Natural and Cultural Working Group Meeting 1 May 25, 2017 City Hall
The following are notes taken during the Team meeting. They are unofficial ideas and comments that were brought up. Individual comments do not reflect views of Denham Strong or The City of Denham Springs. Comments are used to define issues and visioning. All comments are welcome.
Attendees:
Donna Jennings (City of Denham Springs Grants Coordinator); Margot May (Livingston Business Journal), etc. John Cavalier (Book Store owner); Jeanette Clark, City of Denham Spring; Deanne Bingham, Jack Slota, Beth Otto, and Charles Stoma FEMA
Natural, Cultural and Historical Issues –
A need for bike trails to connect local and regional attractions.
Create a health scene, economic draw.
Denham Springs lacks a cultural and historical identity. Need to build that sense of place. Connection to place. History. Opportunity to work with Spring Park to provide history, education on Denham founding.
- Cultural resources could include community center, theatre, expanding on old city hall.
- How do we get funding for a community center? First, you need to make it want to be funded.
- We did a study of the area to figure out where to put a community center. It is probably outdated by now. (But maybe this could be a starting point?)
Need activities for children.
Antique District has been cleaned up. Now we need economic development involved to bring people in. Aside from it being back – where could it be with more cultural events. If we had more lighting on the street it would be safer for residents to come out for an evening meeting.
Need to document and retell history
Promote festivals and other activities. Think about alcohol rules and how that plays in.
Examples to look to:
- Slidell Harbor Center – bring in cultural resources for funding.
There are a few people that are involved in all of the events. They get burned out. Notes:
Kids’ corner – We need to promote that it is open again.
Visioning:
- What would you like to see at Spring Park?
- What would you like to do on a date locally?
- What else could be done with the train station?
- What is keeping you from hanging out in the antiques district?
- What kinds of activities for kids?
- Would you like to see more quilt trails, bird watching, other tourist draws?
- What activities would you like to see?
- What do you leave here to go do?
- What kind of events?
- How do we get river access?
Meeting Issues:
- Residents are worried about their flood insurance rates.
Next Meeting:
Wednesday 2:45 June 7th City Hall.
