EPPJ meets Tourism

Addressing the Evangeline Parish Police Jury during its meeting Monday was Jay Gielow, the new president of Evangeline Parish Tourism Commission. Gielow spoke on upcoming projects that he will oversee during the next year.
The biggest project is work on the Heritage Garden in Ville Platte. Gielow called that a big opportunity to work on because “it’s one of the first things you see when you first come into town.”
“It’s kind of fallen along the wayside,” he added. “The fence is in rough shape, the trees are overgrown, and the grounds all around there need a lot of maintenance and work.”
Gielow stated his commission has about $2,300 to allocate to the project. He plans on doing some fence work and planting native plants. He also hopes to develop a master plan to make it a collaborative effort between other agencies.
“We need to talk to the city about cutting the canopy because there is no air flow,” he said.
Another big project is working on getting a historical marker for former Pine Prairie basketball coach Leslie Gaudet, who had the most wins of any coach in high school basketball. The project is being spearheaded by commission members Elizabeth West of Pine Prairie and Opal Johnson of Turkey Creek.
Gielow then asked the police jury what the commission can do at Crooked Creek Recreation Park.
“The direction I want to focus on is RV tourism,” Gielow said. “We need to make it easier for people to book there and keep that thing filled up as much as possible.”
To do so, Gielow proposed developing an online reservation system as well as an increased web presence.
“Those are two key components of what you need to do to make sure this thing is booked,” he stated.
Later in the meeting, Public Works Director Chester Granger reported on an area that is concerning to the public. As he explained, a company, years ago, was awarded the project to work on a sewer retention area behind Poor Boy Subdivision on the east side of Ville Platte. The company requested permission from the police jury to enclose an end of a ditch but was denied. However, the company enclosed the ditch anyway.
“It’s not even half of what it used to be,” Granger said. “Once we’re going to have a big rain, I’m afraid the restriction in the ditch is going to flood on to the people.”
Granger stated he has a video of the company running a dozer on a parish road without the necessary permits to dump dirt and spread it across the their area.
“I would like legal to contact them,” Granger said. “They need to put the ditch back to original form. If they don’t do it, then we should do it at their cost.”
Juror Kevin Veillon, who represents the subdivision, said, “We have to act on it because this is a prone neighborhood that flooded really bad in 2016. We’re not for sure if this will flood the neighborhood or not, but perception is everything. Anyway it doesn’t flood right now, they need to put it back because the people behind El Charro’s cannot afford any extra water in any kind of way.”
Veillon continued, “We spent a lot of money in this neighborhood over the last five years. Something like this can just back us up and can be really dangerous. I’m in full support with whatever Chester and legal think we should do. I want to move on.”
In other business, the police jury:
• discussed adopting a resolution to be sent to our state delegation for the overlay of State Hwy 104, State Hwy 3187 (Crooked Creek Pkwy), State Hwy 106, State Hwy 1171, State Hwy 1158 (Hunter Rd), State Hwy 1159 (Aguillard Rd), and State Hwy 371 (George Soileau Rd).
• approved as permanent the move of precincts 1140, 1162, and 1160 to the Ville Platte Library and precincts 2020, 2030, and 2040 to the W.W. Stewart Community Center.
• approved calling for renewal of millage tax for Cemetery District No. 2 (1.060 mills), Cemetery District No. 3 (1.150 mills), Cemetery District No. 7 (1.040 mills), and Lone Pine Fire Protection District (19.880 mills).
• approved interagency agreements for State Homeland Security Grants between the Police Jury and EPSO, Ward 4 Fire Department, Acadia Evangeline Fire District, Ville Platte Fire District, Ward 5 Fire Department, Pine Prairie Fire Department, Lone Pine Fire Department, Mamou Fire Department, Mamou Police Department, Chataignier Police Department, Ville Platte Police Department, Basile Police Department, Turkey Creek Police Department, and Evangeline Parish Communications District.
• accepted Elizabeth West’s resignation from the tourism board.