Also, getting the lead out of Shreveport

Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux is celebrating a flurry of activity and good news from last week’s city council meeting.

The biggest news of the meeting was the council’s approval of an ordinance to lease the old Stageworks Louisiana facility on Clyde Fant Parkway downtown to Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who appeared at the council meeting.

“I am very pleased at the approval of the Stageworks lease,” Arceneaux said last Thursday. “I have signed that ordinance. It will become effective in a week from yesterday. We will get the lease signed and get them working.”

The mayor said Jackson has big plans for the soundstage space.

“He has several events he has in mind to do very quickly there,” Arceneaux said, “but also to use the soundstage portion of Stageworks to do some television filming.”

Plans for Stageworks include hosting sporting events, like the celebrity basketball that took place during last year’s Humor & Harmony Festival. He said the plans include using it as a soundstage while G-Unit Studios ramps up in the former Millennium Studios building.

“Ultimately, they will be making some substantial capital modifications to Millennium Studios,” he said. “That will take some time. So they will start filming unscripted shows at Stageworks, and I think that will happen pretty quickly.

“What that means I am not so sure.

I hope by the summer or during the summer they will be using that facility for that purpose. Which is one of the permitted uses of that property.”

Arceneaux said the city is working with Jackson and G-Unit on the improvements at Millennium.

“We are working on an agreement as to what that will be and what the investment will be,” Arceneaux said. “That’s why that one has been languishing. It’s actually a fairy complicated deal with what they are planning to do.”

The council also amended property standards ordinances to address issues with squatters in vacant properties in Shreveport. The changes will make it easier for police to cite and remove squatters.

“I am also pleased that the council passed the property standards amendment that will, I believe, make it easier for police to deal with occupants of dilapidated properties. I think that will be a real positive thing.”

Arceneaux also celebrated the confirmation of two new department heads in his administration — Jarvis Morgan at Public Works and Verni Howard at Community Development.

Morgan has served as the interim director of Public Works.

“Jarvis has been there nine years and knows the ins and outs of Pubic Works,” Arceneaux said. “Since he has been the interim, he has jumped into the role. I have been very pleased with his energy and his ideas. I think that will end up being a very good choice.”

Howard is currently the executive director of Providence House.

She will take over Community Development on April 16, “giving her a little time to wrap up at Providence House,” the mayor said.

“She brings with her a lot of practical experience in education,” he said. “She was a banker for 20 years, so she understands the business side of this. She will understand the financial transactions that Community Development tends to work in. They are heavily involved in redevelopment, usually using federal and state grants as well as other funds that are available. She’s very enthusiastic about her job. She has big shoes to fill in Bonnie Moore. But I think Verni will be a great choice.”

Get the Lead Out

Shreveport is participating in Get the Lead Out, a federal program to remove lead pipes from water systems.

“We have begun testing for lead,” Arceneaux said. “We are testing on both sides of the meter. If there is lead on the homeowner’s side of the meter, we will inform the homeowner’s. We have not made any decision yet about replacement of those service lines.”

The lines going into the water meters are distribution lines. The lines from the water meters to the homes are service lines.

“We will be testing for both of those,” he said. “The current rule will require us to replace the distribution lines. We are not required by the rule to replace the homeowner’s side. That may or may not become a homeowner responsibility.”

Arceneaux said it is not a reason for homeowners to panic.

“I think the important thing is the fact that you have a lead pipe does not mean your water contains lead,” he said. “We test for that in our distribution lines all the time. We are always below any problem level of lead. It is not something people need to be immediately concerned about. I believe that if you don’t disturb the lead pipe, it doesn’t bleed into the water.”

Arceneaux said the city will test about 2,000 households to determine how much lead there is.

“We have records of where the pipe is, but not what it is made of,” he said.

The mayor said the project is a significant undertaking.

“We have 50,000 primarily households that we don’t know (whether there is lead pipe),” Arceneaux said. “That’s why we are testing, to get some idea of the magnitude. I think we will be under some mandate to replace those distribution lines. Which, if we have a lot of it, is ambitious and very expensive. And that’s all on top of the sewer consents decree. We have a lot to deal with.”