The Lafayette City and Parish councils will deal with several issues at tomorrow's meetings.
The Parish Council meets at 4:30 p.m. with the City Council meeting to follow at 5:30 p.m. Both meetings occur in the council auditorium of City Hall on University Avenue, but you also can watch live on both LUS Fiber-Channel 3 and on Cox Communications-Channel 16. The meetings are then replayed on the following Friday at 7:00 p.m.
Up for final adoption before the City Council is an ordinance that would transfer $1 million from the council's reserve fund to the Parks and Recreation Department for needed upgrades and improvements. The money would be spent as follows: Fabacher Field Improvements: $350,000; Recreation Centers energy management system: $100,000; Recreation Center improvements: $550,000.
Also up for final adoption is a joint ordinance of both councils that allocates $8.8 million in Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds. The money is being funneled to SMILE and Catholic Charities of Acadiana and is to be used to help parish residents who have had trouble paying their rent. For information about the program, click here.
Both councils are slated to consider introduction of a joint ordinance that would formally accept $85 million in federal COVID recovery funds. The ordinance says the mayor's office has provided a proposed budget to spend the money but it is not attached to the ordinance. We have requested the budget from the council office and will update this story when we receive it.
On the Parish Council agenda, there's an ordinance up for final adoption that would declare the Willow Street Correctional Facility Project a public necessity. This would allow the city-parish to force land owners to sell their property to the government for the project.
The sheriff's website states the following about this project:
"In 2009, the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office announced the purchase of 29-acres of land on W. Willow Street in north Lafayette Parish which was purchased with existing funds. The land is the future home of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Public Safety Complex. The project is also known by its working title of “Oak Grove” due to a stand of oak trees on the southwest corner of the property.
The future complex will help alleviate crowded conditions at the downtown correctional facility and provide room for future needs. Preliminary plans call for the relocation of laundry facilities, Work Release, Inmate Industries, consolidated warehousing, and additional secure housing.
Although construction is over a year away, development of the site master plan has begun. The complex is part of LPSO's goal to provide the highest quality and most cost effective public safety services to the growing population of Lafayette Parish."
You can see the agendas for all the meetings, and read the full ordinances and back-up materials, on the councils' webpage. Just click here, choose the date of the meeting you want to see, and then select the agendas or agenda items from the list that appears.
