Click to see any of the following: ABILITIES, CODS, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, PROGRESS and QUOTES:

USING MY ABILITIES FOR THE CITY: In my 33-year public service career at the Dept. of Transportation & Development, I worked in such diverse areas as construction, materials, standards enforcement, policy making, manual writing/editing/publishing, employee training, auditing and legal - I know how that agency operates! Construction, roads, signage and traffic are major issues here and I ‘speak that language’ - a valuable asset in the meetings we have with DOTD and their consultants to bring road improvements and ease traffic congestion. You may also have noticed that these fields of experience are the same areas of knowledge required to be an effective council member.

After retirement from Louisiana government, I began a new career as a professional writer and later achieved success in marketing and publishing. Having worked in the DOTD Legal Division for six years and also having written policy, user and training manuals, I can readily interpret city ordinances and provide amendment input.

Drawing public and private investment is one of the most important aspects of a municipal leader’s job. I volunteer Public Relations services for the city, in an unofficial capacity, using my journalism and marketing skills to further Denham Springs’ economic development and publicize cultural activities. By regularly promoting the city’s accomplishments and amenities, we attract tourism dollars and business investors, thus gaining new revenue necessary to continue providing and improving city services.

CityofDenhamSprings.com: Like many of you, when planning a trip, I go to other cities’ official web sites to look for hotels, dining, entertainment, activities, and to learn about that town. Long before I became a councilwoman, I wanted my city to have a web site representative of what this city really is. I love Denham Springs and I want to share it with the rest of the world. I wanted us to have a site in which we could all be proud, so when I became your councilwoman, I volunteered many months of my time to see that dream become a reality. You can see the site by clicking here.

Also, because I understand business, I know the importance of a contemporary electronic presence in attracting new businesses and development. When investors are looking at your town, they are looking at your web site, so I knew that a comprehensive site would serve as a vital economic development tool for Denham Springs. You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

Not only does the web site provide information for visitors and investors, but there are many conveniences for residents, as well as required forms and instructions for doing business in Denham Springs.

COUNCIL ACCOMPLISHMENTS: This current council is proactive in planning the development of Denham Springs. I believe we must embrace commercial growth for our survival – it is the revenue necessary to provide and improve services needed for our citizens and businesses, but keeping our small-town values and historic charm is the key to maintaining balance. I like to call it “preservation in progress.”

We have created the downtown Historic Preservation District around the Antiques & Art Village and are in the midst of installing brick sidewalks, with plans to add antique lighting, all of which benefit the downtown merchants. Sanctuary Park is presently being created next to the newly renovated Old City Hall Welcome Center & Museum, so shoppers and tourists will have a comfortable place for a brief respite.

The council has purchased new fire trucks and fire-fighting apparatus and equipped our law enforcement with technologically advanced equipment and protective devices to better protect them and our citizens.

We are condemning and taking down blighted properties.

We have just secured plans for two new five-story hotels, bringing our total to nine inside the city. Not bad for a small town!

Economic Development
We created the DS Economic Development District, which brought us Bass Pro, the Amite Crossing strip mall, numerous restaurants and shops and we anxiously await the new Sam’s Store and Ashley Furniture coming to that complex next year.

We recently designed and created the Range Avenue Couplet Economic Development District. This entices new business to locate in the inner city, turning blighted or unoccupied buildings into revenue for Denham Springs. For five years after occupying property in the district, the new owners can make improvements to the property without tax increases on the enhanced value. They will pay the tax rate on the property as it was when acquired. After five years, the property will be reappraised and the current tax rate applied.

This is a tremendous win-win for Denham Springs, providing revenue we need to provide you services and improvements; bringing more diversified business for your convenience; increasing property values; averting crime in unoccupied buildings and aesthetically enhancing our city!

Roads & Traffic
The City Council has been successful in securing many road improvement projects to alleviate traffic problems, such as the Range Ave Corridor By-pass; 4-H Club Rd/River Rd realignment; Hatchell Lane turn lanes/intersection widening; Bass Pro Blvd.; I-12/Range Ave intersection widening and Range Ave and Vincent Rd signalization. We are working hard to get Tate Road widened and progress is being made on the I-12/Pete’s Hwy interchange. Soon, you will see Rushing Road West widened to three lanes from Range Ave to Chantulane.

