A federal lawsuit filed against Lafayette Consolidated Government is being settled out of court over the development of a waste transfer facility on Sunbeam Lane.
Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel says the $3.4 million check has been delivered to Waste Facilities of Lafayette Wednesday afternoon.
It’s a “good news/bad news” situation, according to Durel. While “the money did not come from the general fund” it will be taken from the Mosquito Abatement Fund, a millage passed about 8 years ago by the voters. Durel says:
When you pay a millage towards something, it must go towards that.
Durel says they could never touch that millage in order to fix roads and bridges and were looking at reducing that millage by a vote of the people and to rededicate those funds to use for something else. “It’s the least harmful place for us to take money from the parish… Remember, this is a parishwide issue, not a city issue.”
The lawsuit stems from a 2011 unanimous vote by Lafayette City-Parish Council to block the planned garbage transfer station in the northern portion of Lafayette. This legally permitted facility was to be in Councilman Brandon Shelvin‘s District. He spearheaded the effort to have the vote, while Waste Facilities had already began their process and work on the 16-acre site. The vote barred the company from using the site for leasing to garbage company IESI. Their lawsuit seeked to recover damages for lost business and money that they had already spent on the project.
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