Evangeline Parish at the forefront of Broadband efforts

As a board member of the Acadiana Planning Commission, I was tasked with developing a needs list for Evangeline Parish. The list consisted of creating infrastructure for faster economic growth to help alleviate poverty in the area and equipping the people of the parish with more means of providing for their families through both the creation of new jobs and retention of existing jobs. Broadband was also cited as a major need, particularly affordable, reliable fiber broadband which provides the opportunity for direct access to education, business, and healthcare capacities.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, local digital divides have been exposed, affecting students attempting to learn virtually from home and businesses that have employees teleworking, along with medical professionals having difficulties providing telemedicine services.
According to the Acadiana Broadband Speed Test Survey conducted by the Acadiana Planning Commission, Evangeline Parish has the slowest upload speed (1.18 Mbps) and the second-slowest median download speed (10.06 Mbps) in the region.
Today, Evangeline Parish is on the forefront of the surrounding parishes when it comes to addressing the broadband issue. With the help of Acadiana Planning Commission and LUSFiber, Evangeline Parish has applied for 29 million dollar federally funded grant with the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) in which 20 million dollars would be for Evangeline Parish to bring a 100% fiber network to the businesses, homes, and students throughout the parish.
I would like to thank the entire LUSFiber team for stepping up to the plate for Evangeline Parish and putting together the grant application efficiently and effectively in a very short time frame, which has allowed us the opportunity to even be considered for such an exciting federally-funded grant opportunity. LUSFiber is a well-known and established fiber broadband provider that offers affordable and reliable state of the art services. The Evangeline Parish Police Jury looks forward to collaborating with the Evangeline Parish School Board and the libraries’ e-rate program, and we welcome all other providers in our area. There will be many upcoming federally-funded grant opportunities available and our Police Jury doors are always open.
I am thankful for Monique Boulet and the APC Staff for all of their due diligence in working with us on applying for all of these grant opportunities and for working to resolve any day-to-day issues that arose. I want to thank all of my fellow police jurors for their support and input on all of these issues, and last but not least, I’d like to thank Donald Bergeron, Secretary/Treasurer, for all that he does for Evangeline Parish.