As more of unincorporated Lafayette Parish opens up to development — both residential and commercial — through the completion of the Ambassador Caffery Parkway extension as well as other road projects, the city of Lafayette and LUS Fiber hope to capitalize on that growth by marketing themselves to potential new residents/customers.
The Professional Services Committee, which comprises three council members and two representatives of the Durel administration, approved Lafayette Consolidated Government initiating a $50,000 contract with a public relations firm to undertake a marketing campaign on behalf of the city and LUS Fiber. The PSC recommended three agencies: Right Angle, Sides & Associates and KJA Communications, according to Norma Dugas, clerk of the City-Parish Council. In an e-mail message just after noon Friday, Durel indicated that KJA had been selected.
This week’s action comes on the heels of public squabbles among elected officials over the swath of unincorporated Lafayette Parish skirting the newly opened Ambassador Caffery South. An extension of Ambassador northward from Interstate 10 to I-49 in north Lafayette Parish is now in the planning stages. As these and other transportation corridors open up to development, the municipalities in the parish will be courting landowners, residents and developers in an effort to widen their respective tax bases. Durel has long championed Lafayette as an attractive host for residents and business, citing Lafayette’s higher property values and lower insurance rates relative to the small towns.
Way to go LCG! They chose the PR agency based out of Alexandria over two Lafayette-based agencies. Once again, there go our tax dollars. booooooooooooooooooooooo!
... written by PR guru2 , May 07, 2010 - 05:12 pm
Good call, PR Guru, 1.
... written by ShoLafayetteSumLuv , May 07, 2010 - 05:30 pm
It seems to be a trend for LUS - "CLAIM" to be local then send ALL of our money out of town!!! All of their hires have been out of town and out of state contractors - I saw that letter to the editor in the Advertiser!! SHAME SHAME SHAME - the explanations have been dismal at best - I want to see real budget numbers - how much money has been spent with companies from out of town and how much has been spent with companies within the City Limits?
... written by Northsidian Shotgun , May 08, 2010 - 04:18 am
The local Contractors are out of favor with the current Administration.......... For the simple fact that the "Mordida is too big in this area when bidding on the local projects.... It is diffuculty to trace the Mordida and the Alpo Bits distributed under the table when the money criss-crosses-and returns from a distant parish, of course an idiot knows this, therefore the local contractors, sit back until the project is large enough that the "mordida is justified by the size of the money gains from the Project! Now, "YOU GET IT !
... written by TheMassesAreIgnorant , May 08, 2010 - 04:33 pm
Ever heard of the "bid" laws? LCG just cannot hire based on wishes. There are laws and ordiances that state LCG must go out to bid on dam near everything. If the local lafayette companies would have been the lowest bidder, then the money would have stayed local. So what would you prefer, LCG to pay prices for services and waste tax payers money just for the sake of staying local, or for LCG to get the most bang for the tax payer's buck? Can't have it all folks. Please educate yourselves before making knee jerk reactions.
... written by ragin_cajun , May 09, 2010 - 11:42 am
I think I WOULD prefer that LCG make more of an effort to hire local contractors, even if the local contractor were NOT the lowest bidder. What else would be good is if LCG would hire some contracor--local or not--to pstt more information about bids on city projects on the website. Durel, and LCG, love to trot out this BS about how "modern", "high tech", and "progressive" LCG is--let's see it. Maybe some year-to-year budget analysis. Crime statistics. Planning and demographic info. Maybe a "city forum" where officials can respond in writing to constituents' questions on occasion.
Also, I don't think that someone noticing "a trend" is a "knee jerk reaction". The poster describes a trend, then describes an article he read in another paper, and says he'd like to see more information on the subject. That is not a knee jerk reaction. That is a thoughtful and somewhat informed contribution to the discussion.
You, on the other hand, ignored all that and hurriedly posted an insulting remark that was not even accurate. Of the two, which is a "knee jerk reaction"?
... written by Real Facts , May 11, 2010 - 03:30 am
State procurement laws dictate requirements which must be followed by the city - including the requirement related to having to award the contract to the lowest bidder for labor and materials contracts.
... written by Existentialist Homme , May 11, 2010 - 11:36 am
Thank You Ragin Cajun , Why is it that you can readily decipher my post, you are unlike The Independent, our chosen media which has a terrible manner of placing a blockade on a just reply to a statement posted in a couillion frame, when the just reply was totally non-conflicting, and in keeping with the subject at hand.. I thank you again, for your rescue , THE INDY, as usual has taken my lifesavers............
You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in using your Facebook account or register if you do not have an account yet.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell 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.
Subscribe to this comment's feed