In a week punctuated by what many in Lafayette no doubt consider a yuge, badly event — SAD! — came some really great news for our fair city: Festival International de Louisiane, which last year announced cancellation of the Heritage Stage and fretted about its future amid declining and/or uncommitted corporate sponsorships, announced Wednesday that LUS Fiber had signed on as a presenting sponsor, several new sponsors had signed on and many corporate sponsors from last year had re-upped for 2017. Read about that here.
A couple of hours before the FIL announcement, representatives of the Holy Rosary Redevelopment Board, along with Lafayette Consolidated Government and other groups, announced that the historic black Catholic school — closed in 1993 and on the verge of collapse after two decades of neglect — has been awarded a $450,000 grant from the National Park Service as part of a larger grant program to save and preserve sites tied to the Civil Rights Movement and African-American experience in the U.S. The funding will only go a short way toward saving the building in what is estimated to be a $5 million restoration, but it’s a start. Read about that here.