Local officials aren’t taking lightly recent comments by the state Department of Transportation Secretary William Anker that Lafayette remains “divided” on I-49 and its other major road priorities. Yesterday, City-Parish President Joey Durel, Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce President Rob Guidry, state Sen. Mike Michot and a host of other officials held a press conference to re-iterate the community’s commitment to I-49 South as its top project. Guidry says, “it is certainly a challenge to stay the course and maintain intensity on multi-year, mega projects such as I-49 South. The issue requires perseverance and attention to detail on many levels.”
The MPO Citizens Advisory, Transportation Technical and Transportation Policy Committees have unanimously approved a resolution to clarify and reaffirm the priority of the I-49 Connector/South project as having the greatest traffic impact on the Lafayette Urban Arterial Network. The resolution has been adopted by the Lafayette City-Parish Council in its role as the MPO and also endorsed by Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel and by the mayors of Broussard, Carencro, Duson, Scott, and Youngsville.
The completion of I-49 South between New Orleans and Lafayette has long been on the local government wish list; however, fuding for the multi-billion dollar project has been difficult to find. Next year the state plans to inch closer on the project by begining work to widen Highway 90 between Lafayette and Broussard to six lanes. One of the biggest remaining sections of I-49 will be the I-49 connector, a six-lane overpass through Lafayette with an estimated cost of $700 million. Officials are now working toward securing funds for the project in next year’s federal transportation bill.
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.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
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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