Grants Making Differences
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Opelousas downtown business owners are providing testimony to the enhancements created by their participation in the matching Building Improvement Grants program offered through several municipally-connected economic groups.
Several of the recipients of the $10,000 recent grants described on Friday the recent exterior improvements made to their buildings last year.
Attorney Chuck Granger told the Opelousas Downtown Development District that he used the matching grants to install new railings around his historic office building located on the corner of Vine and Market streets.
Granger, who moved his law practice into what has become known as the Old Pavy House, said the BIG grants helped with the $30,000 overall costs for the project.
Madeline Rosette, the director for CASA Evangeline-St. Landry said that the organization was able to put a new roof on the building located on the corner of Landry and Market streets by using the grant funding..
CASA recently announced in a posted story on St. Landry Now.com that it has relocated at the new address.
Rosette said the new roof cost $22,000 and the $10,000 grant enabled CASA to fit the new roof, which she added has a 20-year warranty.
In 2025 Branton said $100,000 in BIG funding obtained through the ODD, Opelousas Main Street and City of Opelousas, was made available to eligible downtown businesses.
“The grant program that we have now is a true investment in Opelousas and the business owners that are here today are an example of taking advantage of the grants and attempting to do the right thing to help our downtown,” said Sarah Branton, the chairperson for the BIG grant initiative.
In 2018 more funding was added to the BIG grants, but for several years the implementation of the program was slowed due to COVID-19, Branton has said.
BIG grants are designed to assist downtown commercial businesses with rehabilitating buildings in order to create improved visual impacts, according to the BIG grant criteria.
The grant recipients must already operate existing businesses.
