larry Chauvin on June 5, 2018 at the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge.

HOUMA, June 4, 2018 – Houma-based CORTEC, LLC, was recently honored for its excellence in manufacturing and outstanding service to the community with the State of Louisiana’s Lantern Award for the Bayou Region.

“Manufacturers drive Louisiana’s economy in the most important ways,” Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson said. “They provide good-paying jobs and have a strong multiplier effect, creating even more jobs outside their facilities. Harnessing our talented workforce, they compete in and win in a global economy as they produce vital products that are in demand by companies and consumers.”

Award nominees are judged on contributions to the community, including investment in employment growth and facility expansion, as well as sustaining and growing operations at least three years prior to the award. The 15-year-old CORTEC is undergoing expansion at both its Port Allen and Houma facilities.

CORTEC’s 156 employees design, manufacture, sell and service valve and manifold products for the oil-and-gas industry through the company’s two divisions: Cortec Fluid Control in Houma and Cortec Manifold Systems in Port Allen. From engineering to assembling, through coating to shipping, CORTEC handles the entire process for quality control. Its valves, chokes and flow-line component products are shipped to the Gulf of Mexico and shale plays in the United States as well as internationally to Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Since launching the Lantern Awards in 1979, LED has recognized more than 300 Louisiana manufacturing businesses with its partners, Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association and the Louisiana Quality Foundation. Award winners receive lanterns handcrafted and donated by Bevolo Gas and Electric Lights of New Orleans.

This year’s award to CORTEC, L.L.C., continues a family tradition, as the Corte family previously received a Lantern Award when it owned and operated COR-VAL, Inc., founded by Bobby Corte, Sr.

Our opinion: Diversifying Economy is Difficult but Worthwhile

Efforts to diversify the local economy – shifting its overwhelming focus from oil and gas to other, varied industries – have proven largely futile.

But there is every reason to continue this worthwhile, long-term goal that would remove some local workers’ dependency on a mostly robust but cyclical industry.

The oil and gas slowdown that has cost so many thousands of local workers their jobs is yet another reminder that no matter how lucrative oil and gas can be, depending too much on any one sector of the economy holds certain risks.

So it’s good to see the push for diversification continuing.

“Take a sector with an existing strength and within that identify a specialty. If you invest heavily into technology, you end up with a new specialty within that industry,” Terrebonne Economic Development Authority CEO Matt Rookard said. “Then you can look at applying that to other industries.”

He used as an example an attempt to use the Houma-Terrebonne Airport as a hub for unmanned aircraft, which could eventually expand into use in coastal restoration or storm damage assessment.

“These things don’t exist as we sit here today, but if you can deploy that technology, there’s opportunity to create them,” Rookard said.

Although it’s a good example, it is but one way TEDA and others are trying to open up the local economy to new companies and ventures that might eventually produce the kind of diversity other areas enjoy.

While the oil and gas industry has been a valuable local partner for workers and businesses, having all the region’s eggs in one industrial basket makes us more vulnerable to the fluctuations in that market.

The more our area can cultivate other industries, the better we can insulate ourselves against the slowdowns that are inevitable in every portion of the economy.

We have proven time and again that our workers and our local companies are incredibly useful to the oilfield industry. These same workers and others would contribute mightily to any industry in which they have training and education and in which there are employment opportunities available.

We don’t lose anything by trying to grow more and different opportunities for our workers and the many others who rely on the local economy. But failing to do so would be a terrible lack of planning and preparation.

Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper, not of any individual.

DailyComet.com

Efforts to Diversify Economy Continue

One effort focuses on making the Houma-Terrebonne Airport a hub for unmanned aircraft.

Recent studies have shown that for Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes to boost their economies, they should diversify their economies so they are less reliant on the oil industry.

But complete diversification isn’t going to happen overnight, Terrebonne Economic Development Authority CEO Matt Rookard said.

TEDA hired Garner Economics to study the local economy in 2016. The report suggests one resource with potential is the Houma-Terrebonne Airport.

As a result, TEDA is partnering with Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Fletcher Technical Community College in Schriever and the airport to bring an unmanned aviation system to Terrebonne Parish.

TEDA is working to create a public-private partnership for research and development on how to bring this new technology to the parish, Rookard said.

Contrary to the popular concept of smaller, almost-hand-held-size drones, these unmanned aircraft are more like full-size helicopters without pilots, he said.

This kind of technology is mainly used for military purposes but has applications in commercial industries like oil and gas.

Once formed, the public-private partnership will seek research dollars to fund the program.

“Take a sector with an existing strength and within that identify a specialty. If you invest heavily into technology, you end up with a new specialty within that industry,” Rookard said. “Then you can look at applying that to other industries.”

Terrebonne’s existing strength is the oil industry, specializing in logistics. By investing heavily into unmanned aviation systems that can be used in that field, the technology can later expand into other industries, such as coastal restoration, Rookard said. Insurance companies can use unmanned aircraft to assess damage after storms.

“These things don’t exist as we sit here today, but if you can deploy that technology, there’s opportunity to create them,” he said.

In December, representatives of TEDA, Nicholls, Fletcher and the airport traveled to the University of North Dakota to get an inside look at its unmanned aircraft program and explore a possible partnership, Rookard said.

Right now, the group is looking for funding.

The airport has committed some funds to make infrastructure upgrades but in order to get approval from the Federal Aviation Authority, more work is needed.

