Master plan case to be presented

The case for a Eunice master plan is to be presented to the mayor and aldermen at a 6 p.m. Thursday meeting at City Hall.
Developing a master plan was scrapped in April as too expensive by Mayor Rusty Moody, but the door was not closed on the plan.
Central Planning and Development Commission had offered to do a master plan over 18 months for $95,000.
Thursday’s meeting is to include Bill Rodier, executive director of the St. Landry Economic Development; Bill Fontenot, parish president; and Sunset Mayor Charles James.
James is expected to talk about Sunset’s development of a master plan.
Meeting organizers met Thursday at City Hall to plan this week’s meetings.
Anthony Baltakis is to be the moderator for the meeting. Baltakis is vice chairman of the parish economic development board.
“We are either going to be a part of it or we going be out of it,” he said. “Things are happening. We’ve got to wake up and start realizing that there are opportunities here.”
Don Reber, who heads the city’s economic development committee, said once city government takes a positive step toward a master plan, there are outside funding sources.
“This meeting is not set up for us to instantaneously approve spending any kind of money regardless of what the amount is for the development of a city plan,” Reber said. “This meeting is to convince the city councilmen of the need for a plan and for the city councilmen to give citizens of the city the opportunity to make a decision on whether or not they will have a master plan.”
Baltakis said, “Many people think it is strictly a plan for economic development. Somehow we’ve got to get across the idea that it is dealing with the quality of life.”
Reber said, “You want part of your plan as protection for your way of life.”
That would include protecting schools, planning parks, taking care of churches, historic areas, existing businesses, he said.
“And, you want to make it conducive for people to come in and do business,” he said.
Sunset’s plan is 293 double-sided pages, he said in explaining how much detail is included in a master plan.
Reber and Baltakis stressed this week’s meeting is not to hear about problems such as potholes, but is about a big picture for Eunice’s future.
“This is for the future of the city of Eunice and surrounding area,” he said.
“It all goes hand in hand,” Reber said. “If you are developing a master plan you are not developing business and you are no developing tax revenue. The one thing the city cannot afford is to fail to plan.”