Football: LOOKING BACK AT 2011: A year in Acadiana 12/31/11

Daily Advertiser, Dec. 31, 2011

UL head football coach Mark Hudspeth, center, high fives fans during the Cajun Walk before the ULM game at Cajun Field on Nov. 5 in Lafayette

UL’s new head football coach delivers:

When UL hired Mark Hudspeth as its head football coach in December 2010, it was with high hopes that the first-time head coach could turn the program around, increasing victories and attendance. By the end of the season, Coach Hud had done just that, chalking up an 8-4 win-loss record by the end of the regular season. But the season wasn’t over just yet. For the first time in 41 years, the Ragin’ Cajuns football team was invited to a bowl game. The team and thousands of fans traveled east to the RL Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 17. In a nail-biting finale to a remarkable season, a field goal kick in the final seconds of the game put UL on top of the San Diego State Aztecs by a score of 32-30.

Meanwhile, LSU’s football season wasn’t too shabby, either. Under the direction of the AP coach of the year Les Miles, the Tigers will play Jan. 9 in the BCS championship game aainst Alabama.

Deconsolidation effort fails:

After months of charter commission meetings and public hearings, voters went to the polls in October to decide whether they want to continue with Lafayette Consolidated Government or split city and parish operations as they were before 1996. Voters decided against each entity going its separate way. It’s unclear what the new City-Parish Council, with two new members taking office in January, will do to address the problems that led to the move toward deconsolidation, problems such as councilmen who don’t represent any city residents voting on city-only matters like Lafayette Utilities System rates.

School facilities tax rejected:

For years we’ve heard about the deplorable condition of many Lafayette Parish public schools as well as overcrowding resolved with the use of dozens of "temporary" portable buildings serving as classrooms for decades. In October, the school system asked voters to approve two property taxes totaling 25 mills that would have generated nearly $1 billion for construction, repair and maintenance of school buildings in accordance with the master plan. The taxes were rejected by voters. Some School Board members and supporters said they may return to voters this year with a less ambitious tax proposal for school facilities.

The Lafayette Parish School Board has been on the search for a new superintendent since last summer when Burnell Lemoine announced his retirement effective Dec. 31. On Dec. 21, the board signed a four-year, $190,000 per year contract with Pat Cooper, CEO/president of Early Childhood and Family Learning Foundation in New Orleans. A proponent of early childhood learning, Cooper wants to develop more pre-kindergarten programs in Lafayette Parish and provide local day care centers with curricula to follow so that children are better prepared to enter school. He also wants every school in the system to have its own nurse. Cooper is expected to work eight days in January and take on the job full-time starting Feb. 1.

HUD takes over Lafayette Housing Authority:

After six months of legal wrangling between City-Parish President Joey Durel and three Lafayette Housing Authority board members fighting their removal after an audit showed mismanagement, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in March took over operations of the LHA. The board members continue to battle Durel in court, trying to reclaim their seats. So far, 15th Judicial District Judge Edward Rubin has sided with the three. HUD officials are serving as the board and overseeing day-to-day operations, but the three continue to meet anyway, keeping minutes and electing officers and such even though they have no authority to spend money or affect LHA operations. On Dec. 22, an appellate court ordered Rubin to sign Durel’s motion allowing him to appeal a contempt of court ruling Rubin made against the city-parish president for dismissing the men a second time, after Rubin first ruled in their favor.

Waste transfer station nixed:

It only took a month last fall for the Lafayette City-Parish Council to put an end to construction of a waste transfer facility on Sunbeam Lane. Even though construction had begun on the facility, the council — just days before re-election — adopted an ordinance prohibiting such operations in the parish. The IESI/Waste Facilities of Lafayette facility received its permits without any public hearings because the site was not in the city, therefore not prohibited. But the site was across the street from homes that are in the city. Residents and business owners in the neighborhood fought the plans and won. City-Parish Attorney Mike Hebert warned the council before it outlawed the facility that doing so would open up city-parish government to a lawsuit by the business developers. No lawsuit has been filed yet.

Acadiana Outreach Center closes shelter:

Acadiana Outreach Center, which was started in the 1990s as The Well, a day shelter for the homeless, abruptly fired its new CEO Rick Newton and closed its new Abbeville in-patient treatment facility, day shelter and other operations in August because of financial woes. Board members of the non-profit blamed the financial problems in large part on a decline in state funding and grants as well as unmet financial goals for the Abbeville treatment center by Newton. Despite nearly halting its services to the poor and needy, Acadiana Outreach Center went ahead with its Palates and Pate’ fundraiser in the fall.

Rayne tornado leaves one dead:

A quiet Saturday morning in Rayne quickly turned deadly on March 5 when an EF-2 tornado tore through the town. The tornado, with winds between 110 and 135 mph, left a path of damage about five miles long and claimed the life of Jalisa Granger, 21, who died while protecting her young son.

The flood that didn’t:

As the Mississippi River rose last spring, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warned residents, farmers and business owners in the Morganza Spillway to brace for the worst. By May 14, for only the second time, the Morganza Spillway flood control structure was opened to relieve pressure on levees between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. For communities like Butte LaRose in St. Martin Parish and Port Barre in St. Landry Parish, the devastating flood they expected and prepared for never came. Scientists believe trees that grew in the spillway since the first time the floodgates were opened in 1973 slowed the water’s movement and that much of the water was absorbed by the ground that was dried from a drought.

Feds resume slowly issuing oil permits:

In February, the Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement issued a permit to Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first such permit issued by the revamped federal agency since the deadly BP blowout in the spring of 2010. That blowout killed 11 workers and created the largest oil spill in the nation’s history. The federal government halted all deepwater permitting in 2010 while developing more stringent permitting processes and safety regulations. Even after the drilling moratorium was lifted in October 2010, local and state officials said a de facto drilling moratorium remained in place because the feds were so slow to approve permits. By April, BOEMRE issued its 10th deepwater drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico. The new Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement web site says 226 deepwater drilling permits requiring subsea containment have been issued since June 2010 for 61 unique wells.