Quality of Life
The city is proud of its DEQ award-winning, $18M Sewer Treatment Facility. We are upgrading water lines from cast iron to PVC; we now have three water towers, one holding a million gallons, and seven water wells, and created the Denham Springs Sewerage District #1 providing new sewer service inside and outside the city limits.

We have three new parks for Denham: Willow Woods, Sanctuary Park and the soon-to-be opened Kidz Korner Playland handicapped children’s park, which was a cooperative endeavor between the city and the DS Pilot Club.

CONTINUING THE PROGRESS Yes, considerable progress has been realized but beneficial goals remain. We must see to completion the many projects currently underway and the ones planned for in Denham Springs.

It is my goal to create a “Florida Avenue Business Overlay District,” enacting ordinances specific to that area such as signage, fencing, parking, sidewalks and building composition. It is time to make this important commercial highway not only aesthetically pleasing, but also safe and economically beneficial. I believe Hwy. 190 is a vital and underused corridor for our city.

Let me state that I very much appreciate those Hwy 190 businesses that already do their part to make our city a great place to live. I believe the business overlay district will increase property values, draw new businesses and thus, new jobs for our citizens, avert crime in the area, which will also lower our overall crime rating, and recreate the aesthetical attributes Denham Springs has traditionally enjoyed.

A Business Overlay District is an area designated to have special planning & zoning regulations, over and above the city’s standard ordinances, such as building structures, parking, sidewalks, fencing and signage. The majority of costs involved fall on the land/business owner, with existing owners being grandfathered in on many items and several years given to conform to any new items. New businesses, however, would have to be in compliance in order to receive permits.

Collaborative leadership with vision and direction is critical and I believe that residents currently have the benefit of a cohesive government - a mayor and council that work well together, each one bringing unique abilities to the table. I want to continue using my abilities to help our people and continue the progress. Thank you for your support!

QUOTES I love which, for the most part, reflect my thoughts, and position, on government:

Money often costs too much.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are no easy answers but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
Ronald Reagan

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.
Willy Wonka – Chocolate Factory

A significant part of that process will be making our government more efficient, and learning to do more with less.
LA Governor Bobby Jindal

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.
Michael J. Fox

John Maginnis writes that when hundreds of citizens show up at a meeting to raise hell with a public body, it's usually a healthy sign that people are engaged and government accountability is not dead.

Main isn’t rewarded for what he receives. He receives his reward from what he gave.
Calvin Coolidge

Your dream must be bigger than your fear.
Chinese Fortune Cookie

THOMAS JEFFERSON – Very timely quotes, a number of which pertain to where we are at this very moment in time. Was Jefferson a prophet?

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who won’t.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.’

UNIDENTIFIED AUTHORS:

I believe we have arrived at the destination Jefferson warned us about.

Leadership is learned by following.

Do not define yourself by what you do (lawyer writer teacher) but by who you are.

You don’t become a failure until you quit.

We live in a land of plenty and we have plenty of enemies…

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.

The best vitamin for making friends..... B1.

The heaviest thing you can carry is a grudge.
One thing you can give and still keep...is your word.

You lie the loudest when you lie to yourself.
If you lack the courage to start, you have already finished.
One thing you can't recycle is wasted time.

Ideas won't work unless 'you' do.

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

About The Constitution:

‘The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
Thomas Jefferson

“I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.”
— Benjamin Franklin, 1787

“I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a league or treaty and a constitution.”
— James Madison, at the Constitutional Convention, 1787

On Democracy:

“A free government is a complicated piece of machinery, the nice and exact adjustment of whose springs, wheels, and weights, is not yet well comprehended by the artists of the age, and still less by the people.”
— John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, May 19, 1821

“Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.”
— James Russell Lowell

“Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.”
— Harry Emerson Fosdick

“Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.”
— Jawaharlal Nehru

“Democracy ... is a system of self-determination. It’s the right to make the wrong choice.”
— John Patrick

“In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.”
— Norman Cousins

“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
— Reinhold Niebuh