Eunice pulled from library district proposal

By Todd C. Elliott
todd.elliott@eunicetoday.com

The St. Landry Parish Council took one step forward, closer to the formation of The St. Landry Parish Library District with the introduction of an ordinance to establish it. Then the council appeared to have taken several steps back, away from the reality of ever having a parish-wide library district.
It’s a tale of two cities, or districts, a literary reference that may be lost on a majority of St. Landry Parish residents – who would never be able to vote to change St. Landry.
The parish stands alone among Louisiana’s 64 as the one without a parish library district. It appears that will not soon change. After 11 council members chose to “opt out” their districts from the ordinance, only two districts remained in place for the ordinance introduction, though it may be possible that a district could opt back in.
Among those asking their districts be left out were Jimmie Edwards of Dist. 12 and Gary Courville of Dist. 13, the Eunice-area election districts.
The only two election districts remaining in the library proposal at this point are those of Wayne Ardoin, Dist. 9, and Dexter Brown, Dist. 10.
The parish does include a a tax-funded system that covers Cankton, Grand Coteau and Sunset. Opelousas, Eunice, Washington and Krotz Springs have their own city-funded libraries.
“Those that opted out, they have chosen not to consider a parish -wide tax,” said Parish President and library district supporter Bill Fontenot. “As introduced, the parish as a whole would vote on it, except those that opted out, which is almost half of the parish. It’s really a half-parish tax. I don’t know how that will work. I support the tax, but I support the parish-wide tax. As we go through this process by introduction, now with the public hearing period it will be good for the people to come and share their opinions and let the council know.”
Bruce Gaudin, chairman of the Library Coalition, approached the council before the vote to introduce the ordinance. Gaudin gave the council an idea of the library tax expense of a 5.5 mill tax by reviewing tax costs on several different property examples.
“I have a house and an office and I would pay $214.93 a year,” said Gaudin before the council. “I checked each of you as well, five of you would not pay anything as far as I could tell. And the average of you would pay $40.12 of the 12 of you that are in the district.”
“The only way to do it, is with a parish-wide library system,” said Gaudin. “If we had the parish wide library system, the library in Melville could be opened. It’s been closed for a long time. The library in Krotz Springs could be funded and all of the other libraries could be funded. We could probably open a branch in Lawtell, one in Arnaudville and one in LeBeau.”
Ironically, earlier in the day Port Barre had opened its own library, a project whose financing began with private money.
Gaudin urged the council to establish the district first with the introduction of the ordinance rather than creating a tax call. Gaudin said that the establishment of a St. Landry Parish Library Board would soon follow after the creation of the district.
A 5.5 mill tax would yield about $3 million annually on the current assessed values of property in the parish. Homestead exemption would apply to such a tax