[StBernard] Meraux Foundation signs donation papers for St. Bernard Parish Hospital

[Westley Annis]

Meraux Foundation signs donation papers for St. Bernard Parish Hospital 

Hospital Services District finalized location, making way for land donation

 

The Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation signed donation documents
Friday, March 12, 2010, giving the St. Bernard Hospital Services District an
11.5-acre piece of land for the new St. Bernard Parish Hospital to be
located in the heart of Chalmette.

 

The site is on a tract of undeveloped land between the parish's two major
thoroughfares - West Judge Perez Drive and St. Bernard Highway. 

The Meraux Foundation offered the land to the hospital board in January 2009
for free. Today's acceptance of the donation by the HSD Chairman Wayne
Landry ends a year long vetting of alternative sites through the completion
of a half day of negotiations.

 

Rita Gue, the president of the Meraux Foundation and the niece of Arlene
Meraux who created the foundation to do charitable works in St. Bernard,
said she was very glad that the Meraux Foundation can play such an important
role in continuing the parish's strong pace of recovery.

 

"There's been so much recovery already without the hospital," she said. "Can
you even imagine what's going to happen now? These are the things that my
aunt had in mind when she started the foundation many, many years ago."

 

She thanked officials who had a role in the process from the beginning
including Parish President Craig P. Taffaro and former Hospital Services
District Chairman Danny Dysart, as well as former council members and
current HSD members Landry, Ron Chapman, George Cavignac and Jim DiFatta.

 

Dysart, one of several who spoke and choked back tears at the enormity of
the signing, said when he moved his family back to St. Bernard after
Katrina, he wanted to see all basic services restored.

 

"This is a great day. a glorious day," Dysart said. 

 

"This is one of those major pieces that have been missing," said Parish
President Craig Taffaro. "There's a reason that St. Bernard leads the way in
Gulf Coast region in recovery ... Because when people put their own
differences aside and the needs of our parish first, we all win."

 

Hospital Service District Chairman and Parish Councilman Wayne Landry
agreed.

 

"This process is like being in labor," Landry said. "The point is - it's a
tough, difficult process. At the end of the day, the results are beautiful."



The official signing on Friday locks the hospital board into the 11.5-acre
tract, with an option to expand to 20 acres over the next decade. The
hospital board is now awaiting a final approval from the state division of
administration to allow the designs to go out to bid.



Construction should be complete by the end of 2011. Although the hospital
board had been holding off on formally signing the agreements for the Meraux
Foundation land, the state had already begun a required environmental review
process on the land that is necessary to free up $41 million in community
development block grant money, dedicated from parish government, $17 million
from state capital outlay secured by state Rep Nita Hutter, former state
Rep. Ken Odinet and former state Sen. Walter Boasso and kept in place by
Hutter, state Rep. Reed Henderson and Sen. A.G. Crowe.

 

Cost estimates for the hospital and a medical office complex are at about
$70 million. The board has nailed down approximately $60 million in combined
state and federal funds, plus the potential of additional millions from a
U.S. Treasury tax credit program. 



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