One Acadiana tour aims to build regional understanding

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One Acadiana began a 12-hour journey through St. Landry and Evangeline parishes Thursday beginning at LSUE for a breakfast meeting.
About 40 people were on the tour intended to introduce members of the nine-parish One Acadiana to the realities of each parish.
Jim Bourgeois, interim president and CEO of One Acadiana, said, “The goal of this is take people who have never been to some of these other parishes. Let’s go talk to the different stakeholders in the parishes, Let’s learn exactly what the assets are, what the challenges, opportunities, strengths, weaknesses are and see if we can take that back.”
Thursday’s tour was the final leg of three tours in Building the Region. Two earlier tours were to Vermilion, Iberia and St. Mary, Acadia, St. Martin and Jeff Davis parishes.
The tour in St. Landry Parish spanned LSUE to the Walmart Distribution Center to Arnaudville’s NUNU Arts and Culture Collective for a 6 to 8 p.m. session.
Kimberly Russell, chancellor, delivered an overview of LSUE noting new programs are driving a 22 percent enrollment increase from 2015. Enrollment is 3,044.
The programs include expanding health science degrees to the new LSUE Academy, which provides a way for high school juniors and seniors in St. Landry, Acadia and Evangeline parishes to earn college credits and an associate degree.
The LSUE Academy is the only program of its type in Louisiana in which high school juniors and seniors can obtain Pell Grants, she said.
Russell said LSUE’s enrollment increase has helped the campus’ finances, but major needs are not being met.
The science building was the first building on the campus in 1967, but now is falling apart, she said.
“It’s shameful what we are doing with higher education in this state,” she said.
Patrick Jenkins, St. Landry Parish school superintendent, echoed Russell’s observation about education needing more money.
The parish School Board has called an election on a bond proposals to raise salaries and for capital improvements, he said.
Jenkins also noted the parish had a C in the recent state school performance scores, but said new programs are going to improve that.
“We are going to be better than that in the very near future,” he said.
“If you want your housing values to go up you have to have good schools,” he said in linking education to economic growth.
Mike Bertaut, an economist with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, said, “We have tons of clients in Acadiana. The reason it is very important to me is I grew up in Morgan City. Spent a lot of time in Lafayette growing up.”
But he said he had not been in Eunice since he was 10 years old.
“My presence here is my attempt to really learn as much as I can about this region. I do a lot of forecasting and modeling and I want to know what is going on. I really do. I’m excited about the opportunity,” he said.
Tina Vidrine, a vice president in commercial lending for JD Bank, said the tour, “Is a wonderful opportunity for networking and learning...”
Bill Rodier, executive director of the St. Landry Economic Development District, said he hopes tour participants come away with a deeper understanding of the area’s quality of leadership and collaborations.
At about 3 p.m. the tour bus arrived at the 1.2-million-square-foot Walmart Distribution Center north of Opelousas.
Built in 1999, the cavernous facility services 87 Walmart SuperCenters and 25 Walmart Neighbor Stores in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.
The facility employs about 950 people and has a starting pay of $16 to $17 a hour, Rodier said.
Jody Soileau, an economic development specialist with Slemco, said the facility is “amazing.”
Soileau said, “I grew up in St. Landry Parish and spent a lot of time in Evangeline Parish and this tour opened my eyes to things I never knew existed.”