City sees $1.6 million turn around

As it reviewed its audit of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, the Ville Platte City Council learned it experienced a $1.6 million turnaround from the previous fiscal year.
Auditor Casey Ardoin told the council, during the meeting held Tuesday, February 9, the city has a surplus of total governmental funds in the amount of $1.5 million dollars. Compared to the previous fiscal year, the city saw a deficit of $240 thousand. “Wonderful results,” said Ardoin.
Part of the turnaround was from the city taking in $6.7 million in total revenues which was around an $800 thousand uptick from the previous year. The city also saw $5.2 million in total expenditures which was a decrease of $1 million.
“You guys can see a trend,” Ardoin said. “You’re increasing revenue and decreasing expenditures. It’s a positive change on both sides of the coin.”
Also contributing to the turnaround is the fact the city received $480 thousand in COVID related funds. However, as Ardoin pointed out, “if you take these funds out of consideration, you still increased your fund balance.”
After hearing about its audit report, the council heard from representatives of Cajun Broadband. The Internet provider purchased Ville Platte based Universal Communications and requested to provide service to the Ville Platte and surrounding communities.
Much like with Universal Communications, Cajun Broadband’s equipment will be mounted on top of the city’s water towers. Devices will then be installed on the eave of customers’ roofs.
Cajun Broadband began in Broussard in 2017 and soon expanded to nine parishes in Acadiana.
“When we got here,” said a representative from the company, “we’ve never seen anything this bad before through the whole parish. There is nowhere else in Acadiana that is as bad as we’ve seen here. We’re going to try to do as much as we can as quick as we can.”
Residential packages range from Light which offers five megabytes per second to Ultimate which offers 15 megabytes per second. Also available are commercial packages and digital telephone services.
The office will be located inside Doucet’s Barber Shop.
For more from Tuesday’s meeting, pick up a copy of Sunday’s Ville Platte Gazette.