Focus on broadband

Broadband is expanding in Acadia Parish and the hope is that, within the next five years, everyone in the parish will have access to high-speed Internet.
Chance Henry, president of the Acadia Parish Police Jury, told members of the Crowley Kiwanis Club Thursday that the parish has already committed $3 million toward broadband expansion from its share of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) COVID Relief funding.
Acadia Parish will receive a total of $12 million in ARPA funds in two equal payments. The first payment — Tranche 1 — is in the bank. The second is expected in June or July, 2022, Henry said.
Use of these funds is very regulated, according to Henry.
“We can only use it for broadband, water, sewer or to recoup losses associated with COVID,” he said. “We (the parish) don’t own any water or sewerage systems and, believe it or not, sales tax revenues were up last years, so we’re going strong at broadband.”
Henry said two companies currently control most of the Internet service in the parish but, in time, he hopes to see three or four companies involved.
To date, Henry said, Acadia Parish is ahead of the game insofar as planning for broadband infrastructure “and it will be at the top of our conversation for the foreseeable future.”
Looking ahead to 2022, Henry noted that the jury will adopt a budget for the coming year when it meets Monday, Dec. 13, at 6 p.m.
“The budget is running a little thin this year,” he said. “At one time we were getting between $750,000 and $900,000 in severance taxes. This year we got about $150,000 and last year it was about $250,000.”
He added that, while sales tax revenues surprised nearly everyone last year, he doesn’t expect a repeat for 2022.
“All the COVID relief payments helped to boost sales but we’re not expecting any of that for the coming year,” he said. “We’re going to be getting a grip on the budget this year and slow down on expenditures. Hopefully going into 2023 we’ll be a little stronger.”
Also coming up in 2022, the jury will appoint an Administrative Law Judge to handle code enforcement in the parish.
Henry explained that, under the current system, appeals to code violation are made to the police jury, “and that can get real political real fast.”
The ALJ will take the process out of the jury’s hands.
The parish also is involved in a program mapping drainage ditches and canals throughout the parish and identifying blockages in those areas.
He said the police jury is working with the individual drainage boards across Acadia to clear the blockages with matching grant funding being provided by FEMA.
“This won’t be completed until probably late 2022,” he said.
Finally, Henry noted that some voters in the parish can expect changes the next time they go to the polls to elect police jurors. He said the jury has been working closely with the Acadia Parish School Board — the two entities currently have identical district boundaries — to bring the district into compliance with the 2020 Census results.