Bids sent out for Slidell auditorium

By Erik Sanzenbach
St. Tammany News
Published on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 10:52 PM CDT

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Slidell Mayor Ben Morris said last Thursday he was sending out requests for bids on demolishing and rebuilding the Slidell Municipal Auditorium.

He said he hopes to get bids back by today, and after he decides on a company, he said the demolition could start by November.

The auditorium is one of the last big projects in the city’s rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina almost destroyed the facility nearly four years ago.

The storm surge put 6 feet of water into the auditorium. Though the main ballroom was repaired, the two wings, which housed several government offices, were uninhabitable and have been empty ever since the storm.

Morris tried to get the building declared destroyed by the FEMA, but the agency said it did not meet the required 51 percent damage criteria. As a result, FEMA said it would renovate the auditorium but not demolish and rebuild.

Finally, earlier this year, FEMA agreed to demolish and rebuild, but only if Slidell built a 6-foot floodwall around the auditorium. But Morris, after getting an independent study, said the wall was not feasible economically or structurally.

FEMA and Slidell seemed to be at an impasse, but then last month FEMA said it would pay for the demolition and rebuilding of the auditorium without the wall.

Morris said there are no official plans for the building — the city will have to wait to accept bids first — but the mayor does have ideas he would like to see in the new designs. He said he would like to see the new building constructed without the wings, and that would mean a much bigger meeting space, which would mean bigger gatherings in the auditorium.

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