Shenandoah’s water service is supplied by Total Environmental Solutions Inc., a private, state-regulated utility company. Residents in the neighborhood have long complained about the service provided by TESI, and have lobbied Langlinais to annex them into city, which would make them eligible to receive clean, potable LUS water. (LUS, under former C-P President Walter Comeaux, entered into a long-term contract with Broussard nearly two decades ago to sell water at wholesale to the south Lafayette Parish city. LUS has contracts with other small municipalities and water works districts within Lafayette Parish as well, but does not supply water to unincorporated parts of the parish that are not covered by those water works districts. As a result, roughly 80 percent of Lafayette Parish receives LUS water. Shenandoah Estates does not.)
Langlinais recently sent a request to LCG asking that LUS enter into a third-party agreement with TESI to provide LUS water to Shenandoah. Citing the contractual agreement between LCG and Broussard for LUS water, which stipulates said water can only be supplied to the city limits of Broussard, Durel, no doubt relishing every moment of it, politely but firmly declined. His response, in part, reads:
It is not in the “best interest” of LCG ... to enter into a third-party wholesale water agreement for resale of wholesale water outside the corporate limits of another municipality in this circumstance.
Shenandoah Estates is completely surrounded by the corporate limits of Broussard and cannot be served or annexed by any other municipality. LCG has not entered into third-party wholesale water agreements under any other circumstances previously. LCG does not desire to set the precedent of allowing other municipal customers to resell City of Lafayette-produced wholesale water outside of their respective municipal boundaries to third-party resellers when the transaction does nothing to improve the reliability of Lafayette’s water system or to improve existing service to current customers of Lafayette.
These issues and concerns could be immediately eliminated by Broussard’s annexation of Shenandoah Estates. If that annexation were to occur, Section I (1) of the Wholesale Water Agreement clearly provides that Shenandoah Estates would automatically become part of the area to be served with LCG water.
Until such annexation, however, LCG declines to enter into a third-party agreement to allow the resale of LCG wholesale water to TESI for service to Shenandoah Estates Subdivision.
Regards,
L.J. “Joey” Durel Jr.
Langlinais, who has been accused of “cherry picking” his annexations by favoring commercial corridors that generate sales tax revenue while avoiding residential subdivisions — Broussard has no property tax, thus annexing subdivisions increases Broussard’s infrastructure and services burden while generating no additional revenue — fired off a snarky email to Durel on Wednesday in response to the LCG snub. Langlinais refers to LCG in the email as “LCOG” and copied C-P Councilman Don Bertrand, who represents Shenandoah. His response also references the annexation battles fought between Lafayette and Broussard, notably last year as the Ambassador South extension opened to new development. Read more about that here:
We have no desire or intention on incorporating Shenandoah and like everything with Durel/LCG, it’s a control issue…………
JOEY, HOW EASY is it to execute a three party agreement??? This BS about “its not in the best interest of LCOG or LUS” , let me tell you, its not in the BEST INTEREST of Broussard to provide Shenandoah water although we are willing to do so at an estimated cost of $80K to the citizens of Broussard!! Further, by law you DO NOT HAVE TO BE CONTIGUOUS to incorporate Shenandoah…..just look at that BS you pulled on Caffery and Fabacher/Vieux Chenes….. was in the best interest of LCOG then?! AND DO I NEED TO REMIND YOU that you opposed our legislation last year to provide water/sewer services to out lying areas!!!! Flat out wrote a letter AND appeared before the legislative committees reviewing same……I suspect that I could get a copy of minutes in which your 4 or 5 people (and you) stating on the record your opposition!
DON Bertrand – you need to step up here and put your foot down!! These are your constituents! Not mine!
The Ind has learned through a source in Shenandoah Estates that Durel and Bertrand will meet with residents on June 13 at Lafayette City Hall to discuss their concerns.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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