ROTARY CLUB MEETING

APRIL 8, 2014

     The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard from Bill Fontenot , Vice President of Utility Operations with Cleco. He, along with Sabrina Salling, Governmental Operations Supervisor, were the special guests of Rotarian Bob Manuel who was in charge of the program.

       Fontenot, a native of Ville Platte and the son of Rotarian Leonard Glen Fontenot, gave a power point presentation on the history of Cleco and its services.. He said “Cleco is more than an electricity provider, we’re a community partner.”

      The company was formed in 1945 in Bunkie after it expanded to selling electricity from its original business of selling ice. Cleco has 284,000 customers in 23 parishes. It employs 1200 workers.

      Cleco has spent 8 million dollars for a new substation in northern Evangeline Parish in the past few years and has spent 200 million dollars to ensure customers will have no brown outs during peak times during the summer.

      The company has spent 37 million dollars in taxes including over 6 million dollars in Evangeline Parish in taxes.

     Rotary Club President Bill Brunet announced that the Sacred Heart Interact Club will be sponsoring an international project to assist a mission church in Haiti. The church mission is in need of ink pens, back packs and paper clips. The club is planning a fund raiser in the near future to ship these items to the mission.

    In other news, the rotary club is planning a fellowship meal at Dr. Jerry Veillion’s camp at 6:00pm on April 22.