TEDA has also been working on scholarship programs for minority-owned contracting businesses to receive accreditation training to compete for local construction jobs.

“A lot of these contracts go to the same people over and over because there’s only so many qualified companies,” Rookard said.

The agency is also working with the Entergy workforce-development program to train students for jobs utility companies are looking to fill.

TEDA will present other diversification and economic-development plans later this month to the Terrebonne Parish Council, Rookard said. He declined to comment on specifics.

-- Staff Writer Julia Arenstam can be reached at 448-7636 orjulia.arenstam@houmatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @gingerale214.

ENTERGY -- Operation: Storm Ready

The 2018 hurricane season begins June 1 and before it begins, we want our customers
to know that while we are hoping for the best, we are prepared for the worst.

• Safety is a core value at Entergy and remains top priority for our workers and customers.
• In the first three days following a storm, we work on:
- Assessing damage to deploy the right number of personnel with the right material.
- Restoring minimally damaged power plants and large transmission lines.
- Repairing substations and distribution lines that serve critical customers, like hospitals, police, water, drainage and communication networks.
• As the restoration continues, we work on: 
- Restoring areas with large numbers of customer outages, including businesses and neighborhoods.
- Restoring individual services, often the most time-consuming.
• Throughout, we supply the logistical needs of the restoration workforce, like food and shelter, for the duration.
Power plants, the primary sources of power production, are restored.
Large transmission lines are repaired and restored, delivering power to cities, towns and major industrial facilities.
Substations are brought online, and power is restored to emergency services, life-support facilities, police and communications networks.
Power is restored to areas with the largest numbers of customers, including businesses and neighborhoods.
Bucket trucks are safe to use when winds fall below 30 mph.
Individual services, often the most time-consuming repairs, are restored.
Year-Round Planning
• We plan restoration reports months before the first sign of foul weather.
• We follow a detailed, rehearsed plan that has worked well for us.
• We monitor weather threats 24/7, 365 days a year.
• We prioritize critical sites with local officials before the storm.
• We conduct annual storm exercises and review lessons learned following every event.
Restoration Time
• Weather forecasts, models and knowledge help us predict an estimated number and duration of outages.
• We strive to give an estimate of how long it will take to restore a majority of our customers 48-72 hours before landfall.
• Restoration estimates are revised as more concrete information about the storm becomes available.

 

Terrebonne Moves Forward with Flood, Storm Protection

Terrebonne Parish President Gordy Dove said the parish is fiscally strong thanks to his staff and support from groups like the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District.

During his Fiscal State of Terrebonne Parish speech Tuesday to members of the South Central Industrial Association, Dove said the parish was able to end 2017 with a $9 million fund balance, recovering from a “spiraling economy.”

After implementing 23 percent cuts in each department last year, “the parish is fiscally strong,” Dove said.

In April, sales tax revenues increased by 4.26 percent, he said.

Since taking office in 2016, Dove’s administration has worked on a number of capital improvement projects, specifically concerning drainage and storm protection.

In the past 11 years, the parish has received over $200 million from the state for various projects.

“We build the Morganza system. Now we have to pump it out,” Dove said.

The pending Chacahoula-Gibson pump station will be the first built outside of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Levee system.

“It’s a huge undertaking, and a job well done by my staff,” Dove said.

The parish is also working to install three permanent generators at the Houma Power Plant at a cost of $850,000.

Other ongoing projects include the Falgout Canal rehabilitation and floodgate, the Hollywood Road extension project, the Mayfield Bridge replacement, the Point-aux-Chenes floodgate and the Houma Canal lock system, Dove said.

The parish is using drones to map the levee system and create an app for emergency operations personnel to monitor the closure of sluice gates during storms. Sluice gates are used in smaller drainage canals to control the flow of water.

“There’s no system in Terrebonne for what to shut off,” Dove said about the gates. “We’re working to solve that problem.”

One of the problem areas lies along Valhi Boulevard, which is part of the Chacahoula Basin, he said. When water rises in that area, it can flood nearby neighborhoods.

Other major projects include the Petit Caillou lock in Chauvin, costing about $9 million. The U.S. Corps of Engineers has issued preliminary permits, and the project is expected to go out for bid in June, Dove said.

The Petit Caillou drainage project will deepen the conveyance channel and add a pump station in Chauvin.

The parish is also continuing work with the state’s Coastal Restoration Protection Agency to improve the barrier island system from Racoon Island to Belle Pass.

“I don’t think a lot of us realize what we have in Gordon Dove,” said Tony Alford, president of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District board. “We need six more years to get this stuff done.”

Louisiana ranked fifth-best road trip state

While tourism being one of the biggest industries in Louisiana is no surprise to anyone in the Bayou State, the state being named one of the top road trip state in the nation was a pleasant surprise for local tourism groups.

According to an annual report by wallethub.com, Louisiana is the fifth-best state for tourists to take road trips. The 50 states were ranked based on a number of factors divided into three overall categories: cost, safety and activities.

What are the Safest Cities in Each State? Schriever, Bayou Blue, Bayou Cane and Gray all ranked as one of the safest!

LendEDU recently released a report that highlighted the safest cities in Louisiana and Schriever, Bayou Blue, Bayou Cane and Gray all ranked as one of the safest.

Using licensed data, each city’s crime index was rated against the state and national average crime index.

The full report and a more detailed methodology can be found here: https://lendedu.com/blog/safest-cities-state/