Upper Lafayette On The Move The Quest for Humor
www.upperlafayette.com November 2014 Volume 71
in the Workplace & Life
ED Talks Welcomes Hollis Milton GEAR UP with Traci Aucoin
Printed by Lafayette Economic Development Authority
Published by
Upper Lafayette Economic Development Foundation
Printed by
Lafayette Economic Development Authority
Board of Directors
David Welch, President Cherie Hebert, Vice President Todd Citron, Secretary/ Treasurer Adrian Baudoin Julie Dronet Brenda Foulcard Donna Landry Kirk LaCour Beau Phares Bryan Tabor Jerry Vascocu Monty Warren
Honorary Advisory Board Don Dupuis Ed Krampe Dwight “Bo” Ramsay Herbert Schilling
Staff
Jan Swift, Executive Director Elsa Dimitriadis, Communications Director/ Executive Assistant
Mailing Address P.O. Box 53107 Lafayette, LA 70505
Upper Lafayette Economic Development Foundation is an association of proactive individuals and business leaders joined together to be a catalyst for change. The Foundation’s mission is to enhance and direct the positive, planned growth of Upper Lafayette, focusing on quality of life, while participating in the overall development of the Greater Lafayette Metropolitan Area.
Cover photo: Angela Cole enjoying a speaker at Quest for Your Best event. Ramada Lafayette Conference Center on October 23, 2014. Photo by Elsa Dimitriadis.
On the Web
www.upperlafayette.com
For membership information or sponsorship opportunities, contact Jan Swift at jan@upperlafayette.com or 337-769-7649
Volume 71 • November 2014 • www.upperlafayette.com
A Letter from the Executive Director It’s time for Thanksgiving, and how much we have to be thankful for! As the year is winding down, it seemed a wonderful time to reflect on the many fun and memorable experiences our foundation has enjoyed this year. So many new friends, new members and enriching experiences have created memories I will always cherish, as I hope you will too. I am particularly thankful for social media and the effortless sharing of photos, film and information that we all take for granted these days. In pouring over the past year’s Upper Lafayette Facebook site, I realized how easy it is to capture moments in time and memorialize the events that make life worth living. Some of my favorite photos were simple and relaxed, with smiling faces and obvious camaraderie among business colleagues and friends. On the heels of our latest Quest event, which focused on humor, the photos in Facebook allowed me to relive the outrageously funny remarks of each of our three speakers who knocked it out of the ball park with their well-timed and hilarious delivery. I encourage you to visit our site and check out the many wonderful experiences this year has brought! Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and thank you for your ongoing and loyal support of Upper Lafayette. We are grateful for each and every one of our members and colleagues who work to improve our community.
Jan Swift Executive Director
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www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
Stone Energy Donates Landscaping to Lafayette Middle School Welch, CEO of Stone Energy, stated “We really feel like Northside became a model for this. What we saw is that the people who live around there started cutting their grass and cleaning up around their houses. The whole neighborhood became a part of it.” Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel said the school project ties directly into the new Project Front Yard, a community-wide effort to improve the area’s physical landscape. “You have to instill a sense of place and a sense of pride,” Durel said. “I hope these young people take this example and start picking up litter that they see, making sure their front yards are being kept up. I see this as an opportunity to instill that sense of pride that’s been lost.”
As part of an ongoing commitment to beautify Lafayette Parish schools, as well as the greater community, Stone Energy donated $25,000 to provide new plants and landscaping for Lafayette Middle School. The front yard of the historic building is also surrounded by a white fence and the school sign has been restored to its former state. Lafayette Middle School is the third school to which Stone Energy has contributed money to beautify and landscape the grounds. Previous recipients of this generosity are Northside High and N. P. Moss Preparatory Academy. David
Lafayette Middle School was constructed in 1926 and has been registered as a historical landmark. The beautiful building and its grounds occupy an entire city block at the intersection of of University and Congress in downtown Lafayette. The huge live oaks and massive pine trees that shade the grounds create a warm and welcoming environment to all visitors and to the staff, students and parents that call Lafayette Middle “their school.” Lafayette Middle School is the School of Choice for Environmental Sciences and has a wide variety of programs in its curriculum including Band, Computer Technology and Environmental Sciences.
