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Ahead of blight court proceedings, some discarded lifeboats moved to another location in BR
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BATON ROUGE - An East Baton Rouge Metro Councilman is crying foul after lifeboats that were deemed by the city-parish as junk trash and debris were moved to his district.
Councilman Darryl Hurst said this week he began noticing the boats appearing in front of a business on Airline Highway and North Foster.
"The city is already seeing them as blight, and so if they don't obey the process, we will take them to a landfill," Hurst said.
We showed you last week that the city-parish initiated blight court proceedings and gave the owner of the property and a former tenant until April 3 to move the boats or they will have to appear in court on April 6.
Residents in Baton Rouge called them an eyesore.
The area in question is bordered between North Boulevard and Government Street not far from the Electric Depot. A total of six lifeboats were dropped off a few years ago. Satellite imagery from space shows the lifeboats first arrived sometime in 2020.
Some of the boats bear the name "Ocean Voyager." Maritime records show a vessel bearing that name carries passengers.
"It's trifling and trashy to be sitting up on the road like that on a lot like it is," Jacqueline Arthur said.
Hurst said it's disrespectful to think that if it's considered blight near Mid-City, someone would move them to North Baton Rouge and think it's okay.
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