ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / December 30, 1999

LAPLACE – The view out of Arnold Labat’s office window is that of a bustling, growing community. Cars and trucks whiz by on Airline Highway,shopping centers are busy with shoppers, and there is a aura of progress and development in the air. Labat is responsible for a lot of that.He is looking over some old campaign flyers of his first election for parish president back in 1984. He nods in satisfaction.”I had certain goals for the parish back then. I’ve achieved a lot of thosegoals, and I’m satisfied,” Labat says with firmness.

On Jan. 10, 2000, Labat officially leaves the office of St. John the BaptistParish President. It will be an end of an era. Labat has held the office offor 12 years – three terms – and in that time the parish has gone through some remarkable changes and progressed beyond even what Labat expected.

“When I was first elected in 1984,” Labat says, “there were two kinds of water in this parish . . .brown and none.” He laughs.

“Back then, I knew exactly what had to be done,” he explains. “In 1984, Iknew that I would have to consolidate all the water and sewerage boards into one board in order for the parish to survive.”That was a major headache and a major accomplishment for Labat. In 1984there were four water boards and four sewerage boards, one each for LaPlace, Reserve, Garyville and Edgard. He managed to bring it all underone heading.

A major theme of Labat’s political philosophy is doing things for the entire parish.

“I’ve always felt that to do things they must be done parishwide, water, sewers, libraries, streets, all parishwide,” Labat says, “A parish is like a body. If one part is sore the whole parish suffers, so you have to work onthe whole thing, not just one small part.”That is why he likes the council type of government instead of the police jury.

“A police jury is made up of a lot of little fiefdoms, and it is hard to get things accomplished in that atmosphere,” Labat explains. “You need toworry about the parish as a whole.”Labat isn’t a great fan of creating municipalities, either.

“I don’t believe in municipalities,” he says. “There is never enough moneyor resources to take care of things.”Going back to his old campaign pamphlets he starts scanning the list of things he told the electorate he was going to do.

“I like to think I went out and accomplished what the parish needed,” Labat says. “Let’s see, the parish’s bond rating has improved from one of theworst in the state to one of the best. We’ve saved millions of tax dollars. Ihelped to reduce fire and water insurance, started the hurricane protection levee project. I’ve improved drainage.” He smiles.

“Sure the streets flood, but only four or five houses in the whole parish get water damage now because of drainage improvements.”He also got parishwide sewerage and water systems installed.

Labat was instrumental in getting the 9-1-1 emergency system installed parishwide, and two boat launches in Reserve and on Peavine Road were built under his administration. He helped get fire fighting equipment andbuild more fire houses, plus he was able to get an ambulance service for the parish.

In education, Labat was able to watch the expansion of the vocational- technical, and it is expanding again. Labat says he is looking forward to ajunior college coming into the parish.

He was instrumental in bringing Operation Outreach to the community to help promote literacy and teach people to read. He was able to get librarybranches built in Reserve and Edgard and get land for the Garyville branch.

He is most proud, he says, of brokering the agreement between teachers and administration when the teachers went on strike in 1984.

“I got them to agree because both sides trusted me.” Labat says, laughing.”I wore them down.”During Labat’s time in office he helped get an industrial park built across from the airport and brought in Stockhausen, Marathon and Ashland which provided jobs and tax money to the parish. Labat also saw that the airportstarted expanding with another runway.

“Ninety-eight percent of the roads in the parish are now paved,” he says proudly.

Labat’s hand and influence can also be seen in future projects for the parish. The 52 acres on U.S. Highway 51 will soon be a park, “likeLafreniere Park,” and he has set into motion the process to get a road built between Dupont Curve on West Fifth and Airline Highway.

“All we need for that,” says Labat, “is to get the railroad’s permission to build a railroad crossing, and then we can build the road.”When asked what he thinks is the most important thing St. John Parish cando in the future, Labat sits silently and thinks.

Finally, he says, “Developing the west bank is the most important thing we can do for the future. I see the west bank as a sleeping giant, just waitingto be awakened. It is virgin territory, but the infrastructure is alreadythere. All we need is to get it developed more.”Labat thinks if Willowland were built up as a containerized port and the state decided to build the regional airport on the west bank, the parish could see a lot of growth.

“With the bridges and new Interstate 49 that area could really blossom,” Labat says, “but you have to get people to move over there.”He doesn’t see any problems with over-development in the parish.

“We are in a position to control growth,” says Labat. “We have a planningand zoning department, and if we keep a very close eye on developers, industry and commercial, I don’t foresee any problems.”Labat says he has had a pretty good time being parish president.

“I enjoyed the job,” he says smiling, “but I did not enjoy the politics that goes with it.”The best part of his job is seeing his accomplishments in action.

“I like going to the parks and seeing the kids play, and I’m pleased to know that we can handle most emergencies.” Labat says, pausing. “But mybiggest joy is that we have made the parish a better place to live.”As for the politics, well, he doesn’t pull any punches.

“I did enjoy working with most of the parish councils,” he says. “The ’84and ’92 councils were very helpful.” Labat pauses, then adds: “The present council, I didn’t really like working with them. All they wanted to do is be administrators.”This is the third retirement for Labat. First, he retired from Shell Oil backin 1983, then he retired from politics for the first time when he lost the 1988 election to Lester Millet. Now he is retiring from politics again.”This is the time I really feel like retiring,” Labat says. “At 70 years old Idon’t want to go back into politics.”Asked what he will do in retirement, Labat smiles, then answers: “Not much. I have a huge workshop and I like to build furniture. I paint, I cook,and I’ll probably start a small garden. I’m sure my children have a lot ofwork planned for me.”Does the outgoing president have any words of advice for Parish President-elect Nickie Monica? Labat scowls.

“Yeah. Nickie, forget about the damned studies! Just go out and get thedamned job done!”

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