Meet the two candidates vying for seat

As noted in my last Forum column, the contested Bossier Parish Police Jury District 5 seat is a rematch between former juror Barry Butler and incumbent Jack Skaggs. Skaggs won the seat by 73 votes in the October 2011 election and Butler is looking to reverse that outcome Oct. 24.

Skaggs is a local small businessman. In a recent visit, he reflected on the initial phase of his District 5 representation, recalling it as a “learning experience” where he tried to “absorb as much information as I could, but it’s like drinking out of a firehose – trying to figure out where to go, who to talk to, what to do as people are calling you with issues.”

Skaggs said he appreciated the public invested those first few years to allow him the opportunity to learn, and his whole reason for getting into politics was that he saw a big age gap between current Jury leadership and the younger crowd – and that his whole goal was “… the community aspect.”

Recalling his youth in Bossier Parish, he said, “I want to make sure that we give our kids a great place to work and live and a good community environment to socialize in.”

Skaggs is a “we” type of juror. He explained it thusly: “You think as a juror, as an individual, you have a lot of power. At the end of the day, you don’t. The Jury of 12 is really the major machine. As an individual juror, your job is to control the controllables and that would be answering the call when people call you, and answering emails and then bringing those issues up to the Jury of 12.”

Skaggs said growing up he was a baseball fan and got to play for Smoke Laval who coached under Skip Burtman, and a Burtman quote stuck with him, “I play my best nine, not my nine best.” That, said Skaggs, alluded to “I play the best guys that play together, not necessarily my best nine superstars.”

He described the current Jury as that “nine best” and said each juror brings a strength to the Jury, and those strengths are instrumental in the decisions the Jury makes.

“So as a group, it’s a very, very dynamic group, and as a team, I want to stay on that team because I think we’ve been very progressive and we work very, very well together,” Skaggs said.

He ticked of a number of projects the Jury’s achieved, working on, or that are in the planning phases. Those include the southern extension of the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, and purchase of right-of-way to Taylortown for future extension; and the 100-acre south Bossier park off Sligo Road. He credited Jury leadership of Butch Ford, Patrick Jackson and Bill Altimus for the work done to secure funds through the state off-system bridge program to refurbish or totally rebuild parish bridges.

And he discussed a variety of other projects including the parish’s sewer district work, including a new wastewater plant at Cash Point, the work to create another north-south corridor with work on Swan Lake Road and collaborative efforts like the Kingston Road improvements to improve the parish’s transportation system.

In the near future, Skaggs sees more collaborative efforts with other area governments to and parish stakeholders to build an even better parish/city to call home.

A briefer visit with contender Barry Butler, a former Air Force pilot and current American Airlines pilot, revealed different concerns and aspirations for Bossier Parish. Butler served one term on the Jury.

Butler said one of his parish priorities would be a greater pooling of parish funding with that of Bossier City for projects such as the old downtown re-envisioning project. Butler believes “building it big and fast” would increase the project’s lasting success. From the standpoint of parish-city collaboration, Butler pointed to the Cyber Innovation Center as a “great success with great potential after [the arrival] of Computer Science Corporation.”

And he called for more of these collaborative efforts in the future, saying, “We need to build Bossier City. I’m a little scared for the city; we need a strong central city.”

He believes such cooperative efforts will allow for the creation/construction of city for parks and other amenities that will bring people to Bossier City. He encouraged a review of his website, barrybutler.net, as an opportunity to better understand his concerns and recommendations for successful growth.

Butler contends the parish’s current sewer district project may restrict Bossier City’s growth (along with geographical limitations). He sees a possibility that parish residents may not have a need or desire to be annexed into the city if they are provided services like the sewer district will provide by the parish. And asserts on his website that he will meet with Bossier City officials to “create a regional growth plan that will allow the maximum growth and health of our major parish city.”

District 5 voters will undoubtedly want to visit with both candidates to decide their parish representation for the next four years.

Marty Carlson, a freelance writer, has been covering local news for the past 17 years. She can be reached via email at martycarlson1218@ gmail.com.