KVPI News Director, Stephanie Ware was on the scene when the news first broke out about a manhunt for Brandon Messer (28) in the Turkey Creek area of Evangeline Parish Thursday evening. “He is being accused of threatening one individual associated with a church back there and approaching the residents of that person. And the individual was not home so he shot the dog. He’s also made other threatening comments about the church.” As soon as we get anything new, we will pass that information along to you through our various forms of media including 92.5 KVPI FM, Facebook, Twitter, and here at our website. Anyone with information can call the Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office at 337-363-3345 or Louisiana State Police at 225-262-5880.

You can check out Steph being interviewed by KLFY News Channel 10 for their own report on this story below: 

Update: On August 24th Brandon Messer, who was being sought by the Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office and Louisiana State Police, turned himself in.

The Evangeline Parish School Board met last night in the School Board Media Center. Continued discussion regarding the transportation of student athletes was had. Principals, assistant principals and coaches in attendance, all in favor of continuing to transport athletes when necessary or if needed. Ms. Peggy Foreman asked that feeder schools, Chicot, Chatagnier and Mamou be allowed to let the administrator be able to determine that if needed, a student athlete, could be transported by personnel. Mr. Arthur Savoy and Scott Limoges attempted to do away with the entire transport of student athletes. Arthur made the motion to discontinue the service and Doctor Bobby Deshotel seconded it. Superintendent Toni Hamlin, said she had sent a request to all schools and all schools said they were not interested in changing anything. The issue of “Do it for one, do it for all.” Continued to be discussed. Every principal there made a comment that only student athletes were using this service. Other extra-curricular programs take place during school. The motion of canceling the service failed by a vote of 6-5.

VILLE PLATTE ROTARY MEETING

AUGUST 18, 2015

        The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard from Dr. Natalie Harder,  Director of the South Louisiana Community College System. The 8 parish system has a campus in each parish. Here in Evangeline Parish, the campus is C.B. Coreil in Ville Platte. The local C.B. Coreil Campus Administrator is Carlene Jones.

        Dr. Harder reported that her funding has been reduced by 55 percent since  2009 so it has been a challenge. “We are committed to keeping the campuses in each parish  open and vibrant.” Unfortunately the system cannot offer the same courses in every campus which explains why 45 students from Evangeline Parish are taking courses at other campuses.

        She announced that the C.B. Coreil campus offers the following courses: Accounting, Business, Business Administration, Medical Assistant, Practical Nursing, Technology, General Studies and Welding. Student enrollment has increased 34 percent this fall. Many of these courses are transferrable to four year colleges.

        Dr. Harder asked rotary members to spread the word throughout the community about the programs offered locally at the campus.

VILLE PLATTE ROTARY CLUB

AUGUST 11, 2015

     The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard  from State Senator Eric Lafleur  discuss highlights from the recent legislative session in Baton Rouge.

      Lafleur said once again, the legislature used one time money to balance the budget. By using non recurring money, lawmakers will have to meet again early next year to overcome a one billion deficit.

      The senator said all of the major candidates for governor have announced if they are elected they will call a special session to help tackle once and for all the spending problem they face each year .

      This year, the state balanced the budget by raising certain taxes. For example, a tax on utility bills for large companies and industries was implemented.

      Senator Lafleur said Governor Jindal would not allow federal Medicaid dollars to expand Medicaid coverage for the working poor in the state. Over 30 states have expanded Medicaid coverage. He said it would provide medical benefits for low paid workers and would be beneficial to the state.

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury

August 10, 2015

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury met tonight in the courthouse.  Registrar of Voters, Lucas Buller addressed the Police Jury regarding the upcoming October and November elections.  He advised the Jury that due to the upcoming Cotton Festival, the Ville Platte Civic Center will not be available to be used as a voting precinct.  He requested that the Jury approve moving the location to the Courthouse temporarily.  The Jury approved the measure. 

The Jury approved new appointments to the Keep Evangeline Beautiful Board.  They are as follows: Becky Buller, Susan Lahaye, Mary Alice Fontenot, Jessica Ducote Earles, Jim Robinson, Donald Bergeron, Diana Johnson, James Berthelot, Scott Fontenot, Mike Perron, Dagen Soileau, Hattie Johnson, Heather Cloud, Carmen Langly and Jackie Thomas.

Secretary/Treasurer, Donald Bergeron, advised that the appraisal for the “Old Library” has come back in the amount of $156,000.00.  On the recommendation of Juror, Eric Soileau, the Jury agreed to start the process of listing the property for sale.

The Jury re-entered into a Cooperative Agreement with the LSU Ag Center so as to continue to work together. 

Public Works Director, Chester Granger, reported that some of the parishes’ large equipment is currently out of order and it will take approximately a month to have repairs made.  This will put the chip & seal project behind.  He thanked the Jury for assisting him and thanked the public for understanding that due to the previous weather and equipment failure, projects have gone slow.  Eric Soileau commended Chester and his staff.  He stated “I know we have given you and your crew a lot to do.  And I know you put in a lot of hours.”

The Police Jury appointed Sandra Deville to replace Benny Ducote on the Lone Pine Fire Protection District.

Stay tuned to KVPI tomorrow for more details from the council meeting.

Stay tuned to KVPI tomorrow for more details from the council meeting.

Evangeline Parish School Board

August 5, 2015

The Evangeline Parish School Board held its bi-monthly meeting tonight in the School Board Media Center, one week before the official start of the 2015/16 school year.  Perry Watson gave a presentation regarding improvements that are being proposed to WW Stewart Elementary School and Basile High School through a proposed election to be held in School District No. 7 of the Second Police Jury Ward and the Seventh Police Jury Ward to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds.  The improvements, if approved would be funded through those bonds.  There will be a public hearing in September before the School Board will vote on whether to vote to have the election.

Lance Enkey with First Student gave a report on bus routes and changes that have been made to avoid overcrowding and more efficient bus routes for our students.  He said there are eleven new buses this year and all of the driver positions have been filled with local drivers.  Lance said the routes should be running efficiently for the first day of school.

There was much discussion back and forth about continuing to reimburse coaches for providing athletes with transportation for after school extra curricula activities, governed by LHSAA.  The question of why high school athletes are being provided the transportation, and not middle school athletes, was the main focus.  After lengthy debate, the Board voted to table the issue until they are given the monetary amount it would take to fund all schools in this manner.

VILLE PLATTE ROTARY CLUB MEETING

AUGUST 4, 2015

       The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard from Police Juror Bryan Vidrine who gave an update report on what is going parish wide.

       The primary issue facing members of the police jury is the problem of funding the growing cost of parish prisoners. He said usually the parish jail has about 5-10 prisoners over the limit. Right now, the sheriff’s department is having to deal with 60 prisoners over the jail capacity. Due to the Pine Prairie prison closing, the parish is having to send prisoners over the local jail limit to Caldwell parish where the daily cost is twice what the parish was paying at Pine Prairie.

      The police jury is reviewing several options to decrease the expenses including asking the courts to do more home arrests.

      Also, Vidrine said the parish owned Crooked Creek Park has been self sufficient for the past six years. The problem facing the jury is maintaining its electrical system inside the park. Also the jury is asking for entrepreneurs to step forward to invest in entertainment programs at the park.

     The juror said he had good news dealing with the problem of collecting overdue sewer bills. The jury now has a cooperative agreement with water systems throughout the parish . In the event, a customer of a parish owned sewer system does not pay their bill, the water system that serves that customer can cut off their water until their bills are paid. Under law, the parish cannot cut off a customer’s sewer bill.

  Vidrine was the special guest of Rotarian Robert Eastin.