Branding Evangeline

One Acadiana stops in Evangeline Parish and experiences the parish’s people and food
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Business leaders from all over the nine parish Acadiana region took a bus tour of St. Landry and Evangeline Parishes Thursday with One Acadiana as part of its Building the Region 2017 Conference.
According to Ronnie Petree, who serves as senior vice president and Western Division leader for St. Martin Bank and Trust Company in Jennings and as a board member for One Acadiana, the purpose of the tour was to build regionalism.
“Regionalism started a long time ago,” he said. “It’s about the bonds you make and instills friendships. We’ll all continue to make friendships on these trips and going out into the community. There’s nothing that we cannot do together to make the state better.”
At each of the stops, the group heard from business leaders from Evangeline Parish who spoke about what makes the parish unique in order to help attract more businesses and spoke about their own regionalism as businesses here have developed their own symbiotic relationships.
On the first stop on the tour at SLCC-Coreil Campus, secretary-treasurer of the Evangeline Parish Police Jury Donald Bergeron spoke about the advantages of the Industrial Park. “We currently have 62 acres that were nationally certified as a smart site in 2012,” he said. “It positions us well to attract great new businesses to Evangeline Parish to join the great businesses that we already have here.”
Sitting on the panel at SLCC-Coreil Campus were Wayne Bordelon, plant manager of Cabot; Kyle Fontenot, assistant facility manager of Pine Prairie Energy Center; Gene Burge, CEO of Savoy Medical Center; and Billy Fontenot, plant manager of Schlumberger Cameron.
Each spoke about their companies and their impact on the economy of Evangeline Parish. Both Fontenots described their own symbiotic relationships with each other and with other businesses in the parish.
According to Billy Fontenot, “We at Cameron manufacture ball valves, gate valves, and check valves that control the flow of the natural gas” at Pine Prairie Energy Center.
“What’s really unique about us is the vendor collaboration,” he continued. “We have vendor quality assurance plating. When Cameron first came into this location, we were on a daily basis shipping plugs and balls out to Houston back-and-forth for plating. We then were able to work with a supplier, and so we’re doing the plating locally. We’re also working with Ville Platte Iron Works to grow their business as well. They do a lot of external coating and some sub-contracting for us. They’ve been a huge factor in our success.”
Kyle Fontenot then expanded on his company’s working relationship with Cameron. “In our industry with natural gas and the environment that we serve, Cameron valves are the best in the business,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of the valves that we use are from Cameron. We’re fortunate logistically because we’re close together. Those guys and their engineering team take care of us.”
From there, the tour shifted to lunch at La Vielle Banque where, according to Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine, the group experienced the two crown jewels of the city which are its people and its food.
“The people here are the greatest,” she said. “What’s so unique about us is when you go somewhere over here you don’t only get the food but you get the person. Ville Platte is home, it’s friendly, and it’s who we are. We want you to leave here and go tell everybody about all of the jewels that we have which are the friendliest people in the world and the best food in the world.”
Sitting on the panel at La Vielle Banque were Pam McGee, owner of the restaurant; Rhonda Butler, owner of Gobble Gulley; Valerie Cahill, owner of Hotel Cazan; and Kermit Miller from Jack Miller’s Bar-B-Que Sauce.
Cahill echoed Mayor Vidrine’s remarks about the people in Evangeline Parish. “For me the brand of Evangeline is the people, and it has a tremendously high value,” she said.
Miller then spoke about his own symbiotic relationships with other businesses in Ville Platte. “Teet’s Food Store down the street has our products,” he said. “We all do for each other. We have Kary’s Roux that is made here. We all work together. When one of us needs something, the other guy will help out.”
He added, “Kary calls me up and says he needs a bag of this or a box of this, and I do the same. We just try to help each other as much as we can.”
Before leaving La Vielle Banque for the Swamp Pop Museum, Mayor Vidrine credited Ville Platte for keeping the French language alive. “One of the things here that we are promoting and trying to keep is our French language,” she said. “We have one of the only live radio stations, in KVPI, that speaks French and has French programming.”
General manager of the station Mark Layne served as a panelist with Floyd Soileau from Floyd’s Record Shop and Flat Town Music Company, who shared his fond memories of the Swamp Pop music industry. Layne told the group that KVPI “went on the air in 1953, and we’re one of the very few locally owned radio stations left. The two owners that own it now are the daughters of one of the original stockholders. They believe in giving back to the community, and every manager that’s ever worked there believes in community service.”
“We do more French programming, we do the French news, we do all the ball games, and all the other things that most radio stations would not even look at doing because we believe in serving the community. Our number one resource and the number one people we want to serve is Ville Platte. Then it’s Evangeline Parish and everybody else.”
Earlier in the day, the tour began with a presentation inside the Acadian Center on the campus of LSU-Eunice. While there the group heard from Chancellor Kimbelry Russell about new programs being offered at the college.
After leaving Ville Platte, the tour bus made its way to the Walmart Distribution Center in Opelousas before coming to an end at the NUNU Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville for supper and entertainment.
Mike Bertaut, an economist with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, told The Eunice News, “My presence here is my attempt to really learn as much as I can about this region. I do a lot of forecasting and modeling, and I want to know what is going on. I’m excited about the opportunity.
Jody Soileau, an economic development specialist with Slemco, told The Eunice News, “I grew up in St. Landry Parish and spent a lot of time in Evangeline Parish. This tour opened my eyes to things I never knew existed.”