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St. Martinville offers property for community college

Will acquire property near Martin Mills from the Lavert Company

The City of St. Martinville is offering the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) a tract of land to build a new Evangeline campus of South Louisiana Community College.

Councilman Craig Prosper told Teche News Wednesday they have a commitment from J.B. Levert Land Company president Louis Michael “Andy” Andolsek to acquire a seven-to-nine-acre tract on Highway 31 just south of the old Martin Mills.

“If (LCTCS) needs to get going by July, we can certainly make that happen,” said Prosper.

Mayor Thomas Nelson is set to meet with state officials, including SLCC Chancellor Dr. Natalie Harder, on the property next week.

The city will buy the land if a donation is out of the question and either give or lease it long-term to LCTCS, Nelson said.

Locating the new community college there would put it next to Superior Derrick Services, a large-scale fabricator for the offshore oil and gas industry, a prime place for newly trained welders and machinists, Prosper said.

It was also have the added benefit of keeping in the school in St. Martinville, said Nelson.

When she wrote the legislation funding a new Evangeline Campus over a decade ago, the late Sydnie Mae Durand made it a stipulation that it be located at the existing site on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in St. Martinville.

When it became evident a couple of years ago that the existing site as inadequate – too small, too congested, and perhaps not in the best neighborhood to be holding night school – the parish’s legislative delegation loosened that requirement.

Now, according to Nelson and Prosper, Breaux Bridge is making a grab for what properly belongs in St. Martinville.

Monday, Pellerin Life Insurance Company offered to donate nine acres of land behind its office building to build the school.

Frank Pellerin, president of Pellerin Life, said the move was done after Dr. Harder told the Breaux Bridge Kiwanis Club on Friday that if a donor did not emerge soon, the parish would lose the school.

Pellerin said he would OK with the school locating in St. Martinville but he’s still pursuing his offer to ensure it is located somewhere in St. Martin Parish.

“We did not submit an offer to donate property when the original request for a land donor, in upper St. Martin Parish, was made on Sept. 19, 2013, and again on Oct. 17, 2013,” Pellerin said in a news release on Tuesday.

“We decided to consider donating property upon learning that after two requests for donors in nearly four months, no formal offers were received.”

Prosper said he and Mayor Nelson have been working behind the scenes for months trying to secure a donation.

“We kept running into brick walls,” he said.

Negotiation with the Levert Company was delayed until after the grinding season, he said.

The Legislature has appropriated $9.2 million for the construction of a new school but there’s no authorization to spend the money for land. The St. Martin School Board voted to give the former old St. Martinville High football field to LCTCS but the same problems of space and environs exist there as with the old campus.

The Pellerin offer is adjacent to where the St. Martin School Board’s new administration building is going up.

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