The study will focus on Williams Blvd. from Airline to 33rd
Street. In 2008, a similar study focused on a portion of the same stretch of
Williams and cost only $80,000.
When Yenni’s 2030 Plan was announced, I had several issues
with the plan. No, I’m not against beautification and I agree that Kenner could
use a facelift or, at least, a sprucing up.
My primary issues were that I didn’t think Kenner should go
into debt for the next 20 years for Mayor Yenni’s plan and hamstring future
Mayors and Councils with his decisions and I firmly believed (and still do, by
the way) that any project this massive should be approved by the voters.
I was also concerned that no traffic and engineering studies
had been completed to see if any of these projects even warranted funding and
that none of the projects proposed were dedicated. At one of the meetings held
after Mayor Yenni went to the State Bond Commission and the City Council, he
and his landscape architect Greg Cantrell noted that the projects and the
project funding could be moved to other projects at the discretion of the
Mayor.
At several council meetings, District 4 Councilwoman Maria
DeFranchesch said that the 10 proposed projects “weren’t written in stone”.
So, essentially, the $28 Million in new debt that the city
incurred could be used by Mayor Yenni for any capital project that he, or the
Council, approved.
For all intents and purposes, the $28 Million is a giant
slush fund controlled by Mayor Yenni.
Think I’m exaggerating?
“I am so thankful to both agencies (the Regional Planning Commission
and the State DOTD) because that is $420,000 now directly available for other
improvements,” Yenni said.
Uh, specifically, what “other projects” Mayor?
But, there’s more from the same press release courtesy of Regional
Planning Commission (RPC) Executive Director Walter Brooks:
“There’s potentially even better news in the future for Kenner, as
Brooks said the Williams Boulevard corridor improvement work could be funded by
the RPC…”
“’I think once we see what kind of recommendations are coming from the
feasibility study that could be a great project to place in our construction
program,’ Brooks said.”
So, it’s not just a $420,000 study. 2 of the 3 biggest
ticket items in Mayor Yenni’s 2030 Plan totaling Millions of dollars and over 60% of the money that the City of Kenner borrowed “could be funded by the RPC”. If that’s true, why did Kenner borrow all this money anyway and where are the Millions that Yenni said the city was spending on these projects going?
And, why didn’t Mayor Yenni find out what “could be funded”
by other groups before asking the State Bond Commission and the City Council to
borrow money that the people of Kenner will be paying back for the next 20
years?
One last question: since the City Council is supposed to the
stewards of our tax dollars and represent the people of Kenner, why aren’t they
asking the Mayor these same questions?
Obviously, Mayor Yenni has many on the Kenner City Council
fooled. Unfortunately for him, he has only some of Kenner's residents still fooled.
