The Lafayette city-parish council will meet today at 5:30 p.m. to approve the 09 budget for Lafayette Consolidated Government. The council has been in budget hearings for the past two months and has made only minor changes to City-Parish President Joey Durel’s proposed budget . Notable initiatives in the budget include $12 million for a new city employee pay adjustment plan. LCG is conducting a study through its Human Resources department to ensure all city job salaries are on par with their private sector equivalents; Durel hopes the adjustment will make it easier for LCG to retain quality employees. Other items that have generated some discusssion includes the continued funding of nonprofit “external” agencies, including PASA and Festival International (A move to by councilman William Theriot to phase out the funding was defeated by a 7-2 vote), as well a new proposal by Durel allocating $100,000 to each council district for small capital outlay projects to be decided by each councilman. The meeting will also be the last for the council’s senior member, Bruce Conque, who is stepping down in order to take a new position with the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. The council meets tomorrow to appoint Conque’s replacement.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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