ROTARY MEETING

JUNE 30, 2015

    The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard a legislative update report from State Representative Bernard LeBas. The session was primarily a money session since the state was 1.6 billion in the red. The lawmakers had to find new ways to raise revenues.

    Among the bills that were approved: a 50 cent a pack increase in cigarette taxes, removing the state tax exemption on solar energy panels, reduce the inventory tax credit by 25% and increasing the vehicle title fees.

     The legislature is looking at going into a veto session to possibly over ride veto’s by the governor . Those veto’s include : a cost of living raise to state retirees that amounted to $30 a month; collect the state 4 percent sales tax on online sales ; putting a cap on how much the state could spend on the Tops program; reducing the tax credits to movies made in the state from $264 million down to $180 million dollars.

      Le Bas was the special guest of Rotarian Dan Poret. This meeting was the last meeting conducted by outgoing President David Mayeaux. The next meeting will be conducted by incoming president Mitch Elmand Fontenot.

ROTARY CLUB MEETING

JUNE 23, 2015

       The Rotary Club of Ville Platte today (Tuesday) heard from Leonard Rainey, regional representative for U.S. Senator David Vitter. Rainey handles constituent services such as Social Security, FEMA, HUD and Immigration issues.

      Rainey reported that Sen. Vitter is chairman of the Small Business Committee in the Senate. In Louisiana, some 145,000 people are unemployed and the senator is working hard to help the small business owner through improvements in infrastructure.

      Chamber Executive Director Camille Fontenot asked Rainey to get the senator’s support to four lane US 167 between Ville Platte and Opelousas.

      In other business, Rotarian Larry Lachney announced that there have been three applicants that applied for the two rotary scholarships at the Coreil Campus at Louisiana Technical College.

     Also, Rotary Club President David Mayeaux announced that five new  Rotary road signs will be erected in the next few weeks at various intersections in Ville Platte.

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury met last night in the courthouse.  The Jury re-appointed two members to the Solid Waste Commission and replaced Secretary/Treasurer, Phil Miller, with Pat Soileau.  The Jury also appointed Fred Fontenot to the Ward 5 Fire District Board.

There had been some confusion regarding the auto insurance policy for all of the Parish vehicles.  According to Police Jurors, State Farm Insurance Company had quoted the Jury with incorrect pricing for the policy and sent a letter to them stating their coverage would be cancelled.  After working with the Jury, State Farm finally decided to honor the quote they had previously given the Jury.

Police Jurors unanimously passed a resolution to display “In God We Trust” in the Police Jury Room for all public meetings.

The Jury announced that the Industrial Park water tower is now in the process of “getting a face lift”.  They are also still in the process of working with black top on the roads in the Parish.

They also voted to confirm The Gazette as the official Journal.

VILLE PLATTE ROTARY CLUB MEETING

JUNE 9, 2015

   The Ville Platte Rotary Club met today (Tuesday) for their weekly meeting at Nick’s on Main and heard from Electrical Contractor Winston LaFleur. LaFleur spoke on a new group he has begun known as Ville Platte Christian Mission. The group works on raising money to go on yearly missions to Honduras. He  said last March, the group raised money through a city wide garage sale. While in Honduras, the group helped construct two homes and perform a water purifying project.  Winston was the special guest of Rotarian Kermit Miller.

    Club President Elect Mitch Fontenot conducted the meeting and reminded Rotarians of the annual installation banquet planned for next Tuesday June 16 at 6;00pm at Nick’s On Main. There will be no noon club meeting next week. It was also announced that Peter Strawitz has been elected as a new incoming board member.

     Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine announced that the city is under a night time curfew for minors from 10-5 weekday nights and 12-5 on weekends.

Congratulations to Bonnie Meche for being our weekly winner of a Family Fun 4-Pack of tickets to Blue Bayou/Dixie Landin'.  We will have another drawing this Friday morning so keep listening for your splashy "cue to call" and be caller 10 to qualify.  Good Luck!

The Evangeline Parish School Board

June 3, 2015

The Evangeline Parish School Board held its bi-monthly meeting tonight in the Media Center.  There were quite a few support personnel in attendance as well as Principals and Administrators.  The main topic of discussion was the adoption of the 2015-2016 Salary Schedule that has been put together by the Superintendent’s Committee Members and forwarded to each school for input from the Administrators and staff members.  There was lengthy discussion about how certain support personnel would be affected by the “rating” system included in the plan and how that would affect the outcome of each person’s pay, including Merit payments.  Superintendent, Toni Hamlin and CFO, Amy LaFleur explained at length how the final plan was put together and said it was “fair, equitable and affordable.”  There were support personnel in attendance who told the Board they were very happy with the plan and supported it.  The Board did end up passing the Salary Schedule as the Committee presented it.  Ms. Hamlin thanked the Committee for all of its hard work.  Those members, including her, are Darwan Lazard, Amy LaFleur, Kelli LaFleur, Sherral Tezeno, Wanda Verrette, Johnell Celestine, Deborah Charles and Jacki Wyble.  President, Wayne Dardeau thanked the lunch room ladies from across the Parish for “all of the hard work they do for very little pay.”

Superintendent, Toni Hamlin, stated there are 103 children enrolled in Summer School.

She also stated that some teachers are currently attending the State Leadership Summit in New Orleans.  Last year they sent 30 teachers; however, in an effort to save traveling costs, they only sent 2 or 3 teachers.  They will come back and present the information on Staff Development Day.

UNITED WAY AWARDS CEREMONY

JUNE 3, 2015

    St. Landry/Evangeline United Way held their annual awards banquet Tuesday night. Among the awards given out were Mark Suellentrop, Cabot Corporation Manager named as Board Member of the Year. KVPI and the Ville Platte Gazette were given plaques for our news coverage throughout the year for United Way Projects.

VILLE PLATTE ROTARY CLUB MEETING

JUNE 2, 2015

    The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard from Kip Manuel give a brief history of Manuel Hardware. He stated there were four investors that began in 1948  Roy Tractor Company in Ville Platte: Leroy Soileau, Gilbert Aucoin, John Miller and Sam Miller with two employees: Henry Lee Manuel and A.B. Billeaudeau. A few years later in 1950, the owners sold the company to the two employees. The company began selling hay balers and shredders in addition to tractors. Also the company began selling grain bins as the business continued to grow through the years. In 1972, Henry Lee Manuel convinced his son, Kip, who was attending college to come work in the business. Kip acquired a contractor’s license and began building metal buildings. Among the customers the company constructed buildings  included Cabot, Union Tank, Holloway and T&J Ford. Kip Manuel introduced the new owners of the business, Ryan Vidrine. He is a graduate of McNeese and has been in the Ag industry for a number of years. He and his wife are planning to expand the business into new markets.

    In other business:

Welcomed the new editor of the Ville Platte Gazette: Raymond Partsche;

Was reminded that the annual installation banquet will be June 16 at 6;00pm at Nick’s on Main;

Was told that there will be a garage sale at Eric Gil’s State Farm Office on LaSalle Saturday from 7-12 noon for the Make A Wish foundation;

Is still seeking applicants for the Rotary Scholarship for the Coreil Campus of Louisiana Technical College.