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S&WB officials grilled over breaks
City Council members call out lack of urgency in fixes BY BEN MYERS Staff writer
New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board officials on Tuesday received an earful from City Council members as city leaders begin grappling with how to pay for costly fixes to decrepit water pipes. As they have repeatedly in recent weeks, council members assailed board officials for a perceived lack of urgency and shoddy communication after four water
“We have to improve, but I also want to say I am not an individual or professional (who makes) excuses. That is not my track record.”
inherited,” said District E council member Jason Hughes, who chairs the council’s Public Works Committee. “We all inherited what we RANDy HAyMAN, inherited. What we need to do is be leaders.” S&WB executive director S&WB Executive Director Randy Hayman, who joined the agency main breaks in six weeks flooded that problem on Monday, said they eight months ago, said the agency’s homes, closed schools and disrupt- were putting their best efforts to- new water main plan is not merely ed businesses. ward remedying a system that has “damage control” after the latest And as they have repeatedly in been problem-ridden for decades. incidents, and that the S&WB startrecent weeks, board officials, who “I’m not interested in hearing, ed its planning process before the laid out a new plan for addressing with all due respect, of what was spate of breaks began on Jan. 31.
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“We have to improve, but I also want to say I am not an individual or professional (who makes) excuses. That is not my track record,” Hayman replied. It was the second time in a little more than a week that the council skewered Hayman and other board officials. Council members also slammed S&WB officials at a Public Works Committee meeting on March 10, the day after the third of the recent water main breaks. A fourth came two days later. Repairs are still underway on the last one, near Audubon and
ä See S&WB, page 6A
Shipbuilder opening N.O. office Saronic bringing up to 75 employees to CBD location
BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By DAVID GRUNFELD
ABOVE: Bryan Smoak, left, holding a cross, and Cory Johnson, employees with Stafford Construction, prepare to attach an aluminum cross to the left bell spire of Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church as restoration work continues on the historic church on South Carrollton Avenue on Wednesday. RIGHT: The original cross and spire were damaged during Hurricane Ida in 2021.
Saronic Technologies, the venture capital-backed builder of autonomous vessels that set up operations last year in south Louisiana, announced Wednesday it is opening an office in Place St. Charles that will bring up to 75 employees to New Orleans’ Central Business District. The move comes roughly a year after the Austin, Texas-based company, which has raised more than $800 million from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, purchased a shipyard in Franklin, where it plans to manufacture “drone boats” for military and commercial clients. In December, it announced a $300 million expansion that would support 1,500 jobs. Now, it is setting up shop in downtown New Orleans, taking nearly 15,000 square feet in the 53-story high-rise at 201 St. Charles Ave. The office will house hardware engineers, naval architects, marine engineers and experts in system testing to support the design and development of the “Marauder,” a 180-foot autonomous ship produced in Franklin. Saronic employees already have been working in
ä See SHIPBUILDER, page 6A
Testimony details underworld of staged automobile crashes Life for ‘slammers’ filled with cash and peril, jury told
BY JAMES FINN and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writers
Cornelius Garrison III never said aloud what he did for a living, though he didn’t leave it all at the office. His girlfriend, Juanisha Winchester, would pick shards of glass from his hair when Garrison returned home from work, she testified last week in federal court. He wasn’t coy when they first met in 2017 on a Mississippi road trip with his younger protégé, Ryan “Red” Harris, a friend of
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Winchester’s who came along as a passenger. Garrison struck a big rig on the drive back to New Orleans and coached her on what to tell police. Then, he took her to see Vanessa Motta, a Kenner injury attorney now accused of orchestrating a sweeping fraud scheme. Motta sued and snagged her a sixfigure settlement. “I put two and two together,” Winchester said. “At the time of my accident, I figured that’s what (Garrison) did for a living. He did accidents.” The life of a “slammer” was full of cash and freedom, but also peril on and off the street, a parade of witnesses have testified at the blockbuster federal fraud trial against Motta and a second injury attorney, Jason Giles, now in its third week.
For Garrison, it all ended in September 2020, after he began cooperating with the FBI. The man who evaded death on the roads for years fell victim to fatal gunfire at his mother’s Gentilly home in what prosecutors describe as an execution-style hit. Winchester is one of several witnesses in the ongoing trial who have shined light on the life and death of Garrison, a New Orleans native, and his brazen trade. Harris also testified. Last year, he pleaded guilty to arranging Garrison’s slaying in an agreement that sets him up to serve 35 years. Sean Alfortish, a disbarred attorney who was engaged to Motta, awaits an August trial alongside a Harris associate, Leon “Chunky”
PHOTO PROVIDED By FAMILy
Cornelius Garrison, an alleged ‘slammer’ in a scheme to stage car wrecks with 18-wheelers, was killed Sept. 22, 2020, four days after he was ä See CRASHES, page 8A indicted on fraud charges.
Business ......................7A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
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