The administration took advantage of emergency declarations made by LCG and the state to push the appropriations through. Now it’s got a pool of funding that can be deployed without going to bid, just ahead of hurricane season.
The project fills a big hole on the Evangeline Thruway. Years of bad headlines and disinvestment have made the region a tough sell, and local officials hope news like this can polish the area’s image and attract investment down the line.
Pellerin’s family and local activists want Lafayette to adopt a proactive policy for releasing body-worn camera footage.
Officials are working to pin down a revised proposal for the alignment and design of the Lafayette Connector by early 2022.
In an at-times barbed response to the committee reviewing Lafayette’s form of government, Mayor-President Josh Guillory argues the city of Lafayette has thrived under consolidation, attempting to upend contentions that the arrangement has been unfair.
Three Parish Council members illegally arranged votes outside of public view to make a controversial library appointment, Lafayette library advocates allege in a suit filed last week in district court.
Despite new rules that would put the cost burden fully on the federal government, Louisiana’s hotel programs are ending, including the state’s largest in Acadiana.
If you consider yourself a conservative, we want to hear from you.
In a bid to boost low vaccine participation, Ochsner Lafayette General added 5,000 appointments and is pushing to grow awareness among those now eligible for vaccination. Via the Daily Advertiser:
The hospital system, which has been operating an appointment-only vaccine clinic in Lafayette’s Heymann Performing Arts Center, is expanding the clinic’s hours to now operate from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Saturday operations in the works.
LCG is pursuing five massive detention projects to address flooding in Lafayette Parish. One project would convert a sugar cane field into a 200-acre pond. Detention ponds hold water during storm events, slowing flows to the river and other drainage channels. In the floods 2016, water overflowed out of drainage channels and into thousands of homes.
LCG made public necessity declarations for five parcels, freezing them from commercial development while studies are completed. KLFY reports that public works officials have reviewed 90 sites, narrowing the field to 20, including the five currently under consideration.
Hospitals reported 478 Covid patients Friday, the lowest total since March 2020. Louisiana’s third surge has steadily abated since hospitalizations peaked in January at 2,069. Acadiana, which at one time led the state in Covid hospitalizations, counted just 51 in-patients. The region has not reported fewer than 44 Covid hospitalizations since the end of March 2020, just weeks after the area confirmed its first cases. Vaccinations and improved therapies have dramatically cut hospital stays and mortality.
Louisiana is expanding vaccine eligibility to include most adults with certain health conditions that put them at high risk. Announced Tuesday by Gov. John Bel Edwards, the new eligibility extends the age range in the high risk pool to as young as 16-years-old, substantially increasing the current priority group. Around 1.6 million people are estimated to now qualify. Below are the conditions listed in the update:
Get it first. Sign up for our free newsletters. Learn more »