VP Council talks about abandoned properties in city

During the regular monthly Ville Platte City Council meeting Tuesday evening, Mayor Jennifer Vidrine warned residents about the consequences of failing to address abandoned property, including letting the grass grow too tall.
Noting that her office has sent out more than a dozen letters to property owners in the last week, Vidrine said that her administration is serious about cleaning up the city. The letters will inform property owners that they have 30 days to rectify the situation or the City will clean up the property.
“We tore down three houses last month,” Vidrine said. “If we have to clean up the property, then the cost will be tacked on to the tax bill. If we have to do it, it will be high dollar costs.”
Along the same lines, Councilman Mike Perron asked the public to help keep the grass cut on right-of-ways. Perron is part of the Keep Evangeline Beautiful committee.
After noting that there is less trash along the streets, Perron said that the city and parish governments are “behind on cutting the grass because it’s growing so fast.” So, he asked people to “please help by cutting and trimming in the right-of-ways” along their property, especially near poles and posts.
“I know that cutting that is the job of the city, but it would really be nice if people could help out” until the government can catch up.
In an update concerning tourism, Vidrine received permission from the Council to negotiate directly with hotel executives in an attempt to court another hotel chain to the city.
Previously, Vidrine had considered using a consulting firm to reach out to the hospitality industry. Tuesday evening, she told the Council that the firm wanted more than $100,000 to make the presentation, “an astronomical amount, she said.
“We need another hotel here in Ville Platte,” Vidrine said. “The last two weekends we hosted two huge tournaments. One had 25 teams and the other had 47 teams. They needed rooms for the teams and coaches and their families.”
Noting that the current hotel in town has only 30 rooms, Vidrine said that participating teams had to stay in Opelousas, Eunice, and Mamou. “That’s unacceptable,” she said.
Saying that “if we can’t sell Ville Platte ourselves, then nobody can,” Vidrine said that she has plans to start her presentations by contacting Hilton hotels, in order to attract a Hilton-Garden Inn.
City Engineer Ronnie Landreneau said that the third phase of the water line replacement project is about 95 percent complete. The work, which is being done in the southern part of the city should be complete by late August. Then, the project will move onto the last phase, which will be along Main and LaSalle Streets.
Vidrine asked Landreneau about dressing up driveways and yards that were disturbed in the earlier phases of the work. Landreneau told her that the dress-up work will be done in the order that the damage was made.
However, it can’t properly be done, he said, until after the dirt fill has had time to settle after a few rains and the new main lines have been pressure tested.
Landreneau also said that earlier in the day a possible sink hole in the road at the intersection of DeRouen and W. Wilson streets was discovered. It was barricaded and it needs to be looked at closely.
“It’s not a large hole on the surface,” Landreneau said, “but we don’t know what’s underneath it.”
In other news, Vidrine announced that the City is working with CLECO to place ten more security cameras around the city. The mayor won’t announce where the current cameras are located nor the locations of the new cameras. But, she said, there are “plans to blanket the whole city with security cameras.”
Vidrine also announced that construction of a basketball court at Northside City Park and picnic pavilions at Hargrove Park will begin shortly.
Police Chief Neil Lartigue was given permission to hire three new full-time officers. All of them are post-certified; and they all have previous experience on the Ville Platte force. Officer Jay Gallow is being moved from part-time to full time. Susan Vankerkhove and Jonathan Sparks are being hired as full-time officers.