Fandal reports on first 90 days in office
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Business leaders in the city got a bonus at the annual “State of the City” luncheon hosted by the East St. Tammany Business Alliance last week in the Slidell Municipal Auditorium.
Not only did new Mayor Randy Fandal give a 90-day report of his early work taking over the reins of the city operation, but new St. Tammany Economic Development Director Russell Richardson was also a guest speaker to provide insight about the parish economic picture heading into 2026.
Fandal, who finished a 10-year stint as city police chief and then won election last October for the remaining mayor’s term that was left vacant when Greg Cromer resigned early, opened his brief comments by saying, “Slidell is open for business.”
Fandal touched on four topics in his 15-minutes, starting with the work begun years ago by several council members, and stating the upgrade to the Slidell recreational facilities is now one step closer. He said the city has closed on the 24-acre property that was owned by the Slidell Bantam Baseball Association and is now close to signing a private-public partnership with a businessman to invest “between $7 million to $8 million for Slidell’s rec facilities.”
City Councilman Kenny Tamborella has been the point person on the effort for years and expects to release details about the rec upgrades in the coming weeks.
Fandal pointed out interest from Textron to purchase what is now called the Slidell Business Center at the corner of Gause Boulevard and Robert Boulevard, which is expected to be part of an expansion from Textron to add more work locally, including what Fandal said, “could be 80 to 100 high paying jobs.”
The mayor confirmed the fact that Acquistapace has closed the deal at the North Shore Square mall to purchase two large parcels and will open a huge store there within a year, something that could motivate other commercial businesses to revitalize the area. For over two years, former city officials have been actively pursuing a way to restore the mostly abandoned property.
Finally, Fandal said the public works department followed up on a report from last year that located four key spots on Gause Boulevard where underground drainage lines were severely clogged with mud, seen as the big reason the main thoroughfare floods during heavy rains.
“We just cleaned out an eight-foot high wall of mud and that’s going to make the city cleaner and reduce the flooding there,” he added.
Richardson has hardly been in his new position much longer than Fandal, but the Washington Parish resident said he is excited to head the parish economic development department, and noted that St. Tammany Parish, and Slidell, are primed for major commercial growth.
“Right now, we have 40 projects in the pipeline,” he said. “This is such a great region since you have over 300,000 people within a one-hour drive in all directions. And Textron just secured a $164 million federal contract to build more facilities and upgrade where they are now, including Slidell.”
He noted, “the biggest problem in getting companies to come here has to do with the challenges getting permits and going through the processes. We need to make it all easier, but otherwise, it is wide open here with the opportunities we see.”
St. Tammany ED has a program called Start Up St. Tammany that works with small businesses to navigate the process to open, and then succeed.
One question from the audience was about the still abandoned Slidell Factory Outlet Mall on Old Spanish Trail and Fandal said he has talked to the owners there, “and told them that if they don’t clean it up we will demolish the back building, which is in terrible shape.”
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