warm and welcoming environment to all visitors and t
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City-Parish Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux Holds State of North Lafayette Address Lafayette District 4 City-Parish Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux held the inaugural “State of North Lafayette” forum on October 14, 2014 at a breakfast meeting hosted at the new Buffalo Wild Wings. Guest speakers LCG Parish President Joey Durel, LEDA CEO Gregg Gothreaux, and Our Lady of Lourdes CEO Bud Barrow, joined Boudreaux in this first event, patterned after Durel’s State of the Parish annual address. Tim and Mona Ward, owners of Buffalo Wild Wings, generously opened their doors and donated a delicious breakfast for the overflowing crowd gathered at their newest facility located at the NE corner of Pont Des Mouton at I-49 North. Boudreaux shared the latest economic development news which included news that Super One Foods is eyeing a site north of I-10 as well as a planned development south of the interstate with space being considered for a new restaurant and a RaceTrac gas station. “I think it’s very promising. Once that domino starts to have that effect, I think it all comes,” Boudreaux said. “Things are being done,” Boudreaux said. “There is opportunity in North Lafayette.” RaceTrac applied for a permit last month from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The site, located south of I-10 and east of Louisiana Avenue, would include a gas station and a nearby 41,000-square-foot building being considered for a restaurant. Gothreaux characterized these developments as an “economic renaissance” in North Lafayette. Further examples include Halliburton which opened a 200,000-square-foot plant on a 40-acre site on West Pont des Mouton Road in 2012, and Couret Farms, a Traditional Neighborhood Development that includes a new charter school and retail business set on 125 acres off W. Pont des Mouton Road. In addition to private development, several major road projects are moving forward in the area, including the $22 million project to widen E. Pont des Mouton Road that is underway and planned projects to extend Louisiana Avenue to Gloria Switch Road and to extend North St. Antoine Street from I-10 to West Pont des Mouton. “The natural progression for the parish is now this part of town,” City-Parish President Joey Durel said. Special credit goes to Richard Burgess of the Advocate for content contained in this article.
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www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
Quest For Your Best Focus On Importance of Humor
Senator Fred Mills and Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle
An overflowing crowd filled
the ballroom in the lovely Ramada Lafayette Conference Center at Upper Lafayette’s 5th Annual Quest For Your Best personal development symposium. Our focus on The Importance of Humor in the Workplace and Your Life was a wonderful opportunity to emphasize that our lives are short and days can be long. What better way to navigate life than to bring a sense of humor and style into your everyday existence? Our guest speakers, Lynley Jones of Grace Notes, Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, and Senator Fred Mills, each provided their own take on humor. For those of you who know Scott and Fred, need we say more? Witnessing them interacting comfortable with each other, as lifelong friends, was a joy to behold. The sense of timing, setting up the next joke, and simply having a great time, was a memorable event that we will not soon forget. Lynley Jones presented her own special brand of business etiquette, providing the attendees tools for handling wackos at work, how to tell others when they have a personal problem such as spinach between their teeth, and how to exit a boring conversation. It was a
delight to see the crowd roaring with laughter, as well as hearing Fred and Scott coming back with their own thoughts on business etiquette. All in all, this Quest was an event to be remembered. We are grateful to our Presenting Sponsor, Stone Energy, as well as Supporting Sponsors, AT&T and the Southwest Group, for their support of this event.
What better way to navigate life than to bring a sense of humor and style into your everyday existence?
www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
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www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
ED Talks Welcomes W. Feliciana Parish Superintendent Hollis Milton
Focus on Transformational Leadership in Public Schools
With all the media attention on the controversies impacting our local public school system, it seemed time to focus on positive and uplifting lessons from an “A” school district in our state. Hollis Milton, Superintendent of Public Schools in W. Feliciana Parish, certainly fit the bill as he delivered an upbeat and inspirational message about what is possible when open dialogue and collaboration are enjoyed between the district administrators and the elected school board members. Upper Lafayette’s Jan Swift, who is the Vice President of Lafayette Parish Public Education Stakeholders Council (“LaPESC”), serves as moderator for ED Talks. Filmed with the assistance of Acadiana Open Channel’s Ed Bowie and staff, ED Talks serves as a vehicle to highlight the latest on the education front. Milton spoke passionately about the importance of STEM based education which focuses on science, technology, engineering and math components. He explained that project based learning is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge. It’s a different day from when most of us were in school and Louisiana needs to embrace educational best practices in order to provide our students with the tools to be competitive in today’s world. Please click here to see the telecast of Hollis Milton’s presentation.
