After months spent combing through more than 350 applications, the state’s independent review panel on Wednesday released the names of 43 Louisiana organizations that will share in the first $16 million of the $57 million program geared toward reviving tourism along the Gulf Coast following the 2010 BP oil spill.
“This was a very thorough process,” says Patrick Juneau, the Lafayette lawyer overseeing the claims process, in a prepared statement released Wednesday. “We feel each of these applicants presented a unique and well-defined plan to use these funds as tourism generators and promotion of local seafood.”
Of Louisiana's $16 million, $500,000 is coming to the Lafayette Parish Convention and Visitors Commission, director Ben Berthelot tells IND Monthly. That money, he says, will be used for multiple tourism-related projects, including the promotion of local seafood and tourism at travel/trade shows, as well as a campaign targeting food writers, bloggers and the national news media. The money also will go toward ramping up the commission's online, print and outdoor advertising efforts, Berthelot says.
Wednesday's list also includes convention and visitors bureaus in Iberia, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes, the Opelousas Tourism Office, Shadows-on-the-Teche in New Iberia and the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.
Like Lafayette Parish, the Iberia Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau also will receive $500,000, says director Fran Thibodeaux. While Iberia and Lafayette parishes share similar plans for the money, one unique project mentioned by Thibodeaux is a partnership with the Delcambre Direct Seafood Market. Though a specific amount has not been determined, she says some of Iberia Parish's cut of the BP money will go toward promoting the Delcambre project, which allows consumers a chance to connect with boat captains to arrange a time and place to purchase seafood straight from the town's boat dock.
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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