[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Officials Celebrate the Grand Opening of the Historic Beauregard Courthouse

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Officials Celebrate the Grand Opening of the Historic
Beauregard Courthouse

 

St. Bernard Parish President David E. Peralta and other local, state and
federal officials celebrated the Grand Opening of the Old Beauregard
Courthouse on Thursday, December 13th at 1201 Bayou Road, St. Bernard.
There were a number of people in attendance including Councilman-at-Large
Guy Mc Innis, Councilman Monty Montelongo, Councilman Casey Hunnicutt,
former Parish President Charles Ponstein, State Representative Ray Garofalo,
Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann, Judge Perry Nicosia, Justice of the Peace Bruce
Jackson, Constable Tony Guerra, Assessor Jaylynn Turner and Chamber Director
Stephen Reuther.

 

The $8 Million project began in November, 2010 and received majority of the
funding from FEMA with parish government contributing $158,000.00 towards
the project.  President Peralta thanked FEMA and GOHSEP for continued
partnership and the architect, contractors and parish representatives for
doing such a great job on the facility.  He also recognized the Road
Department and Maintenance Department for their work in cleaning up the
facility.

 

Eddie Williams with FEMA congratulated the parish and said he had his first
project with FEMA in St. Bernard.  He said St. Bernard Parish leads the
recovery throughout the metropolitan area.  Jeff Amering with GOHSEP said
his organization will continue to work with the parish until all projects
are completed. 




Parish Historian William Hyland gave a brief history on the 16,800 square
feet historic building which was originally erected as a Courthouse in 1916
but was most recently used as part of the Beauregard Middle School.  The
three-story masonry historic structure sustained major damage during
Hurricane Katrina, but has since been renovated to bring the building into
compliance with current life safety codes.  Due to the complexities
surrounding the historic condition of the structure, the storm-related
damage, and code related upgrades many challenges were encountered during
design and construction.  

 

The dedication and persistence of the project team, including Parish
representatives, the FEMA PA team, the Architect, the Architectural
Conservator, the Contractor and the Eastern St. Bernard Committee, the
project was completed successfully.  The project was designed by Beazley
Moliere and constructed by Ryan Gootee General Contractors, LLC.