www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
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Press conference held at Chamber supporting Amendment 4
Upper Lafayette Economic Development Foundation supports all viable efforts to get I-49 South from Lafayette to New Orleans funded, so this highway can be safe for all of our residents and travelers’ needs. We want to do everything possible to facilitate safe hurricane evacuation efforts and to ensure continued dependability in delivery of U.S. oil and gas transport needs. 36% of Louisiana’s population lives along the current Hwy. 90/Future -49 corridor, which is desperately in need of an upgrade to Interstate standards to ensure safe traffic flow and quick evacuation in times of emergency. Port Fourchon, which relies on Hwy. 90 as its entrée to delivering our oil and gas energies to the rest of the world, needs a highway system which is dependable in delivering the services of 90% of all deepwater rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. But most importantly, we need to finish I-49 to New Orleans to create a pathway from Canada to New Orleans. Think about the business, tourism, and personal freedom in travel that creates! And servicing the oil and gas industry is a priority that Acadiana needs to be front and center on! Our state is not financially ready to address and fund our needs in transportation realities: Amendment 4 offers us an avenue to create an opportunity for investment in our state’s future.
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Amendment 4 on the ballot November 4th does not raise taxes or fees and gives our State Treasurer the authority to invest public funds in a state infrastructure bank. The bank, which the Louisiana Legislature will create in the next session, can offer low-interest loans to local and parish governments or ports that want to finance transportation improvement projects in their communities. The transportation bank allows us to think ahead about our needs. Upper Lafayette is in favor of pro-active legislation which thinks ahead, does not tax business or individuals, and which enhances the quality of life of all in our community. Please consider voting for Amendment 4. We have given this Amendment 4 much thought and our leadership will vote Yes on November 4, 2014.
Will you join us in voting yes on Amendment 4?
www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
CITY of SCOTT ADOPTS LAND USE REGULATIONS On October 2, 2014 the Scott City Council approved an ordinance which amended the Scott Municipal Code to adopt a Land Use Map and Land Use Regulations, which will take effect on January 1, 2015. This action marks a completion of a major portion of the Scott Comprehensive Plan. The purpose of the Land Use Code is to facilitate the orderly growth of the City of Scott, encourage development that benefits the city taxpayers, and accommodates land owners who may wish to develop their property while at the same time protecting existing owners of residential and commercial property. The Code includes procedures and regulations for approval of subdivision of land. “It gives us a great opportunity to grow our community and not look back 20 years down the road and say, ‘What did we do?’ ” Scott Mayor Purvis Morrison said. “Definitely, trailer parks will be no more, and dirt pits will be no more. It will protect our current residents from some obnoxious use that would come in,” Morrison said. “Now, the city will have regulations and rules in place where we can walk in and stop that type of business.” The Code creates nine (9) Land Use Districts: Open Space/Parks/Recreation Rural Residential Suburban Residential Urban Center Urban Commercial Apollo Road Corridor District Mobile Home Park District (Existing Mobile Parks) Civic (Governmental, Schools, etc.) Industrial Business With this action, Scott becomes the second municipality in Lafayette Parish (the other being the City of Lafayette) to have comprehensive land use regulations.
