Ville Platte Rotary Club Meeting
September 27, 2016
The Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard two guest speakers: Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser and Rotarian Nicole Wenger.
The Lt. Governor, who in charge of the state parks along with recreation and tourism, visited Chicot State Park and its employees. Due to the state’s limited resources, his office is looking at finding new ways to raise revenues for the state parks without new taxes. For example, at Fontainebleau State Park near New Orleans, the state is working at bringing a hotel and conference center. His office is looking at selling Louisiana products at Louisiana Welcome Centers. “We want to work with local businesses and look at creative ways to bring in additional revenues,” he said.
Speaking about the scale of the flooding in August , the Lt. Governor said “it was like opening up the Mississippi River for 18 days on our state” or in other words 7 trillion gallons of water fell. He said he is proud of the citizens who have worked together without much assistance from government resources to overcome their losses. “It is a pleasure and honor to be a citizen and work with the great people of Louisiana”, said Nungesser.
Nungesser , after his appearance at the Rotary Club, came to KVPI studios and recorded an interview to air Wednesday at 12:30.
The scheduled guest speaker was Rotarian Nicole Wenger. She is the co- owner of DryMax Water and Fire Restoration. She reported that even her business had water in it during last month’s flooding rains. In fact the Ville Platte area received about 18 inches of water.
She and her team have been extremely busy helping local and area residents, many of whom had no flood insurance.
Her company is now offering emergency disaster planning for businesses to prepare for any future disasters that may happen.
Wenger showed to club members several tools that her team uses including infra-red cameras and meters to help detect moisture content in homes and businesses.
Rotarian Wayne Vidrine conducted the meeting in the absence of Club President Peter Strawitz.