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LAFAYETTE PARISH
Water fees questioned
Cassidy blasts RFK Jr. policies
Statement comes during confirmation hearing for CdC nominee BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Lafayette Parish Waterworks district South is charging hefty impact fees to new customers and developers to fund water system improvements, citing capacity limits.
Hefty impact costs, capacity limits slow new home projects, lead to complaints
BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer
When John Cagle bought property along South Richfield Road in the rural southwest of Lafayette Parish, he planned to put two mobile homes on it so his family could live side by side. Instead, one of those homes sits without running water because the Lafayette Parish Waterworks District South wants nearly $14,000, including two $5,500 impact fees plus meter and connection costs. He said he refuses to pay them. Instead, he’s opting to pay $1,800 in rent on top of his home note. “It sucks,” Cagle said. The LPWDS says it can’t
handle the amount of develop- pears to have interpreted the ment in that part of the par- opinion as allowing it to imish and that it would require pose the fees to cover about “significant $4.9 million “They don’t want to charge improvein system upgrades ments” to their monthly subscribers to accomincrease anything. They’re trying to c a p a c i t y. modate charge the new developers The district around 898 for everything that they’ve says it can single-famfailed to address for the past ily homes charge the fees based in a certain four years.” on an attorarea near ROSS BERTHELOT, developer Ridge Road ney general that have opinion it requested requested about whether impact fees water services. Some developcould be used to help pay for ers say the number of requests expanding the water system. has reached 1,000, with fees The LPWDS did not respond applying equally to individual to requests for comment in homeowners and large subditime for publication. vision developers. The water district board apBut attorney general opin-
Lafayette board reported for not livestreaming meeting BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer
A resident on Wednesday morning filed a complaint with the District Attorney’s Office alleging the Lafayette Parish School Board violated state law by not livestreaming a committee meeting on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, it was decided that the committee will meet again Thursday and livestream the meeting this time. Shameka Sinegal filed a formal complaint with the office of District Attorney Don
ä See MEETING, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 75 PAGE 6A
ions are advisory, not binding law, and Parish Council member Donald Richard, whose council district encompasses the water district, said this is not traditionally how water districts handle improvements. Most districts use low-interest revolving loan programs or apply for grants to fund improvements, said Richard, who spent 12 years on the Lafayette Parish Waterworks District North Board. That money would be used to cover construction costs in phases and gradually build out or improve the current system. That debt would then be paid off by billing existing and new
ä See WATER, page 4A
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy used a confirmation hearing Wednesday to indirectly blast the anti-vaccination policies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which he said have resulted in a series of infectious disease outbreaks and caused the deaths of untold numbers of children. “We need a CDC director that will actually stand up to crazy, stupid things being said Cassidy that undermine faith in immunization,” Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said to Erica Schwartz, 54, Trump’s third nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at her Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing. Cassidy chairs the committee. Back when he was courting President Donald Trump’s backing for his reelection, Cassidy, a physician who studied vaccine efficacy, was responsible for the Senate
ä See POLICIES, page 4A
ASSOCIATEd PRESS PHOTO
Erica Schwartz testifies during a Senate committee confirmation hearing to be the director of the Centers for disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.
U.S. steps up strikes of back-and-forth strikes Iran threatens to byDays the U.S. and Iran across the East — and renewed halt energy exports Middle threats to the waterway crucial
to global energy supplies — have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict and the region could Associated Press tip back into all-out war. The U.S. first imposed a blockade DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. reimposed a naval blockade in April and lifted it last month afon Iran and intensified its airstrike ter signing the interim deal that campaign Wednesday in retalia- paused the fighting and set a 60tion for Tehran’s attacks on ships day period for negotiations over issues such as Iran’s nuclear protrying to pass ONFLICT gram. Those talks have stalled as through the Strait CO of Hormuz. The IN THE fighting over the Strait of Hormuz T American strikes MIIDDLE has intensified. hit an Iranian When the U.S. and Israel EAST AST launched the war on Iran on Feb. ASSOCIATEd PRESS PHOTO By RAZIEH POUdAT army barracks, at least sev28, Tehran effectively closed the Residents sit at a café overlooking commercial vessels killed en troops and wounded hundreds waterway to shipping traffic — a anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, of people across the country, IraIran, on Sunday. ä See STRIKES, page 4A nian officials said.
BY JON GAMBRELL
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102Nd yEAR, NO. 16