Baton Rouge
By Jeffrey L. Duplantis, MS, PE, PMP
ASCE Baton Rouge Branch President

For many of you the summer is in full swing, and I hope that you and your family are enjoying a safe summer season.  For those of you who, like me, have become more acclimated with the air conditioning  in an office setting, I know that the cool fall weather will be an enjoyable relief from the blistering heat of the summer we’ve had so far this year.  For me however, the end of summer means that I only have a few more months left in my term as President of the Baton Rouge Branch. 

In May the ASCE Baton Rouge Branch joined with LES and APWA to welcome Mayor Kip Holden to our monthly luncheon.  As always this drew a large crowd.  Mayor Holden discussed the current state of affairs within East Baton Rouge Parish and the City of Baton Rouge.  He mentioned several economic development opportunities coming to the area and briefly covered a few upcoming possibilities that he was working on.  He went over a short update on the two major projects ongoing in the Parish, and provided some insight into the status of the Green Light and SSO Programs.

In June, Baton Rouge played host to the first State of the Coast Conference.  This conference was a joint effort between the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority and the US Army Corps of Engineers.  Several members of the ASCE Baton Rouge Board sat on the steering and planning committees in order to ensure that the engineering community was well represented in the planning of the conference. We are pleased to report that the conference was a great success.  During the three day conference approximately 700 registrants were able to attend presentations and participate in discussions highlighting the unique attributes and challenges facing coastal Louisiana.  It is our hopes that this will become a bi-annual conference that will grow in both magnitude and interest.

Our regular monthly branch luncheon in June was our annual past president’s recognition and branch awards luncheon.  Recipients for the 2010 ASCE Baton Rouge Branch Awards were as follows:
- Educator of the Year: Dr. Ahyman Okeil
- Lifetime Achievement: Ara Arman
- Wall of Fame: Charlie Hair
- Outstanding Civil Engineer: Bob Jacobsen
- Outstanding Young Civil Engineer: Geoff Wilson
- Outstanding Government Civil Engineer: Bijan Sharafkhani
- Outreach: Joey Coco
We’d like to again congratulate these recipients and wish them luck on the Section level.

Louisiana Section President Chris Knotts was on hand to present several membership certificates to some very deserving members of the Baton Rouge Branch.  Fellow Member certificates were presented to Ron Rodi and Ken Perret, and Bill Monroe and William Mead were on hand to receive their Life Member certificates.  Of special interest were the past branch presidents that were in attendance.  All were recognized and appreciation for their past leadership was extended to each of them.  In attendance were Billy Wall (’08-’09), Bob Jacobsen (’07-’08), Brant Richard (’06-’07), Roy Waggenspack (’01-’02), Chris Knotts (’99-’00), Jerry Klier (’97-’98), Charles Eustis (’96-’97), Pat Broderick (’92-’93), Tom Willis (’91-’92), James Aronstein (’79-’80), Jim Porter (’77-’78), Larry McKee (’74-’75) and Gerald Dyson (’64-’65).  I would again like to thank each of these gentlemen, and those that were unable to attend, for their leadership and dedication to the society and the branch.

The Baton Rouge Branch Board will be taking off the month of July to gear up for the final leg of our terms as we head into the fall.  August will be another joint meeting with LES and should be a great luncheon.  August will also be our presentation of proposed branch officers for the 2010-2011 session, and September will be our installation of those selected to serve our membership over the course of next year.  Please make arrangements to attend these last two meetings of our term so that you can meet your officers for next year and be present for their installation.

In conclusion, I want to thank all of the Baton Rouge membership for attending our monthly luncheons.  Your interest and interaction is greatly appreciated.  As a Board, we have strived to build upon the past years to provide you with topics of interest.  We have several meetings left before we complete the 2009-2010 year, and the Board would like to encourage everyone to get involved and participate in the activities we have planned and to become active in the engineering community.