Still reeling from gross mismanagement at its Abbeville treatment facility and loss of outside funding sources, Acadiana Outreach Center is looking for a lifeline for Joie de Vivre, a $16.5 million mixed-use, affordable housing development near downtown.
“Because of the dire straits our prior management left us in, we’ve reached the end of the road,” says AOC board member Bo Billeaud. At a 1 p.m. meeting today, Billeaud will make a brief presentation to the board of the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority, requesting that it acquire AOC's interest and other assets in the vicinity of the project. The meeting will be held at Lafayette Consolidated Government's building at 705 W. University Ave. on the second floor.
Joie de Vivre is being partially funded by federal low-income housing tax credits that will be sold to private investors. Those tax credit investors, who would own 99.99 percent interest in the project with AOC owning .01 percent, have requested additional backers or a new sponsor because of AOC’s problems. In the absence of that, it will require AOC to post a half million dollar performance bond, Billeaud says, which is not an option.
LPTFA already has an interest in Joie de Vivre, as it loaned the project $1 million. One potential attraction for LPTFA, a public trust organized under the laws of the state and established for the benefit of the city of Lafayette, is a $1.9 million development fee, which it would share with the project consultant, presumably its former board member Greg Gachassin.
LPTFA is nearing completion on a similar project it spearheaded, the $10 million Cypress Trails apartment complex in north Lafayette.
Joie de Vivre, located in the Mills Addition near downtown, was supposed to break ground in September and be finished next year. Though most residents in the area have spoken out publicly in favor of the project, it has met significant resistance from some neighbors.
Without LPTFA's help, the project may be dead, Billeaud says. "Unless we have a guardian angel come in."
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
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I think this is so bad that I suspect there may be a crime here....hmmmmm