The $800 billion economic stimulus package being developed by President-elect Barack Obama, expected to fund a raft of major infrastructure projects throughout the country, won’t be solving any of Acadiana’s major road and drainage issues. The Obama administration has stipulated that all projects funded through the stimulus package must be “shovel ready”, meaning they are ready to go out for bid by summer. Many of the big ticket items on Acadiana’s infrastructure wish list, including much of the I-49 connector, a parish loop and Ambassador Caffery North, can’t meet that requirement.
Overall, the state just submitted a list of 30 ready-to-go projects, totalling $1.314 billion to the Federal Highway Administration for funding throught the stimulus package (the state is realistically only expecting to get about $400 million). Of those, only two of the projects are in Acadiana. One is a maintenance project, the resurfacing of I-49 from the Lafayette and St. Landry Parish line up to LA 10. The other is a new interchange at LA 85 and U.S. Hwy. 90 near Jeanerette. In a story in today’s Advocate about local legislators and business leaders push to complete I-49 South — estimated to cost $5 billion — MidSouth Bank President Rusty Cloutier sounds off on not being more prepared for the fed’s stimulus package. “It’s just ridiculous that we are here today and have federal funds and can’t take advantage,” he said. I-49 South has been in the works for more than 20 years. Bill Fontenot, who oversees Acadiana area projects for the state, says that for many large-scale projects in Acadiana that have been on the books for several years — even those that have obtained the necessary right of ways and environmental clearance granted — just getting final design plans can take several months. “The 180-day timeline on getting these projects ready to bid is the challenge,” he says.
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.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
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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