Parish Activists Unite to Form New Group

Parish Activists Unite to Form New Group
Tammany Together Targets Growth Issues

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

By Charlie Chapple
St. Tammany Bureau

Seeking strength in numbers and a united voice, a group of St. Tammany Parish
activists have formed a new organization, "Tammany Together," to
tackle major developmental and quality-of-life issues.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization essentially will be a parishwide
coalition of homeowners associations, civic groups and individuals that will
take a collective stand on the major issues facing the parish, organizers said
at a news conference Monday.

Rick Wilke, Tammany Together's interim president and board member, said there
are numerous homeowners associations and other groups throughout the parish
taking positions on issues.

But when they attend government meetings to express their views, "small
groups tend to show up, speaking with a smaller voice," Wilke said.
"They don't quite carry the weight of a larger group."

Tammany Together was formed, Wilke said, because "there has been no
forum to look at the parish as a whole so that everyone can work together to
address infrastructure problems, to address the root causes of hodgepodge
development, or to support each other in welcoming good development and fighting
bad."

Tammany Together will work "to identify issues of importance to the
citizens of St. Tammany Parish, to educate its members and others on these
issues, and to exert a positive influence to their outcome by speaking out in an
unified voice," according to its mission statement.

Wilke also is president of the Association of Associations, a coalition of
homeowners groups in the Covington area. Members of that association and others
have been working to organize Tammany Together for more than a year.

So far, the fledgling group has been using "word of mouth" to
attract its initial members, Wilke said. Now, the group is making a public
appeal for those who share Tammany Together's views to come on board, he said.

The group is hosting an informational meeting for the public and
representatives of homeowners and civic groups on May 17 at the parish
government complex on Koop Drive north of Mandeville. The session is set for
6:30 p.m. in the Parish Council chambers.

There's also a Web site, www.TammanyTogether.org, with more information about
the new organization.

The founding members of Tammany Together recently elected interim officers
and named nine of the 15 board members who will help run the organization. The
other board members will be named as other groups join Tammany Together, said
board member Bill McHugh of the recently revived Old Military Road Homeowners
Association northeast of Covington.

Other board members include Paulette Barras of Slidell, a founding member of
the Citizens for Environmental Quality; interim Vice President L.R
"Pug" Lorren of the Covington area; interim Treasurer Elizabeth
Manshel of the Penn's Chapel Road Association near Mandeville; and John Martin,
president of the Goodbee Civic Association.

Also on the board are Jeannine Meeds of Big Branch; interim Secretary Sandra
Slifer, president of the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany; and P.J.
Stakelum III, president of the Flower Estates Homeowners Association south of
Covington.

Wilke said organizations that have joined the Tammany Together include the
Association of Associations, the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany, the
Goodbee Civic Association, and the homeowners associations for Tchefuncta Trace
and Brookstone subdivisions.

. . . . . . .

Charlie Chapple can be reached at cchapple@timespicayune.com or (985) 898-4828.