Thibodaux, Louisiana

THI BODAUX , LOUI S I ANA concept of building a walking/biking trail from the university campus to the city center, going through a residential area and upgrading the aesthetics along the route. This would encourage students and faculty to utilize the path, whether it’s walking or biking, from campus to downtown and back. And to give recreational infrastructure for the people who live there, too. According to Eschete, “The university has really stepped up and they have a state-of-the-art culinary institute (the only one in the state). For a city our size to have a four-year culinary degree available… it brings in students from all over the country to attend that program. The institute is a special part of Nicholls State University, named after renowned Chef John Folse, and it’s geared to the food and beverage and service industry in south Louisiana. A lot of the graduates are placed in high-end restaurants across the country. So it’s been a very successful program.” This year south Louisiana, including Thibodaux, has received an exceptional amount of rain – about 30 inches above the normal annual rainfall in only seven months. Unlike New Orleans and some other cities in the area, Thibodaux is on a gravity fed system for stormwater management. “It works fine for us,” says Eschete. “Bayou Lafourche was a fresh water tributary off of the Mississippi River and that is actually our potable water source for the parish. With regard to susceptibility for storms, we get a hurricane heading our way and we could catch a little trouble, but not as much as in Lower Lafourche and New Orleans. Because we’re well above sea level. We have our own Emergency Operations Manager who works year round. On June 1 we know hurricane season is here and we’ll be monitoring that until the end of November. It’s just a way of life here in south Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.” Recreation-wise, the city built and serviced its own Thibodaux Senior Citizens Center. It offers full services for the city’s senior population and was typically open six days a week. However, since COVID-19 came on the scene, the center has been on a very limited schedule but still continues to provide the seniors with hot meals on a daily basis. Now, instead of them being able to spend the day at the center, they’re picking up their meals there. On a normal day pre-COVID, there would be 50 or 60 people enjoying the center from opening to closing. It’s been an incredibly effective means of reaching out to that segment of the community. Thibodaux has plenty of recreational opportunities for all ages. Eschete notes, “We have a full recreation department – in the summer we have programs that cater to between 2000 and 3000 kids for a variety of sports and activities. We also have a municipal pool that was built back in the early ‘50s. We’ve spent a lot of money maintaining it and in the last five years, we’ve opened it to competitive swimming. The city sponsors a team, so it gives