Since the UL horse farm controversial land-swap deal surfaced nearly six years ago, City-Parish President Joey Durel remained crystal clear on one issue: He wanted the 100-acre tract of pristine Johnston Street land preserved as a community park, one that would offer passive recreation for all of Lafayette Parish and anyone visiting our community. He also hoped to make it home to the city police department’s mounted patrol unit, in part to ensure the safety of people in the adjoining neighborhoods.
Now Joey Durel is putting his money (well, our money) where his mouth is. At today’s budget briefing, which got under way at 5:30 p.m., Durel proposed that Lafayette Consolidated Government purchase the horse farm in a partial land-swap deal that would give the university the 8-acre Youth Park that adjoins the campus behind the Johnston Street fire station.
The horse farm appraised for $5.7 million last year, and Youth Park in the past was worth about a half million dollars. For this proposed transaction, both properties will have to be reappraised, but local government is looking at paying about $5 million for the land over a 10-year period. The deal calls for creation of a cooperative endeavor agreement that includes a 99-year lease with the Community Foundation of Acadiana, which would raise the money to develop and maintain the park, Durel says.
“It has been said that never before has a promise been kept by the non-profit sector to raise money to build or maintain what will become a ‘passive park’ property, requiring the need for additional governmental funds to be spent,” Durel wrote in his prepared address to the council. “I contend that CFA will break that trend.”
Durel noted that some people may say this is the wrong time to spend money on land as opposed to building roads, especially in light of the economic uncertainty caused by the drilling moratorium. “I contend that there is no bad time to plan and preserve the future of our community. This is a perfect use of tax dollars because everyone in our community will benefit from such a wonderful ‘central park,’ and no one should feel responsible for ‘buying’ it.” He says investing in the park sends a strong message of confidence in the area’s future to the private sector, which continues to invest in our community despite the economic uncertainties.
Durel also discussed his vision for the property. “I hope to see community gardens run by experts, perhaps master gardeners, as well as walking and jogging paths along with a bike trail that begins there and ends with the dreams of the Attakapas-Ishak Trail, also linking Girard Park, St. Martin Parish and Vermilion Parish in a remarkable vision.”
Saying the plan is similar to one that was announced in May 2009 (which called for an anonymous donor to gift $5.7 million to the CFA, which would raise funds to develop and maintain the park), UL expressed its support in a press release this afternoon. “The latest plan accomplishes what many people, including Save the Horse Farm activists, have requested: a passive park that preserves invaluable green space and is accessible to the public,” UL President Joe Savoie said.
The university will place proceeds from the sale of the property in a special restricted land acquisition fund that will be used to acquire property closer to its other campus properties.
Earlier today, Durel told The Independent Weekly the proposal emerged in a meeting between him, the CFA and the university several months ago. “The difficulty they were having is that there has just so much up in the air. Everybody thinking one guy is going to buy it, and that’s not quite happening, and then the discussions that maybe he wasn’t going to buy it, with the downturn in the economy or whatever the reasons, which is none of my business or anybody’s business. ...I said we’ve never put this on the table, but I’ve always wondered if it was going to end up here. I said maybe it’s time to just let us buy it and turn it over to the community foundation.” Durel says the anonymous benefactor plans to stay involved in the project, though it is unclear what role he will play.
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.
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