Chamber members hear update on this year's smoked meat festival

One of the guest speakers at this month’s Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce meeting said another group of organizers has stepped into a leadership position to ensure “the Smoked Meat Festival is not going away.”
Renee Brown said the previous organizers had mainly family schedules involving children’s activities, and the new organizers are planning on having the same arrangement of booths, but are planninig some changes.
Admittance will be $10, or $5 less than it had been. Another festival organizer this year, Ava Morein, said organizers surveyed the cost of admittance at other festivals in South Louisiana and determined that the lower cost is more in line with those.
Organizers are planning to have more local bands that will bring down production costs of the festival while offering different kinds of music, including Zydeco, country and rock & roll.
This year’s 23rd Smoked Meat Festival will take place, as always, during the last weekend of June, Friday the 26th and Saturday the 27th.
Specific dates and times of the pageants and other information, such as a list of musicians and when they will play, will soon be on the festival’s web site.
The magazine, Louisiana Kitchen & Culture, published in New Orleans, is planning to have a feature article on the festival later this year.
The other guest speaker at the meeting was Pris Nichols, who is personnel manager and community involvement coordinator for Walmart, based in Eunice. Attending the meeting with her were Rewa Janice, Walmart training coordinator, also based in Eunice, and Katrina Myers, an assistant manager of Walmart in Ville Platte, who will become the local community involvement liaison.
Nichols briefed the chamber members on various Walmart grants, including local grants of $500 to $1,000 and a new program offering larger state grants of from $25,000 to $250,000. More information about the Walmart state grants is available on the Walmart Foundation website.
In other chamber business:
•The chamber president, Dr. Kirk Soileau, reported on a new committee chamber members are forming to find new ways of reducing break-ins in the city. He said a high crime rate negatively affects the city’s ability to attract business.
•A chamber member encouraged people to report street lights that are out to City Hall, so they can be repaired.
•Chamber Director Camille Fontenot said she is looking for volunteers for the chamber’s next big event, the annual banquet on April 29, including for setting up the bar and to decorate the civic center for the event.