Bandstand Groundbreaking Ceremony Celebrates Community & Brings Hope

The Hache Grant Association, along with local leaders and community members, celebrated a momumental moment in Downtown Houma today, June 13, with a ground-breaking ceremony for a bandstand in the Courthouse Square.

The Hache Grant Association was founded with the sole purpose of revitalization and beautification. The first task on their list was to bring back the iconic bandstand downtown. The band stand was a staple that was built in the early 1900s where it was a center for community tradition. “I want to thank the people involved,” Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove said, “Council members, HDDC members,  Hache Grant Foundation Board members, and we have Steve Ponville with my office and Mike Toups, manager of the Parish…I would like to give a special thanks to Anne Picou, Debbie Ortego, and others here that has put together this function.” He said that the bandstand commemorates the 200th anniversary of Terrebonne Parish. He announced they will be doing construction on Belanger Street to have festivities and a parking lot.

The architect, Merlin Lirrette of the Merlin Group, was present at the ceremony and explained the contractor met them on the Courthouse grounds to mark out exactly where the bandstand will be, which is still there. The hexagon band stand will be approximately 20 ft. across inside with a sidewalk that ties into the existing sidewalk. Littette said the bandstand will be two to three feet in elevation that will feature peaks that match surrounding buildings. Contractor, Allen Porche, said he met Noah when he was approached with the project and he was immediately excited. “I was very excited because I’ve been building in this town my whole life. I worked on almost every building you see here. I have been doing this since I was 16, I’m second generation, this is all I’ve ever done. So I’m very excited about this, it’s going to be a fun project,” he said,” Thanks to the Hache Grant for doing what you do. For raising the money and who makes these things possible. I think this is great for downtown.”

Anne Picou, Manager Houma Downtown Development Corporation, said,” I’m going on 21 years in this business and working with this administration we’ve got a lot of proactive things going on. What’s really near and dear to my heart at the moment is first of all I have board members that have been on this board for a long time. I have Ms. Juana Woodard, and she has seen us go full circle. She has seen us go where we had, as she would tell me before I started, there were bugs in the windows, and broken windows, and so forth. And then we got to the top. Guess what? It’s time to do that revitalization again, we’ve made that full circle. Between COVID, between the economy, and then Ida, It’s not an excuse, I’m just telling you we’re ready to get started again. We fell down, but we’re getting ourselves back up.” She commended the Hache Grant for having a vision and doing what needs to be done to get the vision to come to life,” they’re younger than me. That’s what I’m excited about the most about. You see a vision, you go through with it, and you’re trying to keep our culture and heritage alive,” she shared at the ceremony.

Hache Grant President Noah Lirette addressed the crowd next. He began with “This is a start to the work and the work is the most important part. That’s the ethos that we try to install with our group, the Hache Grant Association, our purpose is to facilitate specific actionable and measurable revitalization iniatives in order to improve the quality of life in Terrebonne Parish.” He said the bandstand is a symbol of community and progress. “We used to have one,” he said,” we figured it would be a good time to rebuild that and maybe kick start some hope, kick start some pride, and kick start some revitalization.”

Lirette went on to explain the non-profit was founded in 2021 where they kicked off the first fundraiser, The Boucherie, that he explained as a perfect way to raise awareness, “it is the perfect type of fundraiser to build a community project because it’s a bunch of people coming together for a specific goal that everybody gets something out of.” They have done the fundraiser for two years and Lirette said, “We’ve had the most amazing outpouring of support that I can even imagine.” Despite the weather for the past two events, he said people have showed up, opened up wallets and hearts, and have funded the project because they knew the project is something everybody can enjoy. “They put their faith in us. We don’t take that lightly. We decided to get this built by the Bicentineal Celebration, on October 15 of this year,” he said, “Luckily my dad Mr. Merlin Lirette and Mr. Allen Porche Jr. were up to the task, our Parish stood behind us and supported us in every step possible,  helped us cut through anything that needed to be cut through done, and we’re looking forward to getting this project under way. Our motto for the Association is Lache Pas La Patate, which means don’t ever drop the potato. It really just means don’t give up. Thank y’all for being here, we can’t wait to start dancing on this thing and have some music, and it’s going to be a great day come October 15.”