Build Big Airport in Florida Parishes

Correction Ran 11/28/05 Page 8-B

A Reader’s View written by Ward Bond and published in The Advocate on Thursday incorrectly stated that Ben Bridgeman was a “fellow inmate” of former Louisiana Senate President Michael O’Keefe. In January 1984, Bridgeman, who was ill was fined $20,000 and received a suspended two-year prison sentence and three-year probation for his role in a $6 million bank fraud scheme. He did not go to prison.

Build big airport in Florida Parishes

Thirty years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration offered to build a Dallas-Fort Worth-sized airport in partnership with private interests between Baton Rouge and New Orleans for free. The cost to the state of Louisiana nada.

Then-Gov. Edwin Edwards and then-state-Sen. Michael OKeefe of New Orleans were all for the giant airport. They liked the idea so much that OKeefe created a new company to manage the building and operation of the new facility. The sole director of the new company, Louisiana Planning Inc., was Ben Bridgeman, a close associate and later fellow inmate of Michael OKeefe. The companys phone number was the French Quarter apartment of OKeefe and Edwards crony Ronnie Katz, then director of state planning. The FAA said: No thanks to this top-to-bottom political control by the Edwards-OKeefe conspiracy, and the proposed super airport west of LaPlace was suddenly dead. Three decades later, if you played what if, you could make the case that a modern new city between New Orleans and Baton Rouge would have developed around this international mega-airport probably with fast-rail connections to both of Louisianas largest cities. It would be mighty handy in helping us to get through our current unpleasantness. It seems that building a major international airport right now between Baton Rouge and Slidell would be a doable deal. If it were near Hammond, it would 40 miles from each and an equal distance from New Orleans and with Louis Armstrong International Airport still serving the Crescent City tourist trade.

At the intersection of two major railroads and two interstates, it would service the fastest-growing area in the state, the Florida Parishes on high ground and with hundreds of thousands of acres available for turning Hammond into a booming regional hub city. Rapid rail transit to Slidell, Baton Rouge and New Orleans (via Louis Armstrong International Airport) would seem to make total good sense.

Finally, it could be built under a state agency that would be created under the new ethics laws that are a must if we expect the federal government and the rest of the country to shell out to help us. The reason that the FAA might still like to locate a major airport in southeast Louisiana is the lack of an international airport of any size on the entire Gulf Coast between Houston and Tampa. That strategic need is still there. And with Edwin and Michael in jail, the Florida Parishes International Airport might just have a chance.

C. WARD BOND 812 North Blvd. Baton Rouge