Lafayette Councilman Questions Lack Of Summer Day Camps

Lafayette Consolidated Government doesn’t have any children's summer day camp programs planned yet.

Mayor-President Josh Guillory said this during last night’s meeting in response to a question from District 5 councilman Glenn Lazard. Guillory says the city is looking for more public-private partnerships to develop summer programming for the parks and recreation department. Lazard says he’s fine with public-private partnerships, but he feels it’s need that should have been addressed.

“The fact that here we are talking about not having any kind of scheduled or programmed summer recreation programs, and if we’re talking about COVID, that’s fully understandable," Lazard said. "But if we’re talking about not having any because of ‘lack of funding,’ then that’s a whole other story altogether.”

Lazard also asked a question posed to us by a KPEL listener: When will the city reopen the O. J. Mouton pool and the Martin Luther King Center pool? Interim parks and recreation director Hollis Conway says they could be open as soon as the summer starts.

“We are currently in talks to open one or both of them right now, and we also are in talks with the idea of addressing the O. J Mouton Pool," Conway told the city council. "The hope is that eventually we will have all of the pools open. O. J. Mouton will take a little more time, but I’m very confident that we can have one or both of King or Girard Park open this summer.”

Those discussions came before a vote on two ordinances setting up public-private partnerships at two parks and recreation facilities. The Lafayette City Council approved lease agreements for the George Dupuis Rec Center and the Earl Chris Pool at the Robicheaux Center. The Dupuis Center arrangement will allow a school to hold its classes there. The Chris Pool agreement will allow City of Lafayette Aquatics to maintain the natatorium.