[MarignyBywater] Fwd: [Nocoldnola] Update: Cold Storage Plant

[Marigny/Bywater List]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Chris W. Costello" <ccostello at deveney.com>
> Date: July 17, 2009 3:00:50 PM CDT
> To: <nocoldnola at faubourgmarigny.org>
> Subject: [Nocoldnola] Update: Cold Storage Plant
> Reply-To: NO Cold NOLA <nocoldnola at faubourgmarigny.org>
>
> You are receiving this email update because of your opposition to  
> the proposed expansion of the cold storage facility to the Governor  
> Nicholls/Esplanade Wharfs.
>
> If you do not wish to receive these emails please reply to this  
> email with the word remove in the subject line.
>
>
> ***
>
> Update: Cold Storage Plant
>
> Thank you to everyone who answered our call to write, call and email  
> our elected leaders. It was this act along with the all the signs  
> and banners that brought this issue to the forefront for our elected  
> leaders and caused a stir up in Baton Rouge and at the Governor’s  
> Office.
>
> We have not heard anything from the Port about this issue (they have  
> not responded to our emails) but the fact that this project was  
> deferred at the last Port Board meeting suggests that we have their  
> attention. Our hope is that we can assist them in finding another  
> location but until we hear that they have released the Governor  
> Nicholls/Esplanade Wharf from consideration we will continue to  
> fight. Our next step will be mass media to reach a larger target  
> audience.
>
> Please continue to talk about this issue with friends and family.  
> And if you do not have a yard sign please consider displaying one.  
> We also have t-shirts for $10 in M, L and XL.
>
> For t-shirts and signs please call Eva at 444-8313.
>
> ***
>
> Port considers alternatives for N.O. Cold Storage
> by Emilie Bahr, Staff Writer, July 17, 2009
>
> The Port of New Orleans confirmed today it is considering  
> alternative sites for New Orleans Cold Storage, the facility it has  
> planned to relocate from the shuttered Mississippi River Gulf Outlet  
> to a wharf at the foot of Esplanade Avenue.
> "Nothing is a done deal," Gary LaGrange, port president and CEO,  
> said in a statement. “We are considering alternatives. No sites have  
> been determined either upriver or downriver. Until another site has  
> been determined, nothing has changed."
> Plans to situate the facility at the Gov. Nicholls Street Wharf have  
> been staunchly opposed by groups representing the Marigny, Bywater  
> and French Quarter, whose concerns range from the facility’s  
> potential to increase 18-wheeler traffic in the area to the threat  
> of ammonia leaks.
> The port has repeatedly attempted to assuage such concerns, saying  
> the traffic increase will be minimal and the threat of toxic  
> chemical leaks virtually nonexistent.
> But a grass-roots campaign designed to derail the port’s plans has  
> taken off in recent months, with banners and signs warning of the  
> threats posed by the facility proliferating throughout neighborhoods  
> adjacent to the proposed Cold Storage site.
> David Peltier, a Bywater resident and French Quarter business owner  
> opposed to the proposed Cold Storage location, said the port has  
> never before admitted to considering alternative sites.
> “It’s good news,” Peltier said of LaGrange’s comments, “but it’s not  
> great news. The great news would be they found another site.”
> New Orleans Cold Storage President and CEO Mark Blanchard said the  
> Gov. Nicholls Street Wharf has never been the site most ideally  
> suited to his business but that it was “a site that was the best  
> available at the time that it was offered to us by the Port of New  
> Orleans.”
> “It’s never been a great site for us,” Blanchard said, citing  
> problems, including the layout of the facility. “It was kind of the  
> only site. But we’ve worked with the port to consider other sites  
> that were dismissed early on in the process for various reasons.”
> Some of those sites, he said, were a better fit “but either they  
> were not available to us for this project or the port had other plans.
> "I think the most important thing is that we choose the right site  
> that works for everybody."
> In January 2008, Blanchard said NOCS intended to open in its new  
> home in 2010, a time line that he said will be delayed by the site  
> selection process.•
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nocoldnola mailing list
> Nocoldnola at faubourgmarigny.org
> http://faubourgmarigny.org/mailman/listinfo/nocoldnola_faubourgmarigny.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://marigny.org/pipermail/marignybywater_marigny.org/attachments/20090717/f97bf7ff/attachment.html>