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Lafayette comics fight for accessibility
Don Schexnider rolls onto the stage of Cité des Arts’ main theater for his performance at the 2024 Coullion Fest standup comedy festival wearing a bright orange shirt and a wry smile. For him to perform, his comedy group required him to make an announcement, Schexnider tells the...
Changes to public notice law could spell end of Lafayette’s oldest news source
Changes to Louisiana’s decades-old public notice laws pushed by Lafayette Parish state Rep. Josh Carlson could redefine local news in parishes around the state and particularly in Lafayette. State law requires local governments to publish notices of their meetings, public bids and other activities in their parish’s “official journal”...
Seven apply for Lafayette library director
Seven people have applied to be the next director of the Lafayette Parish Library System, the Advocate reports. Former director Danny Gillane and current north regional branch manager Cara Chance have applied. Gillane is currently the system’s interim director; he assumed that role in April after resigning his post as director in 2023, but only after the library board fired him, illegally.
Chris Stafford: A door between universes
A grieving procession shuffled through the Delhomme Funeral Home after spending an hour in a line that stretched hundreds of yards from his casket. Mourners came in from places unknown, some in thin-lapelled jackets, pearl button snap shirts, austere Sunday blacks, hipster prairie dresses and pencil skirts. They were family, friends, fans, onlookers and dignitaries. Dozens, if not more, were bandmates.
LCG may restore park police
The Boulet administration may reinstate a dedicated police force to patrol Lafayette Consolidated Government three dozen parks, KATC reports. Mayor-President Josh Guillory disbanded the park police in 2020, as part of an effort to slash LCG’s budget and restructure the parks department. The small police detachment were among 37 parks employees that Guillory fired as the agency was reorganized into the department of Parks, Arts, Recreation and Tourism.
Lafayette police may target more panhandlers under new state law
Two years after Lafayette’s City Council repealed local rules against panhandling on public roads, a pending change to state law would reimpose those potentially unconstitutional restrictions — which the city’s new interim police chief says “will solve a lot of these problems here altogether.”. Lafayette’s City...
Richard Zuschlag, Acadian Companies founder, dead at 76
Richard Zuschlag, local civic leader and longtime president and CEO Acadian Companies, has died at 76, the company announced in statement Wednesday. Zuschlag was battling cancer. Zuschlag grew the upstart Acadian Ambulance, which he co-founded in 1971, into a powerful emergency services enterprise with six divisions. Still headquartered in Lafayette,...
How Jessica Brown-Mason put her neighborhood on the map
Coming home to Lafayette after 40 years, Jessica Brown-Mason saw change happening in Lafayette’s historically Black neighborhoods through the coteries. She started the Resilience Rise Community Collaborative to bring that change to her neighborhood. Lafayette has five neighborhood associations designated as “coteries”: Freetown-Port Rico, La Place, McComb-Veazey, Oasis and...
BRIEF: Land bought for Northside library
More than five years since money was set aside for a new Northside library branch, parish government has officially purchased land for its construction. Lafayette Parish bought 10 acres of undeveloped land just south of I-10 along Louisiana Avenue, according to The Acadiana Advocate. Progress on the new library has...
BRIEF: Walter Guillory resigns Lafayette parks post
Walter Guillory, athletic programs supervisor for Lafayette Consolidated Government, resigned last week, the Boulet administration confirmed to the Acadiana Advocate. Guillory’s appointment to that role in 2019 raised eyebrows, given his then recent release from federal prison on corruption charges connected to his time as director of the Lafayette Housing Authority.
BRIEF: Boulet taps new spokesperson
The Boulet administration will appoint marketing strategist Jamie Boudreaux to the role of Chief Communications Officer, per a Monday press release. Boudreaux will leave her current post at BBR Creative to join Lafayette Consolidated Government later this month. From the press release:. Prior to her time at BBR, Boudreaux served...
Drake LeBlanc’s fight for French
Lafayette filmmaker and multimedia artist Drake LeBlanc is a product and advocate of Louisiana French education. The French multi-media organization he co-founded, Télé-Louisiane, is facing drastic cuts in state funding. A graduate of Paul Breaux Middle School’s now defunct French Immersion program, LeBlanc went on to host a...
Lafayette will vote in two congressional districts this fall
The map is set for this fall’s congressional elections, splitting Lafayette between two districts. But the fight over Louisiana’s second Black district may not be over. Louisiana will have two majority-Black congressional districts this fall after the U.S. Supreme Court halted a challenge to the congressional map passed by the state Legislature in a special session at the start of this year. The Supreme Court decided it was too close to the Nov. 5 election to change voters’ congressional districts.
Column: Lafayette is the best of the worst — so what?
So Lafayette is the best city in the worst state, according to the U.S. News and World Report annual rankings. What does that really tell us? Any of these online lists need to be taken with some degree of salt. No matter what methodology they use for their scoring, there’s some amount of nuance left out. For example, their quality of life index doesn’t factor in how much more delicious gumbo is in Lafayette than in Shreveport.
Summer heat is here. Is Lafayette prepared?
After recording breaking heat last summer, Louisiana residents are buckling up for another hot few months. Earlier this month, temperatures cracked the 90 degree mark for the first time this year and according to the Climate Prediction Center the region is in for another unusually hot summer. Last year, local...
BRIEF: Boulet taps Paul Trouard as interim chief
Paul Trouard, a 27-year veteran of the Lafayette Police Department, will serve as interim chief, the Boulet administration announced at press conference Tuesday. Trouard will hold the post as Lafayette Consolidated Government embarks on a national search to replace Judith Estorge, a holdover from the Guillory era who announced her resignation last week.
TIMELINE: Lafayette’s police chief turnover
Change has been the only constant for the top job at the Lafayette Police Department since 2020. Six different people have held the job since 2020, including five appointed or promoted by former Mayor-President Josh Guillory. Mayor-President Monique Boulet retained Guillory’s last permanent chief, Judith Estorge, when she took office...
Sheriff makes room to address overcrowding at Lafayette jail
The Lafayette Parish Correctional Center has taken steps, big and small, to address a persistent overcrowding issue that has long frustrated law enforcement officers and potentially put the community’s safety at risk. The Current reported in February that people under custodial arrest were often chained to a bench in...
Youth mental health response team coming to Acadiana
A new mobile response team tasked with assisting youth and their families in moments of crisis will be hitting the streets this summer. After a lengthy selection and training process, Lafayette based nonprofit The Extra Mile will be running the program, which is part of an effort by the Louisiana Department of Health to expand resources for youth experiencing mental health challenges.
Council Preview: Spoil banks settlement and new money for debris drop off
Here is a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the City and Parish councils. To see the full agendas, check out the links below:. Property taxes in Louisiana are calculated from millage rates set by local government bodies. Those rates have to be set during public meetings each year, and various rules exist to limit how they can be adjusted without going to a vote of city or parish residents. Millages in Lafayette are available on the Parish Assessor’s website.
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