LAFAYETTE, La. (Leigh Guidry/The Advertiser)- An expansive facility of water pumps and control structures sits isolated in the middle of south central Louisiana. It doesn’t receive many visitors, and most people don’t think about it except once every 10 years, when it shows up on their ballot.
The Teche-Vermilion Fresh Water District is operated through a 1.5 mill tax on property owned in Iberia, Lafayette, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes.
“A challenge is reminding people this exists at all,” said Donald Sagrera, executive director of the Teche-Vermilion Fresh Water District. “During the rest of the time, people forget it’s there.”
The millage comes up for renewal once a decade, and it’s up again for voters this year. They’ll find it on the ballot May 4. It is not a new tax, The Advertiser reports.
It takes a majority of voters in the four parishes to pass the millage, which has been renewed four times since the 1970s.
“If we wouldn’t have it (the millage) we would be begging for it,” Sagrera said.
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