Youths play basketball at the Richard Brown Community Center. The baseball fields at Roger J. Clouatre Memorial Park in St.
Amant aren’t going anywhere, but the question of how to use the remaining land off Stringer Bridge Road was up for debate at an information session Tuesday. Led by consultant Randy Albarez, who called parks the “soul” of a community, the meeting was followed by another Wednesday concerning Richard Brown Community Center and park in Geismar. The gatherings were aimed to kick off a period of public input to help inform the creation of two master plans.
Several members of the Clouatre family attended the St. Amant session, which saw around 20 total attendees suggest everything from improving parking for baseball games to a fishing pier. Kayla Clouatre, who has lived near the park for eight years, said she walks there six days a week.
“There's a nice little walking trail that's like eight-tenths of a mile. It's very friendly,” she said. “You end up seeing the same people that we kind of have the same schedule.
” And while she didn’t have any personal requests for the park, she expected a few relatively simple fixes. “The walking track itself needs some repair ..
. so I'm sure that's going to be in it,” she said. “And I think they're going to put probably need some security lighting out around there as well.
” Randy Clouatre, Roger’s brother, shared the park’s history, which began in 1968 with a group of determined residents. “A bunch of good men and women that lived in this whole area got together, and they started talking about developing a park with a swimming pool and amenities,” Randy Clouatre said. “.
.. The first thing we built was the biggest baseball field in the back.
” The park expanded until the 1980s, when it was leased out, he said, adding that it was sold to the parish government in the latter part of that decade. Its name was to honor Roger Clouatre in 2015. Discussions also centered on developing space at the back of the property for nature walking trails.
At the Geismar meeting, a handful of attendees expressed a similar desire for trails. Honora Buras, of Prairieville, said she would like to see more nature trails across the parish, and felt there was a lack of available space to grow parks. “There's no publicly accessible open space and that any space that is available is getting more expensive,” she said.
“I would like to see land acquired while it's still available and set aside for parks.” For Richard Brown Community Center, she advocated for more public programming at the facility. During the discussion, when Albarez mentioned a possible perimeter path, she suggested using materials other than concrete.
Parish recreation director Michael King said that although the department hopes to grow parks, the current focus is developing sites the department already owns. “This park hasn't really been considered a park. It was more of a community center,” he said.
“...
The whole point is to kind of see what else can we do here to make a park around the building, too, so it’s not just the building.” He added that since no tax is specifically targeted for the recreation budget, the department depends on allocations from the general fund to finance its projects. At the St.
Amant meeting, Randy Clouatre also mentioned a lack of dedicated funds. “Ascension Parish has been very blessed to have a great economy ..
. but we’ve never been really successful in putting recreation tax,” he said. “.
.. We love that we're all about sports in our parish.
We love our sports ...
and you know, it’s never been successful at the voter rolls.” Albarez encouraged residents of the respective communities to fill out online surveys for the St. Amant and parks, adding that they be available for a few weeks before more detailed work on the master plans begins.
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