Tag: Sports

The Financial Cliff: Why Opelousas City Government Can’t Afford a 17,000 Square Foot Gymnasium

Design Failures, Federal Noncompliance Liabilities, and the Fiscal Reality We Can’t Ignore

Opelousas stands at the edge of a financial cliff. It’s not a metaphor. Between the city’s $1.85 million loss of sales tax revenue (updated 11-17 after City Council meeting), historic cuts to federal food assistance, inflation, rising insurance and housing costs, and a destructive federal shutdown, the economic floor is crumbling beneath our feet. This isn’t a short-term squeeze. It’s a systemic threat to the city’s future—and it’s being ignored in favor of ongoing, unaffordable vanity projects in South City Park.

The next step toward the financial cliff is the proposed “community center” now being hastily pushed forward without full public input, transparent financial planning, or credible alignment with its federal funding source. It stands as a symbol of bad planning, mediocre design, and poor governance. 

What was originally a 17,000-square-foot double gymnasium in the South Park Conceptual Master Plan for a sports complex was quickly rebranded as a multi-use community resilience center to comply with the federal Capital Projects Fund (CPF) guidelines.1 These guidelines require the facility to offer a variety of services and flexible spaces for technology access and community programming, all of which must be provided free of charge to the public. 

Federal CPF requirements emphasize digital equity and community technology access, but the current design lacks structured wiring, IT closets, or dedicated broadband access areas. There is also no indication that co-working, telehealth, or digital literacy spaces are included in the interior layout. Additionally, the application to the state fund manager depends on loosely verified claims of public-private partnerships to justify the grant. 

Federal funds like CPF are a bureaucratic minefield that only the hardiest of administrators handle well. At this week’s ODDD meeting, the paid lobbyist working on the project admitted they’ve been meeting weekly with the state to revise five sections of the application to meet US Treasury requirements, including design features and the production and proper retention of required support and verification documents.

Having experienced the floods and losses of Hurricane Katrina firsthand, I understand how challenging federal compliance can be. The scariest scenario is that if a failure or compliance violation is discovered after the center is built, the city could be responsible for repaying the funds. Given our history, it’s wise to assume this is a real risk going forward.

Despite being designed for sports, there are no showers, lockers, changing rooms, or much storage for equipment. Yet the city and ODDD believe this facility will attract travel league and other tournaments. With such significant design gaps, how can this building compete for tournaments when it lacks features every school gymnasium has? Since no unbiased research was conducted, no one truly knows if this facility could attract paying users. 

The project’s other design flaws are more than just cosmetic and will increase operational costs and expenses that were not estimated during the initial planning. Failure to specify high-efficiency HVAC systems and design, and using dark metal cladding in a hot climate like South Louisiana, will increase energy bills, strain long-term maintenance budgets, and weaken claims of environmental or financial sustainability. 

The plans also lack site-specific stormwater management features, even though the park is vulnerable to erosion when runoff drains toward Bayou Tesson. The building will generate nearly two acre-feet (more than 650,000 gallons) of runoff annually, yet features no window awnings, no rainwater buffers, and no designs that integrate the building’s voluminous runoff into the (mostly clogged) existing drainage system in ways that won’t overwhelm nearby streets and neighbors.

These choices reflect the same disregard that has defined this administration’s handling of parks, planning, and public trust: no Parks & Recreation Commission, no community workshops, no unbiased research, no cost-benefit analysis, and no meaningful space for public voice. Instead, the process has been top-down, opaque, and dismissive—a local government acting more like an autocracy than a steward of public dollars.

This isn’t just about bad design. It’s also about federal compliance and failures that could come back to haunt the city even after the money is spent. Based on federal rules outlined in 2 CFR Part 200 and Capital Projects Fund guidelines, this project likely fails to meet minimum standards for cost reasonableness, historic preservation, public input, and sustainability. It may also run afoul of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, given the landmark WPA bathhouse and pool slated for demolition.

Because federal funding requires most usage to be free, how will the city cover operational and maintenance costs, which are likely to exceed $100,000 a year (excluding staffing) and put further pressure on the budget?

This isn’t resilience or good governance. It’s a retreat from reality, the public, and financial responsibility.

In these increasingly challenging times, leadership involves more than ribbon-cuttings. It requires a commitment to truth, transparency, and long-term community well-being, with a priority of making Opelousas a well-managed place where people want to live. As I’ve stated before, too many of the individuals behind these costly plans do not reside here, and some of them are among the city’s and parish’s highest-paid employees. Is it too much to ask that we all share a vision of Opelousas as a place where people want to live, and let that guide us? 

Before another dollar is spent, this project must be reevaluated for compliance, relocated to a more appropriate and less destructive site, redesigned for efficiency, affordability, and sustainability, and re-grounded in the public interest it claims to serve.

Because the only thing worse than walking blindly off a cliff is dragging a city with you.

The footnote below is the language of (and links to) the US Treasury Department that describes what funds can be used for. Note that the pictures are screenshots from the public bid documents, which were not posted on the city’s Advertisements for Bids page. Like the South Park plans, the bid docs remain missing from the city’s website. These plans and this spending are being done without the legally mandated oversight of the yet-to-be-appointed by the mayor Parks & Recreation Commission. The construction bid proposals are due and will be opened at City Hall on October 30 at 2pm.

