St. Martinville – The St. Martin Parish Council heard presentations about the operations of St. Martin Parish tourism and the St. Martin Economic Development Authority at the council’s committee meetings this past Tuesday, both of which made a big impact on the parish financially in 2025.
“Tourism is not just about visitors,” Tourism director Laci Laperouse said. “It’s about jobs, local businesses, cultural preservation and community pride. And 2025 was a very strong year for all of that.
“Our mission remains clear — to promote tourism that benefits our local economy and preserves our heritage.”
Laperouse told the council that the department’s three-member staff manages marketing, media relations, sales, visitor services, and special projects.
The tourism department collected $595,231 in occupancy taxes in 2025, a 109 percent increase over the previous year. That tax was based on $1214 million in lodging revenue.
Total visitor spending in 2025, including dining, shopping, attractions and events, amounted to what she conservatively estimated as a $36 million to $75 million impact on the parish.
“These numbers matter because tourism dollars circulate locally and support businesses, employees and infrastructure without increasing the tax burden on residents,” she said.
The tourism department invested $170,000 in tourism marketing across more than 30 outlets, she said, which generated a return of $212 to $441 for every dollar spent.
The tourism website — www.cajuncountry. org — averages 2,500 page views every seven days. Laperouse said that international visitors come from places such as Canada, France, China and Singapore.
SMEDA presentation SMEDA Executive Director Jennifer Stelly spoke to the council about the organization’s operations.
Operations
Stelly said basically it’s her organization’s job to create jobs by supporting business growth and investment, which expands the parish’s tax base. A nine-person board appoints the sole employee, the executive director.
A key component of SMEDA is site development, working with Louisiana Economic Development (LED) to certify properties as development-ready, infrastructure- prepped sites.
Stelly referred to one site that resulted in 800 new jobs, at an investment cost to SMEDA of $2,000.
“When I came in, in 2018, St. Martin Parish was the only parish that had zero certified sites in the entire region,” she said. “We had none. In 2019 we did our first one and by the end of 2026 we will have seven or eight.”
The bulk of those sites are along the U.S. 90 corridor near Broussard. By the end of the year the parish will have over 400 acres of certified sites, she said.
SMEDA markets the parish for business by showcasing the parish’s strategic location, infrastructure, low cost of living, affordable property and quality of life.
Stelly said SMEDA cooperates with LED on requests for proposals for large projects. Target industries include manufacturing, logistics, transportation and retail.
Business retention and expansion is another important aspect of SMEDA’s work, she said, which involves visiting existing business sites at least once a year and trying to address concerns.
Workforce development also factors into the SMEDA plan, including training programs. Small business workshops are among the other things that SMEDA deals with each year.
The financial impact SMEDA has on the parish includes $25 million in total ad valorem taxes collected from 2009-2025 at the 160-acres that’s been developed at SMEDA Park. The park has an additional 240 acres available for use.
Stelly highlighted some of SMEDA’s most successful efforts. Baker-Hughes, recruited to locate in the parish in the 1990s, is now the parish’s biggest ad valorem taxpayer, at $586,000 in 2022. SMEDA worked to retain Cargill’s site in the parish in 2022 after the company reached out to LED and SMEDA to say it wished to modernize but was unsure if it wanted to do so in the parish or elsewhere. SMEDA worked with Cargill to keep the company here, and that resulted in a $34.5 million investment to modernize equipment and retain 70 jobs in the parish.
Four major projects broke ground in the last year, she said, and ribbon cuttings are planned for all four within the next three months.
In other business
Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse brought up sewer issues at the St. Martin Parish Jail, which Council Chairman Chris Tauzin discussed.
Linens flushed down the toilets in the jail clog up the sewer system, Tauzin said, starting as far back as when Ronny Theriot was sheriff, Guy Cormier was Parish President and Thomas Nelson was mayor of St. Martinville.
The parish considered putting a shredder in the sewer system at the time but it was felt that was too expensive. Another remedy worked for a time but seems to not be as effective now, he said.
Installing a catch basin like those found in commercial sewer systems was proposed several years ago, Tauzin said.
Parish President Pete Delcambre said that the administration has worked with the plumbing company that works on the jail issues to look into what can be done to fix the issue before a new jail is constructed.
A catch basin is being designed and the parish is waiting on the City of St. Martinville to get readings on the city’s sewer system in the area of the jail so the work can be done.
Delcambre updated the council on the water consolidation project. Of the eight phases of the project, seven are in the process of being completed.
The cost of getting a new well drilled about a quarter mile from the current wells, however, went up about $2 million since the project’s inception. Delcambre said he went to the state water sector board requesting a change order to fund the increased cost. The board approved the additional $1.59 million in funding. The parish had the needed $425,000 match money on hand already from ARPA funding, he said, to fund the $2.16 million additional cost.
