Harlan Kirgan
A hospital district that includes portions of St. Landry and St. Martin parishes is to be dissolved with the assets split between the parishes.
An agreement to make the split was approved Wednesday by the St. Landry Parish Council to the delight of a crowd of Arnaudville residents.
They want the hospital district’s vacant 25,000-square-foot St. Luke Hospital to be converted into a French Immersion Campus.
The agreement was almost stopped in its tracks.
Newly elected Parish Council Chairman Jerry Red cast a tie-breaking vote to give the go-ahead for the agreement, which next goes to the St. Martin Parish Council for a vote.
Voting to the agreement were Council members Easton Shelvin, Mildred Thierry, Vivian Olivier, Dexter Brown, Timmy Lejeune, Jimmie Edwards and Red.
Voting against the agreement were Harold Taylor, Ken Marks, Alvin Stelly, Wayne Ardoin, Coby Clavier and Nancy Carriere.
Opponents had reservations about whether the project would have an impact on the Parish Council’s budget. There were also concerns voiced about asbestos in the building.
Bill Fontenot, parish president, said the agreement is to divide up the hospital district’s assets, which include up to $1.4 million and the building. St. Landry Parish would get the building valued at about $300,000 and nearly $500,000, he said.
David Wolf, a New Orleans attorney who crafted the agreement, said it is not known if the district’s money is dedicated for health care or the building. As a result, St.Martin Parish intends to use its money for health care. St. Landry Parish is to use its share of the money for the building renovation.
Mavis Fruge, an Arnaudville resident, said the community has worked eight years on the project.
“There is nothing like this in all of the 50 states,” she said of the planned French Immersion Campus expected to bring students in from across the world.
“These are students from all over the states. There are international students and they think this is an awesome thing to be immersed in the culture, to go crawfishing the old-fashioned way, to have one of the old veterans teach how to make an étouffée,” she said.
Before casting his tie-breaking vote, Red said, “I think this something positive for the French-speaking people, the Cajun-speaking people as well as the Creole-speaking people. This is something positive about heritage.”
Taylor, who voted against the agreement, said he does not oppose the French Immersion Campus, but has questions about the agreement’s legalities.
Lejeune, who supported the agreement, said, “I want to see a guarantee that it will not cost the taxpayers throughout the parish one red cent.”
The agreement approved Wednesday is only about he division of assets with St. Martin Parish and does not create the French Immersion Campus, Wolf said.