Thibodaux voters reject parks tax

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Thibodaux voters rejected an added tax on Saturday; Montegut voters chose a justice of the peace, and select voters in Lafourche, St. Mary and Terrebonne Parishes decided on representatives to the Republican State Central Committee.


As part of the presidential primary ballot, regional business was decided by 3,682 of the total 15,704 Tri-parish votes cast on all ballots, according to data posted by the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office.

In Thibodaux, voters rejected a half-cent sales tax proposal that would have raised approximately $14 million for improvements to city parks and recreation areas.


With a vote of 831 to 741 Thibodaux voters said “no” to Mayor Tommy Eschete’s plans for addressing an aging city park system and to expand recreation programs.


Improvements would have included paving parking lots, rebuilding ballparks and tennis courts, adding soccer fields and a football field in addition to creating walking trails and a dog park. The proposal would have backed building a 5,600 square foot community center at Martin Luther King Park and improving the city’s aging public swimming pool.

“We can’t let the issue die,” Eschete said. “I think the method we are going to proceed with will be a plan of renovations and repairs that we can work within our operating budget for at least 12 to 16 months. We still have a lot of issues to take care of and the fact that we can’t address them at the level that we had proposed to address them had the proposition passed.”


Eschete said the public had spoken, but that the fact remains that repairs need to be made to recreation facilities. “The infrastructure we were talking about has been neglected for two or three administrations,” he said. “We can’t just continue to ignore it. Maybe somewhere down the road maybe we can look at creating another revenue stream, but to say that is on the horizon … the public spoke and we will have to move in a different direction.”

In Montegut, George Doescher was selected justice of the peace with 114 votes. Doescher clenched 43.5 percent of the field against Cathy LeBoeuf, who received 86 votes for 32.8 percent of the ballots cast, and Bill Underwood, who had 62 votes to finish with 23.6 percent of the field.

Representatives to the Republican State Central Committee were also selected in Tri-Parish region.

In Lafourche Parish, Brent Callais secured representing Dist. 54 with a 680 to 261 finish over Irv Magri.

St. Mary Parish voters selected Jessie Morton to represent Dist. 50, Sub-district B with a 329 to 181 finish over Blake Steiner.

In Terrebonne Parish, state Rep. Joe Harrison will represent Dist. 51, Sub-district B after defeating Luke Huddleston 220 to 72. At the same time, Theresa Ellender was chosen to represent Dist. 53, Sub-district A by finishing with 309 ballots and 56.4 percent of the vote, while Leroy Trosclair Jr. secured 25 votes and 13 ballots were cast for June Squyres Williams.

The RSCC representatives carry GOP issues to local constituents, and their concerns to Republican Party leadership.