www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
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LAFAYETTE PARISH SCHOOLS RECEIVE $13.2 MILLION GEAR UP GRANT Upper Lafayette Parish students at Acadian, Paul Breaux, Carencro, Judice, Lafayette and Scott Middle Schools are the beneficiaries of a $13.2 million grant to encourage college readiness. The federal Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, is awarded by the Federal Department of Education to fund programs that include an early intervention component designed to increase college attendance and success, as well as raise the expectations of low-income students who may never otherwise consider college as an option. LPSS was previously was awarded a sixyear GEAR UP grant that recently concluded with successful results. Why is the GEAR UP program so important? Here are a few sobering statistics about Louisiana’s education system:
Of every 100 Louisiana 9th graders, only 56 graduate from high school. 33 of those 56 enter college. 12 of those 33 graduate within 6 years. Of those 12, only 2 are low-income students. By closing the participation gap, the number of Louisiana students age 18 and older enrolled in college would grow 71% in 15 years. The key is to do whatever we can to get them from middle school to high school academically. Then, get them from high school to postsecondary,” said Burnell LeJeune, the school system’s director of career and technical education. As part of the grant, professional development will be provided to teachers and principals at the targeted schools. Students also will have opportunities to explore their interests through specialized camps in robotics, math and engineering, LeJeune said. Traci Aucoin has served as GEAR UP Project Director in Lafayette Parish since its inception in 2008. Congratulations to Lafayette Parish Public Schools for being awarded this highly coveted and important grant which will increase educational outcomes for our most needy students! For more information on the GEAR UP grant and its impact on our local schools, please visit our website here.
Traci Aucoin, GEAR UP Project Director, and Jan Swift.
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www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014
Thank you for your generosity Platinum Patrons ($5000)
Halliburton IBERIABANK Island Operating, Inc. Schlumberger Stone Energy
Platinum Members ($2400)
Acadian Companies Acadiana Computer Systems, Inc. Aries Marine Corporation ASH/Badger Oil Company Couret Farms Cox Communications Delta Media Home Furniture Hub City Ford Lafayette General Medical Center McDonald’s of Acadiana MidSouth Bank Our Lady of Lourdes Republic National Distributing Company Schilling Distributing Company Whitney National Bank
Gold Members ($1200)
Acadiana Rubber & Gasket Atmos Energy Beau Box Commercial Real Estate Dupré Logistics, LLC Fenstermaker & Associates Gulf Coast Bank Home Bank Omni Energy Services Pixus Digital Printing The Southwest Group Tobacco Free Living Van Eaton & Romero
Silver Members ($600)
Ace Plumbing, Inc. Arsement Machine and Supply, Inc. BBR Creative Cajun Harley Davidson Coburn’s Supply Company Edward Jones/Bob Crist Excelerant
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Silver Members ($600)
Gauthiers’ RV Center Guidry’s Uniforms Master Builders & Specialists, Inc. Oakbourne Country Club Prejean Creative Rader Solutions Shelf Energy, LLC SLEMCO Stella Maris Stirling Properties Total Pump and Supply, LLC Universal Sign & Manufacturing Company Walters Funeral Home
Bronze Members ($300)
Acadiana C.A.R.E.S. Acadiana Symphony Orchestra Advancial Federal Credit Union Anytime Fitness Upper Lafayette Aspen Clinic Associated Travel Boys and Girls Clubs of Acadiana Jean C. Breaux, Jr. & Associates Breaux’s Mart Bridge Ministry of Acadiana, Inc. Community Foundation of Acadiana Crawdaddy’s On-Site Catering Dale Carnegie-The Winner Institute Davis Property Management Taylor Davis, Northwestern Mutual Derek Development Corp., LLC Joey Durel Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce Lynn Guidry, Architect John Paul The Great Academy Jolie’s Louisiana Bistro Lafayette Animal Aid Lafayette Community Health Care Clinic Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission Lafayette Youth Soccer Association Lee Verret/State Farm Insurance Agency Lowry’s Printing and Copying Flo Meadows, Coldwell Banker Iqbal Merchant, CPA Melancon I-49 Storage Center Petroleum Club Chad Romero, Northwestern Mutual Ron J. Gaubert Realtors W. W. Rucks, III Sarah Schoeffler Schools of the Sacred Heart SMILE John Swift
Bronze Members ($300)
Sylvan Learning Center Teche Electric Supply, LLC Dr. Brent Jason Toups, LLC Valerie Gotch Garrett, APLC WorldPay
Sponsors PLATINUM Lafayette Airport Commission LEDA GOLD AT&T Beau Box Commercial Real Estate Dupré Logistics Hub City Ford The Southwest Group Tobacco Free Living SILVER Acadian Companies Advancial Federal Credit Union Schilling Distributing Company
City of Carencro City of Scott
BRONZE
A special thanks to the Lafayette Economic Developement Authority (LEDA) for being our Program of Work partner for 2014.
www.upperlafayette.com • November 2014