A forum was held Thursday at the Ville Platte Civic Center that brought business and civic leaders together to discuss economic development opportunities.
“This is the first phase of a process that we are starting because we are pregnant with possibilities here in Ville Platte and in Evangeline Parish,” said Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine.
The city has partnered with the Southern University Department of Economic Development, and putting on the forum Thursday was Assistant Professor of Economics at Southern Dr. Ben Lukongo.
Lukongo is the project director, and he said Thursday, “The main objectives of this project is to integrate different methods of economic development, analysis, and then focus group discussion in order to connect with the local community.”
He added, “We use the concept of community engagement in order to identify issues, solutions, and different actions to move to economic development of the local level.”
The process, according to Lukongo, identifies local assets and local capital. He said, “Even the proximity to the Mississippi River is capital that we can leverage for Ville Platte in order to promote human development and social mobility.”
The forum involved an overview of the process from Lukongo before the 60 people in attendance broke off into small groups to come up with data that Lukongo and his team can use to come up with economic solutions.
“After this meeting, we will come back to present the results,” said Lukongo. “We are going to do the analysis and then come up with a summary in terms of results and in terms of action.”
One of the forum’s objectives, according to Mayor Vidrine, was to promote what Ville Platte and Evangeline Parish have to offer. “We have a lot to offer, and we want to make sure that we can put everything that we have to offer on a showboat,” she said. “We want to let everyone know that we have the nicest people in the world and the best food in the world. We have lots of property and lots of places where they can locate businesses, and there are good schools here and good churches. Most of all, the French culture is still here.”
She added, “We’re hoping that we can put Ville Platte and Evangeline Parish on the road to become bigger and better as far as businesses are concerned. We know this is a slow economy, but we still have great things that can happen in this economy with businesses coming to Ville Platte because we are a ready city. We have an Industrial Park that is turn key ready for any type of business that wants to come here.”
Chairman of the Evangeline Parish Industrial Development Board William “Tojo” Ward said of the Industrial Park, “It was certified in 2010 by CLECO and its smart site program, and it has been marketed nationally, statewide, and locally through One Acadiana and Louisiana Economic Development. We have now formed an alliance, more or less, with our new Chamber of Commerce executive director to help us in economic development as well as their normal job of tourism.”
He added, “There’s some exciting things happening at the park. We’ve got a lot of businesses in there that we’re trying to help expand and grow, but we also want to attract new businesses to the park.”
Mayor Vidrine said that, after the meeting Thursday, she will be meeting with Louisiana Economic Development and One Acadiana to promote the city. One of the topics to be discussed is a second hotel. “We want another hotel here in Ville Platte, so we’re going to be talking with the hotel industry because we have softball and baseball tournaments and family reunions,” she said. “A lot of people come here and come through, so we do have a climate that another hotel can be successful in as well.”
The end result for the mayor is to have Ville Platte move off the top spot in USA Today’s list of the poorest towns in the country. Mayor Vidrine concluded, “After awhile, you’re going to see another article that is very positive and saying that Ville Platte is the place to go...it’s not the poorest city in the State of Louisiana.”
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TONY MARKS