Ground breaking for new parish prison held March 21, 2023 The ground breaking for the new Evangeline Parish Jail facility was held this (Tuesday) morning at the new proposed site at the Ward One Industrial Park. Sheriff Charles Guillory welcomed the large group of public officials and the general public in attendance. Fr. Tom Voorhies, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church offered an opening prayer. Also speaking was architect Alex Deshotel whose firm is designing the new parish jail facility who announced that the jail will house 200 inmates including men, woman and some juveniles. They expect to go to bid in the next three months for a general contractor. The construction phase is expected to take about 14-16 months. Based on that time line, the new parish jail should have a ribbon cutting in the next 18 months. Other speakers included State Representative Rhonda Butler and Police Jury President Brian Vidrine. The ground breaking included the sheriff, the architect and several members of the police jury. The closing prayer was offered by Rev. Freddie Jack of the St. John Baptist Church.

Evangeline Parish Police Jury Meeting March 6, 2023 The Evangeline Parish Police Jury Monday night received information on a proposed solar farm in Bayou Chicot from Eric Wedesky with IBV Energy Partners. The company plans to invest 250 million dollars to create a 200 Megawatt solar farm on a 1200 acre tract of land in the Bayou Chicot area. The project will support energy reliability, create jobs and increase tax revenues for Evangeline Parish residents,. They are proposing to start construction in the first quarter of 2024 and start commercial operation and be on line and deliver power to the grid by the second quarter of 2025. He is projecting that the new Solar Farm will support over 27.5 million dollars in a new tax base over a 35 year period. The project will supply electricity for approximately 34,000 homes. He mentioned that during the 18 month construction period, the project will hire some 250 direct temporary jobs and $54 million dollars in earnings in Louisiana. Once construction is completed, they will have 3-5 permanent new jobs to help maintain the solar farm operation. The police jury has called a public hearing at 4:30pm on April 3 at the courthouse to get public comment on the proposed new Solar Farm operation at Bayou Chicot. In other business, the police jury: --agreed to proceed with a "Workers on Wheels" project at Crooked Creek Park where campers could camp at no charge in exchange for assisting in work projects around the camping site; --after hearing a proposal to lease the courthouse canteen to Steven Sawtelle to begin selling food for courthouse employees and guests, the police jury voted to officially advertise in their legal journal to accept sealed quotes and proposals for the courthouse canteen; --authorized the police jury president the authority to sign all necessary paperwork once an agreement has been reached in a cooperative endeavor agreement between the police jury and City of Ville Platte to help clean the city's canals;- --scheduled a public hearing on a new nuisance ordinance regulating the usage of Tannerite. The ordinance prohibits the usage of Tannerite with propane bottles. This new noise pollution ordinance would prohibit its usage between 8'00pm to 8;00am.; --approved a resolution to issue up to 2.5 million dollars in tax bonds for Fire Protection District #2 to construct a new fire station in the Tee Mamou area.; --appointed Jody Snoddy as the new Public Works Director replacing Andrew Tate who will become the new Region A Foreman; Darrell Shepherd Jr was named new Assistant Public Works Director; --received news from Parish Engineer Ronnie Landreneau that the parish has been awarded $923,000 in a sewer grant for the Wyble Subdivision.

KVPI Winning Award March 3, 2023 KVPI AM/FM was honored and recognized Thursday night at the annual Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction event in Baton Rouge. The radio stations were recognized for outstanding and continuous service to the ag industry in our listening area for the past 70 years. KVPI presents four ag reports a day from the Louisiana Agri News Network along with weekly county agent and 4-H reports. Presenting the award to KVPI's Misty Parker representing KVPI were Jeff Palermo, the News and Sports Director with the Louisiana Radio Network and Richard Fontenot of Vidrine. with the Louisiana Farm Bureau and the Louisiana Rice Research Board. Also recognized at the event were: Dr. Steven Linscombe, rice scientist with the LSU Ag Center, Jackie Theriot, a sugar cane farmer from Breaux Bridge and Gerard Frey, rice producer from Acadia Parish. The Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction event took place Thursday night at L'auberge Casino and Hotel in Baton Rouge and sponsored by the Louisiana Radio Network, LSU AG Center, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Louisiana Farm Bureau.