[StBernard] St. Bernard Council to start the year in eastern St. Bernard

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Council to start the year in eastern St. Bernard
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on January 07, 2014 at 4:24 PM, updated January 07, 2014 at 5:19 PM

Instead of holding its first meeting of the year in its typical Chalmette
chambers, the St. Bernard Parish Council will be at the Old Beauregard
Courthouse in eastern St. Bernard for its meeting today (Jan. 7) at 7 p.m.

"It's in the eastern part of the parish, in our original parish seat,"
Councilman Guy McInnis said. "Now that we have this beautiful building, we
just figured that it would be nice to show it to people."

McInnis said he expects that one other council meeting this year will be
held in eastern St. Bernard.

The 16,800-square-foot historic building, at 1201 Bayou Road, originally was
erected as a courthouse in 1916 but was most recently used as part of the
P.G.T. Beauregard Middle School. It served as St. Bernard's first courthouse
until 1939, when the parish government seat moved to Chalmette.

The building was later leased to the St. Bernard Parish School Board, and
has been home to St. Bernard High School, P.G.T. Beauregard High School, and
before Hurricane Katrina, Beauregard Middle School.

The work on the historic building, which sustained major damage during
Katrina, was completed in December 2012 after a two-year, $8 million
renovation project. The majority of that funding came from FEMA, with the
parish government contributing $158,000.

The first floor of the historic masonry structure currently houses a
sheriff's annex and a Wildlife and Fisheries office. Parish President Dave
Peralta said that in the next month or two, the building also is expected to
house a satellite library; the main library is in the Ninth Grade Academy
building in Chalmette.

Other portions of the three-story building are rented out for weddings,
reunions and other events.