State of Community: Good

During a luncheon at the Town Club on Friday, the Crowley Chamber of Commerce hosted its fourth “State of the Community” address.
The event’s speakers — Crowley Mayor Greg Jones, Acadia Parish Police Jury President Julie Borill and Acadia Parish School Superintendent John E. Bourque — each discussed 2014’s accomplishments as well as future endeavors of their respective entities.
Jones spoke first. He complimented the members of the Crowley City Council for the work they did in 2014 and stated that this year “they have hit the ground running.”
He mentioned the Crowley’s historic downtown area and the strides that are being made.
“We now have a couple of businessses that are open late and I’m sensing a lot more electricity in the air in the near future,” said Jones.
He then moved on to the projects that the city is working on.
“The improvements to Avenue I, Northern Avenue and the parking lot of the International Rice Festival building have been completed,” he said. “There is still some cleanup work that has to be done by the contractors but I’m sure the ladies who have walked to the Rice Festival Building in heels are thankful for the work we’ve done there.”
Jones also discussed the impending construction of the I-10 service road, which is expected to provide a nice economic shot in the arm to the city. He received a round of applause when he announced that bid opening would begin on Feb. 11.
“The city of Crowley will now have a bigger footprint on I-10,” he said. “An estimated 20 to 22 million cars drive through there annually. I’ll take 2 percent of that any time. This will provide a boost to our city’s economic well-being.”
Jones also discussed improvements which are scheduled for the city’s water plant that is currently working with a “system which is 25-years-old.”
“Overall, we are currently a good, strong community,” he said. “We are hoping to make great strides over the next four years and I’m always optimistic, even with the price of oil being so low.”
Next up was the police jury’s Borill.
She began by mentioning how thankful she was to be “addressing the gathering as the newly elected police jury president.”
Borill mentioned several projects around the parish that the police jury is aided in the development of.
“We have purchased a number of acres around the Crowley Rice Arena to improve access to the facility and attract several livestock shows,” she said. “We have also helped to improve the security system at the courthouse.”
Borill mentioned work that will be done in 2015 including projects on the Richard Road bridge (which she said would improve access for area residents in case of emergencies), paving gravel roads in the Hwy. 1112/Hwy. 1113 area, improvements to the parish’s mosquito control facility, renovations at Legros Memorial Airport — including the installation of rotating beams — and working with the Village of Morse to build a new city hall.
“We always remember that we are working for a great parish and are constantly looking to create a place where people want to raise their families,” she said.
When Bourque took the podium, he acknowledged how fortunate he was to have held his position for 12 years.
“When I was coaching I was always thinking I may get fired ... when I took this job I knew I would eventually get fired so to still be here after 12 years is an honor.”
Bourque stated that his philosophy has always been that the educational system had two objectives for children: “To get them out of the house and to make them useful.”
Bourque went on to discuss the changing climate of education today, saying, “We have people who come who come in with college degrees and we can’t hire them. We need to get them ready for the practical side of life and teach them to learn to be electricians, carpenters and plumbers as well.”
He discussed the problems of society and how they are “reflected in the school system.”
“We can send the buses in front of their houses but we can’t make them get on them,” he said of children. “When you have a student in the fourth grade who misses 40 days of school, realistically, what are his chances of graduating? The drugs and violence that we see on the streets have no gate to divide them from our schools. We try to manage it the best we can.
“The BESE (Board of Secondary Education) has six people on it and they make all the rules, yet only two of them have children in public schools,” Bourque pointed out. “Are they really looking out for our best interest?”
Bourque received a round of applause when he mentioned that the graduation rate in Acadia Parish has risen from “65 percent to 83 percent” during his term.
“Every kid who does not graduate, we pay for it,” he concluded.