Dedicated servant

Wilbert Ardoin has officially retired from working with the Evangeline Parish Police Jury for the second time.
Before reaching this point in his career, Ardoin spent 44 years with the EPPJ as their secretary/treasurer and then as their right away agent. It was during those years that Ardoin dedicated his time to bettering the parish that he has called home for all of his life.
Throughout his career, which began in 1969, the Vidrine native has played a part in seeing projects completed for the residents of Evangeline Parish that people still enjoy today, such as Crooked Creek Recreation Area.
Before the Crooked Creek project began though, Ardoin had to find a way to match the federal government’s $500,000 that they would be giving for the creation of the recreational area. And, through his connections, finding a way to make this project happen is exactly what Ardoin did.
“To get the project at Crooked Creek we needed $500,000,” said Ardoin. “When I told that to the jury, they said, ‘We’ll never get $500,000.’”
However, that jury doubted the wrong person.
“I suggested to the jury that we get the State to give us a grant or just pick up the bill for our share of the $500,000,” said Ardoin. “The jury asked me, ‘Who’s gonna ask the governor for $500,000,’ and I said, ‘I will.’ I don’t think they had very much confidence that I was going to get the money.”
Their lack of confidence however, did not stop Ardoin from reaching out to his friend, who was the secretary for governor at the time Edwin Edwards, to set up a meeting for him with the governor.
“I drove over there, and the governor and I sat down and had a cup of coffee.” Laughing Ardoin then added, “The governor said, ‘Well, what’s your project this time?’ I told him it was a big one. When I told him we needed $500,000, he said, ‘What in the world are you going to do with $500,000 in Evangeline Parish?’ I told him we were going to get a recreation area in conjunction with the federal government. All we have to do is match $500,000. He looked at me and said, ‘Wilbert, you got the $500,000. Y’all go do y’all’s project.’ Edwin was always very generous to Evangeline Parish.”
Crooked Creek is only one example of Ardoin being dedicated to making good things happen in this parish.
Another huge accomplishment during his career came from working with former governor John McKeithen.
Ardoin said, “We were very lucky back in the early 70s with John McKeithen as governor. I was very good friends with his son and one of his nephews, so I helped convince John McKeithen to give us off-system roads. They came in and did a lot of roadwork for us throughout the parish. I think that was another good project.”
But, the road work that Ardoin seemed even more proud of was completed after he came out of retirement to once again work for the police jury in 1999 as their right away agent.
Ardoin said, “There was a bridge on Evangeline Road (located in the northern portion of the parish) that had been closed, so when I started working for the police jury again, a man that lived near there asked me if I could see about trying to get the bridge fixed. He told me that they had to drive so far out of the way just to get to Ville Platte and other places in the parish.”
After hearing the resident’s request, Ardoin went straight to work on getting a usable bridge built on Evangeline Rd.
Ardoin said, “I got turned down at first, but I kept working. And, after 13 years of trying to get the bridge, it finally happened. We completed that project about four years ago, and they even named the bridge Wilbert J. Ardoin Bridge.”
The long time police jury employee has impacted the recreation in this parish, the roads, and also the creation of jobs.
Ardoin said, “The biggest thing I believe I had a part in making happen for this parish was getting Cameron Iron Works to come to Ville Platte.”
The company from Texas was looking for the perfect area in southwest Louisiana to bring their business, and Ardoin took on the task of making sure Ville Platte was the place that Cameron would choose for their location.
Ardoin said, “I visited their plants in Texas and talked to the people and really got an understanding of what they were doing. I got L.O. Fusilier to review the contract and got the jury to adopt a resolution to allow Cameron to come here in the late 70s or early 80s. They have been here ever since providing jobs for people in Evangeline Parish, and I hope they continue to do what they have been doing.”
After all of his years of service to the parish he loves, Ardoin is finally ready to call it quits for real this time.
Ardoin said, “I have enjoyed working with the police jury all of these years, and I am going to miss it. This time though, I’m really finished.”
It won’t only be Ardoin to miss working for the EPPJ. His former co-workers say that they are going to miss having Ardoin there to help guide them through future projects in Evangeline Parish.
The EPPJ’s current secretary/treasurer Donald Bergeron said, “Since becoming the secretary/treasurer for the police jury, I have relied on Mr. Wilbert many times to give me historical info before making decisions that needed to be made because he knew so much. Today (Wednesday) is the first day that he is not at the office and we already miss him. We have spoken about him quite a bit already today.”
Those same feelings were echoed by EPPJ’s Eric Soileau.
Soileau said, “Mr. Wilbert’s wealth of knowledge was unbelievable, and that is something we are definitely going to miss. But, we are excited for him to retire and get to go meet his grandson Danny Ardoin. He has done a great job working for the police jury for a long time, so he deserves this now.”