C’EST BON
It’s apparently no fluke that Fortune Small Business magazine’s November issue ranks Lafayette among the top 50 best cities in the country to launch a business in 2009 (in the mid-size communities category, Lafayette is No. 2, behind Huntsville, Ala.), an accolade that came about a month after Forbes Magazine honored Lafayette on its list of the 10 best cities for new jobs. Just last week LEDA announced that ATC Associates, an environmental consulting firm, is moving its corporate headquarters from Woburn, Mass., to Lafayette. ATC Associates has 65 branches in 36 states, including an existing branch office in Lafayette. “The quality of Lafayette’s workforce and our high proportion of professional jobs often plays a significant role in a business’ decision to expand in the region,” says LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux. While the headquarters relocation is expected to only create about two dozen new jobs in the Hub City, it is further proof that Lafayette is ready to assume a leading role in Gulf Coast commerce.
PAS BON
At first blush, finding giant tiger prawns, a type of very large shrimp native to the western Pacific, in the Gulf of Mexico sounds appetizing — a foreign species we can boil and dip in a cocktail sauce couldn’t be all bad. But according to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the tiger prawns, believed to have escaped from aqua farms into local waters, endanger native white and brown shrimp. The prawns potentially carry disease pathogens and various forms of bacterial, fungal and viral infections. If the muscular, striped crustaceans do muscle out our native species, go to theind.com; we’ve posted a recipe for Broiled Lemon and Garlic Tiger Prawns.
COUILLON
Rule No. 1 for would-be arsonists: Disable the security camera first. Rule No. 2: Don’t burn stuff down. A grandmotherly Kenner woman apparently didn’t play by the rule book last week when the security cam at the restaurant she’s accused of torching captured her image in the act, according to police. Mae Fong, the 74-year-old owner of a Chinese restaurant in this New Orleans suburb, was arrested on arson and other charges in connection with the fire that partially destroyed and interminably shut down a competing Chinese restaurant located one block away. Police haven’t speculated on a motive. Do they really need to?
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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