  1. Multi-Purpose Community Facility Projects: the construction or improvement of buildings designed to jointly and directly enable work, education, and health monitoring located in communities with critical need for the project. ↩︎
Site plan from public bid construction manual. Every X is a tree or shrub to be cut. Note the entire pool complex is set to be “removed” and the walking path re-routed.
Floor plan from the public bid construction manual. Note the lack of lockers, showers, and storage. The bathrooms are small and there are no designated flexible areas to comply with federal guidelines that the building accommodate “work, education, and health monitoring.” It’s a gym, and lacks the functionality and flexibility of most school gyms, making its use for tournaments questionable.

A Shiny Stadium, a Crumbling City: Why Opelousas Must Follow the Law Before Spending Another Dime

Despite extreme economic uncertainty and without following the legal requirements of the city charter, the City of Opelousas is well underway with plans to demolish historic facilities, cut large trees, and spend millions on a multipurpose community center and stadium upgrades in South Park. That charter mandates the appointment of a Parks & Recreation Commission to provide oversight, public input, and manage all spending and activities. Yet this legally required body has been unappointed since 2019, meaning all these funds flow without proper legal or community review.

While South Park is set to receive more than $12 million to support a select group of young athletes, the public library—a vital community asset serving all ages and abilities—is crumbling. Current plans call for the library to receive just $500,000—far short of what’s needed for a comprehensive renovation or new facility.

Why Not a Community Center in the Center of the Community?

Among the dozens of vacant buildings downtown is the former Bordelon Motors across from City Hall. That site could be purchased affordably and redeveloped for a combined library and true multipurpose center, serving not just recreation but as a resilience hub, disaster shelter, public meeting space, and business incubator. This would truly be a “monument to the people of Opelousas,” as the mayor described the stadium. Wherever it’s built, the center should focus on real public needs, rather than being another limited-use sports venue constructed without oversight and driven by whim, ego, and unfounded hopes. Besides, there is no shortage of gymnasiums or high-end sports complex dreams in the region. These are the kinds of ideas and questions a Parks & Recreation Commission and caring city leaders need to discuss, in public.

A Youth-Sports Model the City Can’t Afford

Nationally, only 6% of high school athletes ever play in college—and even fewer receive scholarships. Meanwhile, the mayor, the ODDD, park leadership, and Rep. Miller are backing a youth sports–driven, multimillion-dollar blueprint that tears down historic facilities and paves much of South Park in concrete and plastic “grass” in the guise of economic development, banking on expensive tournaments, hopeful revenue streams, and high-end, high-maintenance facilities.

But Opelousas, with its 34% poverty rate and shrinking population, cannot support that dream. As the falling birth rate statewide impacts enrollment, the St. Landry Parish School District currently faces an estimated $7.9 million deficit, underscoring the misplaced focus on funneling dwindling public dollars into sports infrastructure while neglecting students and families who need education, food, healthcare, and social support. And the glaring fact is that high school sports should be financed and managed by school systems, not cash-strapped city government.

The Unplanned, Ongoing Cost That Nobody’s Talking About

Despite questions raised years ago about these projects, the city has yet to share any calculations of the cost of long-term operations and maintenance (O&M) for these proposed projects, nor has it specified where the funding would come from to support this new, ongoing expense. With nearly 30% of city revenue at stake in the upcoming August 16 sales tax referendum, its failure will trigger a budgetary disaster that will undermine all of the city’s current and future responsibilities.

Although my household supports the renewal of the sales tax, its passage faces strong opposition. The mayor is far too quiet in gaining support for the tax, and has not published a plan for how the cuts would affect services and staffing. Whatever his response to a reduced budget will be, here’s what I conservatively calculated as potential, and new, annual costs to operate and maintain the center and stadium. The sad truth is that estimates like this have not been shared or reviewed publicly to understand their impact on the city’s budget. These are sobering numbers.

Multi-Purpose Center (>5,000 sq ft, metal building with soaring ceiling in dark metal cladding)

  • Cooling and utilities: ~$35K–$50K/year
  • Insurance: ~$25K–$40K/year (Louisiana’s rates are sky-high)
  • Staffing: ~$50K–$80K/year
  • Repairs/Maintenance: ~$15K–$25K/year
  • Supplies/Equipment: ~$5K–$10K/year

Total: ~$130K–$205K/year

Donald Gardner Stadium (post-upgrades)

  • Utilities (lighting, scoreboard): ~$25K–$35K/year
  • Insurance: ~$15K–$25K/year
  • Maintenance: ~$20K–$30K/year
  • Event staffing: ~$10K–$20K/year

Total: ~$70K–$110K/year

Combined Operations & Maintenance Costs

Annual Total: ~$200K–$315K

Over 10 years, that’s $2M–$3.15M, in addition to approximately $1.4M in interest on the bond debt borne by the ODDD.

These recurring costs have no dedicated revenue source and will compete directly with other essential services, including police, streets, libraries, and social programs.

