Baseball: Tigers reflect on disheartening season, p. 5
Video games: Columnist Adam Arinder covers E3 conference on lsureveille.com.
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Hill Library: Explorers’ South American discoveries on display, p. 3 Tuesday, June 7, 2011 • Volume 115, Issue 140
High Waters
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Click It or Ticket campaign wraps up Morgan Searles Staff Writer
design flood level for flood, protective or control works. Harmon said the levees should be open to the public once the dams and sandbags are safely removed. “We are still concerned. There is still risk as the river is still in the major flood stage,” Harmon said. “As the river continues to fall, we will monitor that the stability and integrity of levees is there.” Harmon said he does not believe there is
Local officers wrapped up a campaign for increased seat belt use on Sunday. From May 23 to June 5, Baton Rouge police were on high alert for seat belt safety offenders, setting up checkpoints and ticketing individuals caught not wearing a seat belt. This zero-tolerance enforcement was part of a campaign for increased seat belt safety by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission. The Baton Rouge Police Department and the LSU Police Department participated in the 2011 Click It or Ticket national mobilization. Jamie Ainsworth, public information officer for the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, said Louisiana drivers rank among the lowest in seat belt use, despite being a primary
RIVER, see page 4
SEAT BELTS, see page 4
STEVEN POWELL / The Daily Reveille
Sand bags are used to reinforce parts of the Tiger Dams constructed on the Miss. River levee along River Road in May. These dams are being removed as the river recedes.
Tiger Dams removed from BR levees, Mississippi River levels slowly receding Morgan Searles Staff Writer
With water levels of the Mississippi River slowly decreasing, officials began removing the orange Tiger Dams from Baton Rouge levees Monday. River levels were recorded at 41.4 feet Monday morning, keeping Baton Rouge under the precautionary flood warning, which is put in place when the river reaches 35.0 feet. However, the Department of Public Works feels there is no risk of the river overtopping the levees.
Bryan Harmon, deputy director of the Department of Public Works, said the Tiger Dams may take about a week to remove. “Those were put in place to give us additional freeboard on the levee tops, based on ship traffic and rain events and things that may have changed the crest when it was predicted at 47.5 feet,” Harmon said. “The river is at a level we’re comfortable with, and it is appropriate now to start taking the dams down.” According to the Baton Rouge government website, freeboard is a term used to describe a factor of safety expressed in feet above a
MUSIC
Bayou Country Superfest future on uncertain ground Location for next fest undisclosed Morgan Searles Staff Writer
Mayor-President Kip Holden announced to a stadium full of country music fans that Bayou Country Superfest will definitely happen again next year. He did not, however, disclose any information about the festival’s future location. Details about the 2012 Superfest have been in question since December, when the East Baton Rouge Metro Council decided to strip the mayor-president’s budget of $300,000 meant to sponsor the festival.
Scott Dyer, spokesman for Holden’s office, told The Daily Reveille in January the city’s current budget situation will make it difficult to find $300,000 elsewhere to sponsor the show, and promoters could move it to another location. Festival Productions, Inc., the production marketing company for Superfest, told The Daily Reveille more information about the 2012 Superfest would be released closer to the fall. Paul Arrigo, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he would do everything he could to keep Superfest in Baton Rouge. “I would like to work with the mayor to try to bring this back to Baton Rouge, and I am confident it can be done — especially with 2012 being a bicentennial year for
Louisiana — as this is a major event for the state’s capital,” Arrigo said. Arrigo said Festival Productions put in more than half a million dollars of advertising for national publicity, making the event “priceless” in economic development and branding for the city. “This is the single largest nonsporting event to bring visitors from all over the country and some foreign countries to LSU,” he said. “It has national and international implications for Baton Rouge.” With approximately 75,000 people in attendance this year, Arrigo said local hotels did well and were better prepared to handle the influx of people. Joe Alleva, LSU athletic director, said in a news release that
SUPERFEST, see page 4
ADAM VACCARELLA / The Daily Reveille
The Bayou Country Superfest crowd eagerly awaits a performance May 28 in Tiger Stadium. The event’s organizers haven’t announced the location of next year’s festival.