NEW ORLEANS — The warm weather and sunny skies brought people out to the New Orleans Lakefront on Friday. But across Lakeshore Drive from the beauty of Lake Pontchartrain is a series of crumbling picnic shelters and public restrooms.
“They ought to fix them up,” Lakefront visitor Vincent Riccobono said. “They really need them. There’s so many people out here during the summer and on weekends. They need them. It’s ridiculous. This one looks like a car ran into it.”
And if you need to use the restroom while you’re at the Lakefront, good luck.
“You’ve got to walk a long way,” Lakefront visitor Danielle Sumi said. “Just wait until you get back home, depending on where you came from.”
Bob Romero chairs the recreation committee for the Lakefront Management Authority. He says they are fighting a losing battle with vandalism, old plumbing, and Mother Nature.
Shelter 1, across from the lighthouse has been closed due to storm damage. It flooded twice last year, and Hurricane Zeta blew the bricks off of two sides of the structure.
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“This repair that needs to be done on the backside of this part of the shelter and on the other side occurred during the storm,” Romero said. “If we’re going to repair it, we have to have the money to do it.”
Right now, the LMA is waiting on a check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“I wish we could do better,” Romero said. “I don’t have an answer. I’m held up to the constraints of the bureaucracy.”
Shelter 4 is out of commission because it has no running water. Shelters 2 and 3 are open but were recently damaged by vandals.
“We want these shelters back in service as soon as you can,” Romero said.
The Lakefront Management Authority now hopes to have all of the shelters along Lakeshore Drive up and operating by the Easter break. But Commissioner Romero admits that deadline may be overly optimistic.
The LMA sent this detailed description of the problems at each shelter.
General cleaning of Lakefront Shelters: The Lakefront Management Authority utilizes Jani-king of New Orleans to clean Shelters #2 & #3. Shelters are cleaned daily. LMA Maintenance also performs spot checks on the conditions of the two open restrooms and responds to complaints as received.
Shelter #1 (West end): Shelter is out of service due to the repetitive flooding and damage from Hurricane Zeta. We are in the process of investigating potential hazard mitigation measures for the repetitive flooding damages at this shelter. To continue repairing fixtures inside the shelter to have them ruined with every thunderstorm on the lake would be pointless. Quotes are pending on the repair to collapsed brick wall. We have been having issue getting insured vendors to submit quotes, but have received one quote so far.
Shelter #2: Shelter is fully operational. Two broken mirrors currently due to vandals. One was broken yesterday and another was broken today. The men’s restroom is frequently clogged at this location. Maintenance addresses the issue when it occurs. We are also in the process of getting pricing to inspect the sewer line to see if there is damages outside of the building that are causing this to be repetitive or if it just a user/vandal type issue.
Shelter #3: Shelter is fully operational. The locks at this shelter were vandalized and significantly damaged. Maintenance have been working this week to modify the doors to receive a different form of locking mechanism in hopes to prevent vandals from causing access issues. The new locks have been installed and finish work is underway. All work should be done by the end of day today.
Shelter #4: Water service to the building was damaged under prior administration and service can no longer be located. We are in the process getting pricing for the reestablishment of water service. We are waiting on pricing on waterline reconnect.