“To Get to America, You’ll Have to Go Through Us,” reads a promotional folder for the Port of New Orleans. But as many of the visitors of last week’s Port of New Orleans board meeting pointed out, to get to the Port of New Orleans, one has to go through Plaquemines. It is a fact that the Port of New Orleans now has realized.

Members of the Plaquemines Parish Council and the Plaquemines Association of Business and Industry, as well as Parish President Billy Nungesser and Plaquemines Parish Port Manager Urban Treuil, Jr., recently attended the Port of New Orleans Board of Commissioners meeting to sign a cooperative endeavor agreement. This agreement is to jointly market current and future facilities at both ports to the worldwide maritime industry.

The Port of New Orleans is maxed out for space to put new investors; Plaquemines Parish needs the political stroke and name recognition associated with New Orleans. It is a match.

The Name of the Game
“The name of the game is jobs, and not just jobs, good jobs,” said Port of New Orleans Chairman Conrad H. Appel III. “We recognize the importance of the commerce and the importance of trade.”

“It keeps companies here, saving jobs for the region,” Parish President Billy Nungesser agreed. “This will ensure the infrastructure for levees and the bypass road.”

“The Port of New Orleans is going to be the best salesman we could have ever gotten,” said District 4 Councilman Brent Chauvin.

“Parochial thinking is a thing of the past,” said Gary LaGrange, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans. “In the new global economy, we must work together as a region to be competitive.”

LaGrange refers to any hard feelings residual from the Port of New Orleans’ attempt in the 1980s to consolidate Southeast Louisiana’s ports under their jurisdiction. That attempt failed in the state legislature and there has been some mistrust of Port of New Orleans since.

This agreement, however, gives Plaquemines a voice. And if councilmembers, who comprise the Plaquemines Parish Port, Harbor and Terminal District, are unsatisfied with the cooperative endeavor, it can be terminated on 30 days’ written notice.

Also, the current agreement is for marketing only. Any other agreement between the ports would require additional approval by both entities.

“The Plaquemines District is well suited for a variety of industries requiring barge and ship access with more than 90 miles of river frontage and close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico,” reads a Port of New Orleans press release, the first of its marketing agreement.

Nungesser went to Washington, D.C. this week. “They (the federal government) won’t be able to write us off anymore...Let them tell me South Plaquemines is not worth saving now,” Nungesser enthusiastically remarked.

Baptiste Collette
Along with signing the cooperative endeavor agreement, the Port of New Orleans officially threw its support behind the deepening of Baptiste Collette. Port of New Orleans Board of Commissioners member Samuel B. Nunez Jr. authored the resolution, which received a unanimous second.

“I think all ports along the coast would benefit,” said Nunez, who represented Plaquemines Parish for 30 years in the Louisiana State Senate.

Nungesser agreed, saying Plaquemines will save many of the jobs once thought lost when the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet closes.

Deepening Baptiste Collette is designed to open a passage to the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for the oil and gas industry.


Cutline: "Let them say Plaquemines is not worth saving now," said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser (left), referring to the federal government. He and Gary LaGrange, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans (right), recently signed a cooperative endeavor agreement to market those facilities jointly.