LDRC pushing to better D’ville

Robyn Penn Delaney has one belief when it comes to improving Donaldsonville and she doesn’t mind sharing it, even with the city’s elected officials. “We are committed to the process as long as they are committed to progress,” Delaney said, who is the Project Manager for the Louisiana Development Ready City (LDRC) committee.

The LDRC was accepted for Donaldsonville in 2011 and the nine people on the committee are volunteers who are committed to see Donaldsonville reach its potential.

“The goal of our committee is to continue working on improving the city so we can attract more people,” Delaney said.

Delaney, who was born and raised in Donaldsonville, said Donaldsonville is a community with a past and a plan for the future, and that is the slogan the LDRC uses.

“We have a historic past that we want to highlight, but we also want to plan for the future,” Delaney said.

One of the first things the LDRC is tackling in 2013 is the city’s website and logo. Delaney said the committee is working to make the website more efficient and user friendly to speed up permit processes.

The LDRC has different experts come in and rate the city and the city’s potential and Delaney said the reviews are low, but the potential is so high. If the LDRC can help get the city to its potential, Donaldsonville will be a gem.

“We have a website but it hasn’t been updated and doesn’t have current information,” Delaney said.

She said when the city’s current website was reviewed on a scale of 100, where 100 is the top, Donaldsonville’s received a 15.

For the logo, the LDRC held a contest for any artist to design a logo that best represents the city. After choosing a winner, the group discovered it would cost too much to reproduce the winning logo because of the variety of colors. So, the LDRC is working on getting the logo cost efficient yet still a well representation of the city.