Voters in St. Landry Parish will be deciding on a parish President. Bill Fontenot is seeking his third term in office. His opponent Ken Marks is looking to make the jump to parish presidency after serving on the council.
Bill Fontenot
Fontenot, is running on his reputation. Throughout his 2 terms, Fontenot has implemented the Smooth Ride Home Program, paving and repairing roads in the parish."We've paved 325 miles of road," Fontenot said. "As the only civil engineer in the race, you can be sure I will build upon that. There's enough money to pave roads every year for the next 10 years."
Fontenot says he wants to finish those projects as parish president, along with working towards new ones. "This will be my third term and I look forward to ambitiously taking it on," Fontenot said. "Feasibility of the new library, parks and rec will go a long way in having the children know the government and adults are interested in their future."
Ken Marks is currently on the parish council. He says it's time for a change in leadership. "The fiscal responsibility and accountability of our parish is critical with the tax dollars we have; that their spending wisely, appropriately, being collected and spent where it's supposed to be," Marks said.
Marks is also a businessman. He managed a major corporation for more than 3 decades. He says his overall experience will help him tackle different issues in the parish like drainage and also help keep more people in the area.
"Downtown Opelousas had beautiful old buildings. We need to make sure that we spend the time and money to regenerate those buildings," Marks said. "Get downtown alive again so that it's vibrant . We need to keep our people, educate them, and give them jobs here."
