Lumpkin: 'Catch Governor's attention on July 4'

Jason Lumpkin

For a Washington Parish business owner and resident, it’s all about taking care of business … and while Jason Lumpkin, who owns and operates Bogalusa Equipment Sales at 14234 Highway 21 South, is not inside the city limit, it doesn’t matter.

Tuesday night, Lumpkin, who is unashamedly pro-Bogalusa, went before the Bogalusa City Council to encourage them to be aggressive in marketing the community to Gov. Bobby Jindal when he is in town for the annual July 4 birthday celebration and Independence Day Parade.

“How many cities in the state do you think he’s going to be in to ride in a parade that day?” he asked in a raised voice. “How many cities do you think are going to be able to tell him, ‘Hey, here we are!”

Lumpkin, holding up a single sheet American flag reproduction from the Bogalusa newspaper said, “There are going to be plenty of American flags there … it’s the Fourth of July!  Why not print up 5,000 or so of these pages that say ‘Highway 3241’ or ‘Keep Rayburn Open!’ ?”

Lumpkin, who has a sign erected on the south side of his building — visible to drivers headed north on Highway 21 — that touts the merits of Highway 3241 and the manner in which funds have been collected without the road ever having been built.

“If we don’t do it this year, I think it’s dead,” Lumpkin told wpnewsblog following the council meeting. “It’s so important that we not waste the opportunity of having the Governor here in a one-on-one — or 5,000-on-one situation.”

The TIMED (Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development) program was one of the late Sen. B.B. “Sixty” Rayburn’s prized pieces of legislation in that it created a revenue stream to fund 17 projects statewide. Only Highway 3241 and the 5-mile-long Florida Avenue Bridge, now projected to cost $474 million, to run through the Lower 9th Ward and part of St. Bernard Parish, remain to be completed.

The projects were to be paid for — and have been — with a dedicated four-cents per gallon tax that has since been renewed.

The Highway 3241 project was once estimated to cost about $20 million, but cost estimates to complete the project are now $150 million or more.

Lumpkin has been persistent and passionate about the highway and the positive impact it could have on the region.

In October 2008, he went to a Town Hall meeting in Franklinton and elicited a promise from Jindal regarding the road.

“You have my commitment, we're going to build that road,” Jindal said.

At that time,  Lumpkin urged the governor to “get involved” with the long-delayed project.

There have been a number of plans and proposals over the years and, about four years ago, a preferred route was selected that followed much of the former railroad line through the countryside.

“I just want us to catch his attention while we have him in this setting,’ Lumpkin said. “Imagine the impact it could have if we have young children like this, pointing to council member Michael O’Ree’s young son on the front row of seats, holding signs that encourage him to support our community?”

Lumpkin said he felt the potential impact was worth any expense that might be incurred to print such a flyer.

There is a website on the project — http://www.i12tobush.com.