April 2019 - Bedico Creek Preserve

North Shore Artists Betsy Meyers-Green Shines at the Jazz Fest

April 30, 2019/in Local Events

Betsy Meyers-Green has displayed and sold her unique one -of-a-kind jewelry at Jazz Fest since 1988. She is one of the twelve other north shore artist who will showcase at this year’s Jazz Fest.

Ever since Betsy could remember she loved making art in some way or form. When she was four years old she would take scraps of fabric from her mom and make clothes for her dolls.

“She would make our Halloween costumes and all that,” she said. “I would sit next to her … and make clothes for my dolls. I just liked making, and I liked putting things together.”

After graduating from high school, she went to Parsons School of Design in New York City. Originally wanting to go into fashion design which did not pan out, she then turned to graphic design. Her second year in college she moved home to Detroit and attended Center for Creative Studies in Detroit where her vision as a jewelry artist began.

“The transition from graphic design in New York City to advertising in Detroit was ‘Let’s render a hubcap so it looks like a photograph’. It was so boring, and I hated it,” said Meyers-Green, who then took a jewelry class at the urging of a friend.

“At first I was really nervous and really afraid because it’s metal and a hard surface, but that was the beginning of the change. I switched my major, and got a bachelor of fine arts in metalsmithing and jewelry in 1975, and I have been doing it ever since,” she added.

Her inspiration comes “in different ways and different shapes. Sometimes I like minimal clean lines and forms,” she said.

She loves to add dimension to her pieces. One way she achieves this look is using an old Korean technique where 24-karat gold is melted onto silver. On these creations, she loves to add vibrant stones.

“I use a lot of stones, because people like color. And I love putting the color in through the stones,” she said.

A true inspiration in the community, Betsy is the vice president of RHINO Contemporary Crafts Co. in New Orleans. The company, established in 1984, helps create a public interest in the local arts in Louisiana. Betsy’ jewelry is sold here as well as many other New Orleans galleries.

For her, exhibiting at the music festival is a unique experience. “It’s unlike any show that I’ve ever done or will ever do,” Meyers-Green said. “The excitement, the magnetism, the music, the food. Everybody’s happy, having fun. It’s great.”

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St. Tammany’s Cane Bayou Mitigation Bank

April 30, 2019/in Local Events

A mitigation bank is a great way to manage land and improve local economic development and enhance livability of communities. St. Tammany Parish is tapping into this process calling it the Bayou Mitigation Bank.

What is a mitigation bank? According to the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency), “A mitigation bank is a wetland, stream, or other aquatic resource area that has been restored, established, enhanced, or (in certain circumstances) preserved for the purpose of providing compensation for unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources permitted under Section 404 or a similar state or local wetland regulation.” Basically when a local government agency makes a “formal agreement” with a regulatory agency which is an independent governmental commission created by a legislative act.

This regulatory agency will set standards for the mitigation bank. There are four things to follow with a mitigation bank. First, the bank site which is the physical restored, preserved, enhanced and established land. The second is the bank instrument which is the agreement between those that are taking liability and the regulators. The third is the Interagency Review Team (IRT) that is a team which will supply regulatory review, approval, and oversight of the bank. Last is the service area with is defined as the geographic area where the permitted impacts will be compensated for at a given bank.

A mitigation bank has a number of advantages for those that seek to create one. Number one, they support and bind that the compensatory mitigation will definitely offset project impacts. They will readily make available financial resources, planning, and scientific expertise. Not only due they help financially but they also reduce permit processing times.

St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister announced that the St. Tammany Parish government has been granted permission to use a tract of wooded land that is close to 1,200 acres in Mandeville as a mitigation bank. This means that the parish will save money because they will not have to purchase high price wetlands mitigation credits from private owners.

The Cane Bayou Mitigation Bank will produce 700 acres of wetlands mitigation credits. With a growing population which will hit to the third in the state in 2020, these available mitigation credits will reduce the cost of the growing parish infrastructure.

The current ratio in St. Tammany is 2.7:1 which means the developers are allowed to purchase 2.7 acres of credits for each acre of wetlands impacted by the project. Since St. Tammany Parish’s wetlands cover half of the parish’s 850 square miles many do not want to develop in the area because of the high impact of wetlands. Brister stated that credits in private land banks can cost up to $50,000 per acre.

“This will allow us to meet the parish’s needs in a very cost-effective way,” she said.

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Potential Bikeshare Program for the Northshore

April 25, 2019/in Local News

New Orleans Blue Bikes program began in 2017 and is still very popular within the community. St. Tammany Parish is drastically growing and a bikeshare program would be very successful in the Northshore area.

“We hope and think people will (support this) because of our transportation challenges over here,” Northshore Community Foundation CEO Susan Bonnett Bourgeois said.

A proposed bikeshare program along the Tammany Trace would start with a fleet of 187 smart bikes. They would be parked at 53 hub locations along the trail from Covington to Slidell. Bourgeois states that the program will grow within the the first three years, adding another 88 bikes and 25 more hubs.

The nonprofit Northshore Community Foundation plans to procure a company to run the program. The program will not rely on government money but will run off user fees and corporate sponsorships. In fact, many health care focused companies have already shown interest in corporate sponsorships.

The program also has a potential of bringing in $100,000 to $150,000 to a local St. Tammany business and will bring jobs to the area for local residents. An experienced bikeshare operator would create a partnership with a local bicycle shop to supply the bikes.

The bikes will be for rent along the trail and will rely on electric motors to ease the pedaling for all to enjoy. The nonprofit hopes to have the program up an running by the Spring of 2020.

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