Slidell launches citywide naming contest

Launching a citywide contest, Slidell officials are inviting creative Camellia City residents to try their hand at naming two new municipal buildings slated to open near City Hall.

The buildings, known as Building No. 1 and Building No. 2, eventually will house the majority of the city's employees, most of whom have been working from a trailer complex near Bayou Lane since Hurricane Katrina.

Melissa Newman, public information officer for the Department of Cultural and Public Affairs, said the idea for the contest came out of the city's administration office, which thought Slidell citizens might have some good ideas for names.

"Otherwise the buildings were just going to be named Municipal Building No. 1 and Municipal Building No. 2," she said.

The first building, next to the renovated City Hall on Second Street, is scheduled to open in January. The 32,970-square-foot, $5.4 million building will house departments including finance, personnel, data processing, risk management, and the city attorney, as well as the City Council office and council chambers.

Building No. 2, a 28,970-square-foot structure slated to be built on Bouscaren Street behind City Hall, will house the city prosecutor and the departments for planning, building and safety, engineering, and cultural and public affairs.

Officials had hoped to go out to bid to construct the $4.7 million building earlier this month, but plans have been put on hold while the Federal Emergency Management Agency conducts a historical review of the proposed building site, which has previously housed a church, a post office and a bingo hall.

The review is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month, and construction should start next year, officials said. The building is slated to be completed in 2011.

In the meantime the city is in the process of forming a naming committee that will consist of city employees and community leaders....