The Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce met today at Noon at Main Street Pizza and Pub.  The Guest Speaker was Paul Mathews with the Port of New Orleans.  Mathews is originally from Pineville and attended University of Louisiana at Lafayette to achieve his MBA.  He talked about the workings of the Port of New Orleans and it being a deep-draft multipurpose port at the center of the world’s busiest port system.  The Port’s facilities include 20 million square feet of cargo handling area, more than 3.1 million square feet of covered storage area and 1.7 million square feet of cruise and parking facilities.  The Port of New Orleans handled 1,023,700 passengers in 2015, breaking the million-passenger milestone for the second consecutive year.  He had others with him who will be judging the Smoked Meat Cook-off this weekend.  Valerie Cahill of Hotel Cazan presented the judges as: Jane E. Booth, founder & partner of Booth & Booth Law Firm; Lori G. Murphy, owner & publisher of Inside New Orleans and Inside Northside magazines; Liz Williams, founder of Southern Food & Beverage Museum and President of Nation Food & Beverage Foundation; Dr. Myron Moorehead, nationally recognized OB/GYN, former King of Zulu and practicing attorney; Hervin Guidry, practicing attorney; Christophe Bela Szapary, attorney & partner of Provosty & Gankendorff, LLC; and Paul G. Aucoin, Executive Director of the Port of South Louisiana, serves on the Board of Directors for the New Orleans World Trade Center.

New Board Member for the Chamber were introduced.  Amy Dupre, Nicole G. Wenger and Michael John Lemoine will replace Randy Deshotel, Hillery hill and Judy Guillory. 

The next meeting will be held Wednesday, July 20^th at Main Street Pizza & Pub at Noon.