Iberia Parish was asleep at the wheel for over 40 years with no airport/aircraft zoning law studied and passed into local ordinances. Worse, at this exact instant, there are no state airport/aircraft zoning laws in place in the entire state of Louisiana.

 Now comes Senator Hebert with a pro-active statewide airport zoning law to-be (Senate Bill 317). Surprise to me, a minority of the local public dare to say and speculate…..” he is up to no good”. I can tell the readers that as a longtime airplane and helicopter operator in Louisiana and of which the last 20 years of it has been right here in Iberia Parish, that Senator Troy Hebert would only be up to no good,  if he weren’t doing anything about the lack of airport zoning in Louisiana!

A Mr. Gary recently suggested that the Parish Council, the D.A., and or the Parish president, disapproves of S.B. 317. Maybe so, maybe not, but who cares what they like or approve of? The tail will not wag the dog on major statewide issues. Upon his realizing that there were no zoning laws of any kind to address landfill operations in the immediate vicinity of Louisiana’s airports, Troy took it upon himself to correct the issue at the state level. The airport/landfill spacing specifications outlined in his bill are not guesswork on Troy’s part but come right out of well studied FAA documentation. Hopefully if S.B. 317 becomes law, this will save the other 63 Parishes in Louisiana a future and costly unending airport/landfill fight of their own, the horror of which we have already experienced in Iberia Parish for too many years.

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Mr. Gary also recently implied that he was suspicious that Mr. Hebert’s commitment to the Louisiana’s aircraft industry  was “convenient” and isolated only to the landfill issue. Mr. Gary’s suspicions are not based on research. I can assure the readers that Mr. Hebert’s indeed holds a broader, even unilateral aircraft industry commitment.  For one example, Mr. Hebert is currently heavily involved in the funding structure of 3 different Iberia airports funding projects.

I will now address the last issue thrown on the table by Mr. Gary………..the Parish Council’s fantasy of installing septic ponds on the ARA properties.  For the better part of 40 years, the ARA grounds were a virtual flea market for no end of non-aircraft goods and services companies. This short-sighted free for all, was fostered by previous Airport Boards, composed of members whom in many cases held no aircraft credentials whatsoever, and thus were pushovers for non aircraft tenants they could better relate to.

A slow but positive shift in the makeup of the 6 member Airport Authority Board over the last several years has synthesized itself into a Board in which nearly 100% of the Board chairs are held by persons with aircraft credentials. This new aircraft think tank has produced dramatic and much overdue aircraft facilities construction, as well as a new and dim view of the non-aircraft industrialization of the airport grounds.  Because of the largely aircraft credentialed makeup of this present and outstanding Airport Authority Board, combined with the recent mobilization of the Louisiana aircraft industries to organize as one, I can assure Mr. Gary that any attempt to install septic ponds on the ARA grounds will be a costly, uphill and likely loosing fight by the fantasy stakeholders thereof.  

Ken Squires

Jeanerette