Central, Louisiana

8 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 Central. As the official festival of the city for 15 years, this event draws thousands of people to the local fairgrounds, in the name of good food and a great cause. The event takes place over two nights, starting with a seafood cookoff on night one, followed by a second cookoff featuring meats and poultry. Attendees purchase food, with all proceeds donated to a specific charity. Barrow recounts, “For a while it was helping to get our new school system started. This year, the funds went towards one of the parishes in southern Louisiana. They were heavily devastated by Hurricane Ida last year, so we were raising funds for some of the people down there. That’s our big city event that we have every year, and we’re proud of it.” For the local community, The Central Food Bank and many of the city’s churches provide services and provisions to those in need. Looking to the future, Mayor Barrow explains that the widening of 2 state highways is going to be a “game changer for the community,” creating new options for commercial development. He emphasizes, “We know that’s going to change a lot of things in our city. As those areas do get developed, we are putting some codes in our ordinances to make sure that they have high quality architectural standards. We want our city to look good.” As the city of Central moves forward, Barrow conveys that a carefully planned approach will continue, noting, “The people out here have spoken very clearly that they don’t mind growth, but they don’t want it to be forced growth. We do have a lot of infrastructure improvements that are coming to our city over the next couple of years in terms of roads and sewer improvements, and we are really looking forward to that. We have heard very vocally from people that they don’t want us losing our rural charm, in favor of trying to become a big city. They want us to keep that under control. I think we’ve done that in this administration, trying to slow things down a little bit, and I’m proud of that.” 14485 Greenwell Springs Rd. Greenwell Springs, LA 70739 225-261-1095 OAK POINT FRESH MARKET NOW OFFERS Shop Our Fresh Meats, Delicious Deli and Bakery, Fantastic Wine and Liquor Selection and the Best Produce in Central! Make Memories with Oak Point’s Beautiful Floral Items! LOCALLY OWNED! The Sumich Family GREAT Customer Service ONLINE GROCERY SHOPPING DIGITAL COUPONS Curbside Pickup and Delivery Through INNOVATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS ENGINEERING • ADVANCED MEASUREMENTS & MODELING • SURVEYING ForteAndTablada.com (225) 927-9321 CENTRAL , LOUI S I ANA