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PLAQUEMINE, LA-Bayou Plaquemine, 13 miles south of Baton Rouge and 60 miles northwest of New Orleans, is on its way to reinventing itself as city officials plan to break ground in late 2007 on the third phase of an estimated $5-million, mixed-use waterfront project.

Plaquemine Mayor Tony Gulotta, who is orchestrating the project, couldn't be reached for comment by GlobeSt.com's publication time. But city hall sources and sources in Baton Rouge intimate with the project tell GlobeSt.com the third phase will have a 70-room Best Western Inn, an expanded boardwalk that already stretches for 1,000 feet and a 10,000-sf open air amphitheater.

"This is a big deal for Plaquemine," a Baton Rouge real estate source tells GlobeSt.com, largely because the bayou was used for almost 30 years as a dumping ground for waste material by local industrial firms. Cut off from the Mississippi River as a source of fresh water, the bayou's water quality suffered, harming the fish population which is Plaquemine residents' No. 1 recreational activity. The bayou sits between the Mississippi River and Louisiana Interstate 1.