Gov. Bobby Jindal reappointed three Acadiana members to his special advisory commission on coastal affairs Thursday. Aside from advising Jindal on key issues, members of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation are charged with keeping tabs on the state's overall efforts. In all there are 29 appointed members of the commission, including representatives from business, industry, academia, agriculture, commercial fishing and the conservation community. By statute, Jindal can add other non-voting members, such as federal employees, to join the commission.
Locally, the following Acadiana natives were tapped for the commission:
Paul McIlhenny of Avery Island, president and chief executive officer of the McIlhenny Company, serves as a representative of the business and industrial community.
Mark Piazza of Vermilion Parish and the mayor of Abbeville, represents local governments on the commission.
Linda Zaunbrecher of Gueydan, a rice farmer and the former president of the Louisiana Rice Growers Association, represents the agriculture industry on the commission.
Elected officials, such as the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate also serve on the panel. State Rep. Damon Baldone, a Houma Democrat, was among those asked to serve on the commission again. Baldone says that the coming term for members of coastal commission will be pivotal.
The state is finally slated to begin receive additional money from its offshore oil and gas royalties, which are earmarked for coastal protection and restoration. "The next few years are going to be extremely important," says Baldone, who was first appointed to the commission by former Gov. Mike Foster. "The groundwork has been set, and we're ready to really start moving forward. I hope we have a great working relationship with (Jindal) and that he listens to what the commission has to say because it's a well-rounded group."
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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