Eunice grows, Caswell property annexed

The city of Eunice grew by three acres as a result of a vote at the Tuesday night Eunice City Council meeting.
The council annexed property belonging to of Jay Caswell following the council’s last month acceptance of a petition for annexation in regards to Caswell’s property into the corporate city limits of Eunice.
The move and “Ordinance 04-14” was opposed by one citizen.
Don Reber, in his capacity as chairman of the Eunice Economic Development Committee, spoke against the annexation during Tuesday’s public hearing at Eunice City Hall.
He noted, “As head of the Economic Development Committee, the committee is working on...the development of a master plan for the city of Eunice,” said Reber to the council. “A master plan greatly improves the decision-making of the city council and the city at large. It greatly reduces errors in judgment. It sets up processes for growth, geographic growth as the ordinance 04-14 is talking about.
“It will not come about without having due diligence...a city should not, should not bring additional property in that is not going to produce a positive flow. You need to treat everything in the city and you need to do the due diligence all the way through. And I’m not sure that this council has done that.”
Caswell said that he was pleased with the council’s decision.
“Actually, I was more surprised by the amount of dissent that was supposedly being spoken on the street about the annexation itself,” said Caswell. “I wasn’t surprised that it passed, because it was the right thing to do. Truth prevails. Right prevails. I’m pleased with the outcome and that the vote was unanimous. We move forward from here and I’m now a proud citizen of the corporate limits of the municipality of Eunice, Louisiana.”
Caswell had previously said that his request for annexation was not a political matter as he considers a run in the fall for the city judge’s post. Should he qualify to run his residence next to University Place was not in the city and could have possibly kept him off of the ballot. He said previously that one issue has nothing to do with the other.
City Attorney Vernon McManus told the council in April that Caswell’s application met statutory requirements and Alderman at-large Jack Burson moved to advertise the proposed ordinance and hold the necessary hearing, as is done with any other introduced ordinance.