The Acadia Parish Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual State of the Parish luncheon March 31 at the Grand Opera House of the South. Among those on hand for the event were, from left, Amy Thibodeaux, Chamber president and CEO; Dr. Eddie Palmer and Blane Faulk, Chamber board members; Acadia Parish School Superintendent Scott Richard, speaker; Jackie Loewer, Dan Nugier and Lee Lawrence, Chamber board members; and Acadia Parish Sheriff K.P. Gibson and Acadia Parish Police Jury President Chance Henry, speakers.
CROWLEY — Overall, Acadia Parish is in pretty good shape after surviving a year-long pandemic, a pair of hurricanes and an Arctic freeze. But it took teamwork — from various teams — to get to this point.
That was the running theme when Sheriff K.P. Gibson, Public School Superintendent Scott Richard and Police Jury President Chance Henry addressed a sociallydistanced crowd in the fourth-floor Grand Ballroom of the Grand Opera House for Wednesday’s State of the Parish luncheon.
The luncheon was the first since 2019 for the Acadia Parish Chamber of Commerce. Last year’s event was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been a challenging year,” Gibson said in kicking off the program. “Our team worked really hard since this pandemic started and I’m pleased to say that we had only three positive (COVID-19) tests in our jail to date.”
In the wake of last year’s hurricanes, deputies worked not only across the parish but, when off duty, volunteered to cover for deputies in some of the harder-hit areas so that those comrades could “take care of their business.”
Teaming up with the police jury, the sheriff’s office was able to upgrade medical services at the jail during the past year.
“We went from having an on-call medic to a full-time medical team at the jail,” Gibson said.
But everything was not rosy during the past year, according to the sheriff.
“We’ve had a rash of juvenile crime, here in Crowley, in Rayne ... all across the parish,” he said. “The problem we have with that is the lack of juvenile detention facilities.”
The nearest such facility is in Natchez, Mississippi, according to Gibson. And it costs the parish $250 a day to hold a juvenile there.
He said area sheriffs are considering a regional approach to the problem.
“The Florida Parishes banned together and they have one for just them. They won’t take in anyone from outside,” Gibson said. “We’re looking closely at a similar type operation in Acadiana.”
The sheriff went on to highlight some of the advances and upgrades in his department and cited a num ber of crime statistics, all of which will be featured in detail when his Annual Report is released some time next week.
“But this is not a ‘me’ thing, it’s a ‘team’ thing. I appreciate the work my deputies do. You have to have a good team to make this work.”
Richard also acknowledged the many challenges faced by the school system in the last year.
“This past school year has been one of patience, cooperation and flexibility for our staff and students,” he said, recalling the March 13, 2020, announcement that schools would be closing.
“On that ‘Friday the 13th’ our team started planning for contingencies,” he said.
He outlined many of the steps the school system administrators took in the wake of the announcement, everything from putting together food programs for students to figuring out rural teaching plans to holding graduation ceremonies.
“And we kept getting mixed signals from the state and from the CDC all the while,” Richard said. “We took some pretty aggressive steps, but learned that we were not in control.”
Then, when the new school year started, so did the hurricanes.
“We’re still dealing with damage from those,” he said, noting that the board will be accepting bids on the complete re-roofing of Crowley High, Church Point Elementary and Estherwood Elementary.
“We knew it was more important to bring the younger students — pre-K through fifth — back as soon as possible,” he said.
By mid-November the sixth, seventh and eighth graders had returned and on Dec. 7, 2020, “all of our students were back in the classrooms,” he said.
When schools opened on Sept. 8, 2020, approximately 3,000 students in Acadia Parish were enrolled in all-virtual classes. “That number is down to 640 today— less than 10 percent of our enrollment,” Richard said.
The superintendent had special thanks for “Crowley’s own Dr. Tina Stefanski,” medical director for Region 4, Louisiana Department of Health.
“I had her number on speed dial and I used it nearly every day for a while there,” he said.
Looking forward, Richard said he hopes to establish a closer working relationship with South Louisiana Community College “and offer more opportunities for our students to utilize the Crowley campus.” Henry was two and a half months
Henry was two and a half months into his first term as a member and president of the Acadia Parish Police Jury when the “shut down” occurred. Secretary-Treasurer Bryan Borill was two weeks into his new job and Office of Homeland Security Director Ashley LeBlanc had practically just walked into her office for the first time the day the governor shut down the state.
“But we did alright,” Henry said. “Throughout the pandemic we just kept chugging along to make sure we brought services to the citizens.”
While sales tax revenues never bottomed out the way most thought they would, state revenue sharing funds did decrease dramatically, he added.
“And now we’re going to get $12 million from the federal government, but we really don’t know how we can use it yet,” Henry said. “We’ve got legal working on it to determine how we can use it.”
Henry said the two hurricanes that rolled through Acadia Parish “were rough.”
“We had some damage to some of our buildings, too, but our biggest problem was the mosquitoes,” he said.
“We got together and saw that we had some surplus money in the Mosquito Fund and we put planes in the air twice,” he said. “We sprayed every square mile of the parish after Laura and nearly every square mile after Delta.”
Currently, the police jury is working with the various drainage districts across the parish in an effort to consolidate efforts.
“They’ll still have their individual districts, but we’re trying to get them all to work together as a parish,” Henry explained.
Comparing upgrades at the Acadia Rice Arena to the turfing of the fields at the Crowley Recreation Complex, Henry said the Arena is a “major revenue generator” for the parish.
“We’re planning to add an airconditioned press box and do some other things out there,” he said. “The goal is to get bigger rodeos and bigger attractions.”
Henry noted that the Arena is booked “practically 365 days a year.”
He thanked the administrative office and “all the parish employees” for their dedication during the past year.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.