Council supports Veterans' Memorial

March 21, 2008
By William Johnson    
wjohnson@dailyworld.com

The St. Landry Parish Council assured Pat Mason-Guillory this week that while it had voted to support a new parishwide Veterans' Affairs Committee proposed by Lincoln Savoie, she continued to have its full support for her Veterans' Memorial Park project.

In an update on her work, Mason-Guillory said while her committee has not meet since July, it remains active.

"We are waiting on the (Department of Transportation and Development) to decide where that highway off (U.S. Route) 190 will be placed," Mason-Guillory said.

Over the past three years, her committee has raised thousands of dollars and gained a pledge of two-acres of land from Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino for a memorial site.

The hold up is Evangeline Downs is pushing for a new exit off U.S. Route 190 to serve the casino. The exit will eat up part of the track's property and it therefore won't give the veteran's committee a firm location for those two acres until the road plan is approved.

"We have done our ground work. We need more funding but no one is willing do donate until we have a site. They want to see a groundbreaking. We are waiting on the casino," Mason-Guillory said.

 

• In a related item, Parish President Menard told the council, the track's exit could become a reality in the next year or two.

  He said the parish has already received $4 million in federal funds. The track has put up $2 million for engineering and environmental studies.

  "Early next month I will be meeting with the governor on $5 million in state funding," Menard said. "We are hoping to have full funding for this project this year, possibly next year."

  While the Downs will be the main beneficiary, Menard argued the new exit will open up an entirely new area on the northeastern side of Opelousas for economic development. "This is going to help everyone," said Menard, who told the council he has received a pledge from Lafayette Mayor Joey Durel to support the project in the legislature.

   

• The council agreed to set a public hearing for its April meeting on a revised ordinance to make it easier to sell adjudicated property - property that has fallen to the parish for non-payment of taxes.

  The idea is to more quickly move this property, much of which is long abandoned, back into commerce.

   

• Public Works Director Tim Marks reported that he is currently in meetings with Menard, the parish legal advisor and the parish engineer on a set of new, stricter subdivision regulations.

  Marks had been given the task by the council last month, which was primarily concerned with inferior roads in the many subdivisions currently under development in the parish.

  Marks said roads will be included but "there are a lot of different aspects we have to look at. We are looking at a pre-application process - we don't have that now; a requirement for a drainage impact study - that is not a requirement now; we also don't have a mobile home ordinance."

  He said the current subdivision ordinance also doesn't have adequate sewage treatment regulations either. "Right now you can have 50 lots with 50 individual sewers, all draining into our ditches," Marks said.

   

• The council voted to support Ike Boudreaux in his civil suit against the Southern Pacific Railroad.

  District 5 Councilman Ronald Buschel said the railroad recently closed the only crossing that allows Boudreaux access to his land on the other side of the tracks.

  "It was not advertised. They just decided to take it out. They are going hog wild to close these crossings," Buschel said.

   

• While no action was taken, Legal Advisor Andrea West urged the council to begin now to lobby the legislature in advance of the state's 2010 reapportionment.

  While the parish has seven members of the Legislature, only two of them truly represent the parish. Of the remaining five, the majority of their election districts are in other parishes.

  "We don't want to let them carve us up any more," Menard said.