We have an annual district inspection and a five-year thorough inspection with the Corps.

You get an annual physical every year. It seems your credit should be worthy of the same inspection.

There are drains at the base of the dam. There is always a certain amount of water going in and out. We monitor that flow and its pressure.

This year we have not done a thorough enough job going through the budget to look for reductions. A 7 percent increase is too much for the increasingly stressed taxpayers in this town to handle. With less money, I believe that we would still be able to sustain the high quality schools that we have.

We've been wasting the river, particularly the sediment, directing it offshore. The Corps of Engineers from the New Orleans District Office dredges more river sediment than any other district in the United States. ... The problem is, we don't put it [sediments] where it's needed. We should pipe it across the landscape, putting it into regions where we can build wetlands.

My goal is to have this be the first annual. And we're claiming it as the inaugural year, and we're giving away a lot of awards.