Ignoring the Charter Equals Breaking the Law

South Park spending is being conducted without the city charter’s required oversight by the Parks & Recreation Commission, thereby violating both our city code and the public trust.

This isn’t simply cutting corners—it’s illegal.

We Can—And Must—Expect Better

This isn’t about being for or against parks. It’s about expecting:

  • Transparency in all park expenditures.
  • Appointment of the Parks & Recreation Commission—now.
  • Public hearings before approving major projects.
  • Priority funding for essentials: a safe, modern library; downtown revitalization; disaster resilience.
  • Publicly shared analysis of long-term operating costs for all proposed facilities.

If charter violations continue, I’m prepared to file a Writ of Mandamus (any Opelousas lawyers out there want to join me?) to compel legal compliance before a penny more is spent.

Take Action—Protect Our City’s Future

Things are happening quickly. Your voice matters. Contact your council member, the mayor’s office, the ODDD, and your neighbors and tell them:

“Before any further demolition in South Park and spending on the multipurpose center happens, the mayor must appoint and seat the Parks & Recreation Commission, as required by law, to oversee his spending.”

We need compassionate, lawful leadership that utilizes science and community data to guide plans and spending. We expect our city leaders to do the right thing to represent us all, not carelessly spend based on the ego-driven “I want” of a few. Otherwise, Opelousas will continue to crumble and lose population, and people will wave at a shiny stadium as they leave for good.

Note: updated 8/12/25 to more accurately project bond interest based on the verbal monthly financial report given at the July ODDD meeting.

Concrete playing surface in place at Gardner Stadium, July 18, 2025. The end result is akin to playing tackle football on a parking lot covered by a thin layer of toxic plastic grass sprinkled with shredded tires.
Black asphalt running track and rolls of plastic “turf” ready to be installed at Donald Gardner Stadium, July 27, 2025.

My Response to the May 10 “Statement from State Representative Dustin Miller (District 40)”

Yesterday, Rep. Dustin MIller released a statement on his Facebook page regarding funding for South City Park and other projects in Opelousas. The following is my reply.

We wish the South Park plans only cost the million dollars allocated from COVID relief funds. That would be reasonable and responsible. However, this is only a token of the full cost of this extravagant plan that you and a small group of insiders have developed without proper public input.

You state, “No local city government tax dollars are tied to the Donald Gardner Stadium improvements, the Community Center, or library renovations.” That’s misleading. Every dollar beyond the COVID funds comes from sales taxes paid by people who live, shop, and work in Opelousas. That is public money administered by local government. And if transparency is your goal, where is the full accounting of South Park spending—past, present, or proposed? To date, none has been provided.

The stadium renovation alone is projected to exceed $10 million, primarily funded by the Opelousas Downtown Development District (ODDD) through an additional one-cent sales tax collected at big-box stores. The ODDD issued municipal bonds to finance this, locking us into 15 years of debt, plus nearly $2 million in interest and fees, costs that are omitted from public statements. And if transparency matters, why are these decisions being made without the legally required oversight of a Parks and Recreation Commission, which the mayor has failed to appoint since 2019?

Then there’s the choice of location. The community center is planned for the site of the WPA-era pool—an area that requires destroying popular greenspace, major construction demolition, and subsequent fill that must meet engineering standards, all costly and unnecessary when vacant land is available nearby at a fraction of the cost.

Here’s an idea: Why not build the community center in the center of the community, where it could anchor downtown revitalization and support library programming? That’s the kind of impactful investment the ODDD is supposed to be making.

Meanwhile, the project lacks even the most basic financial planning. No published operations or maintenance budgets exist for the stadium or the proposed community center. Who will pay for utilities, insurance, staffing, janitorial services, or long-term upkeep? Artificial turf fields require specialized maintenance equipment and must be replaced every 6–10 years, at over $1 million per replacement cycle. Where is that money coming from?

Other communities have learned the hard way: these facilities are expensive and rarely break even. The original private funder walked away from nearby Pelican Park because annual costs were too high. That should be a cautionary tale, not a model.

All this unfolds while the city teeters on the edge of a fiscal cliff. On May 31, Opelousas will lose the source of 29% of its annual revenue due to the overlooked expiration of a long-standing one-cent sales tax. At the same time, our core infrastructure is in crisis. After this week’s rains, raw sewage is spewing from manholes, flowing onto residential streets, and into waterways that empty into the Vermilion River. Brown water continues to pour from our taps. Experts estimate that repairing our water systems alone will take $20–30 million. Securing funding for those repairs should be everyone’s top priority, because we are one incident away from a significant public health crisis. 

Yet, your focus—and the ODDD’s—has remained fixed on a flashy, limited-use stadium and recreation complex, not the urgent needs of a city with crumbling infrastructure, an aging population, and one of the highest poverty rates in the nation.

This isn’t just poor fiscal management—it’s misfeasance.

If you want the public’s trust, stop issuing misleading statements that justify these lavish and poorly researched plans. Opelousas needs investment in water, streets, housing, and jobs, not in distractions dressed up as progress.