The Louisiana Senate has passed LA 107A which absolves the Audubon Institute, Audubon Commission and the city from liability for accidents that may occur on Hurst Walk. In honor of the schoolchildren who routinely use this formerly public path as a shortcut across Audubon Park, we have dubbed this liability exclusion the "Slice the Schoolkid" law.

Full Text of LA 107A Here

Introduction

When the current renovation plan was launched in July 2001, the stated intention of the ANI was to close Hurst Walk and the Lagoon Bridge. Their reason for this was a concern for public safety. However, despite an attempt at the September 4th public meeting to talk-up the number of incidents of members of the public being hit by golf balls in Audubon Park, the Institute was never able to demonstrate that anyone has ever in fact been hit by a golf ball while on Hurst Walk.

At the September 4th meeting, and afterwards, there was a strong public outcry in favor of retaining Hurst Walk and keeping it open to the public. In fact, at the Preservation Resource Center meeting shortly afterwards where the Institute presented its plan, Institute representative Dale Stastny, when asked what he thought was the biggest concern of the public, identified Hurst Walk as being the main issue. While we would beg to differ, preferring to identify the anti-democratic methods of the Institute as being the major problem, nonetheless the survival of Hurst Walk has been a major concern to many people who have opposed the Audubon Institute's golf course renovation.

Liability Red Herring

Having accepted a golf course design which initially removed Hurst Walk, the Audubon Institute are now apparently looking at the possibility of retaining it and keeping it open to the public either "out of hours" or all day.

In order to keep the path open all day, that is while golf is being played, the Audubon Institute is asking Mitch Landrieu and John Hainkel to look into ways to absolve the ANI from liability in the case of injury.

If such an absolution cannot be achieved, they will instead be "forced" to close the path during the day allowing public access only early in the morning and after the course is closed.

Since no one was ever hit by a golf ball in 100 years of coexistence of the Hurst Walk and the old golf course, we reiterate our request that the golf course design should be adjusted so that liability does not become a convenient excuse for the loss of this public right-of-way.

We call on the Institute to make the path safe by adjusting the layout of the course rather than by using its influence to escape liability for a problem of its own making or by closing the path.