The ayes have spoken.

Saturday’s election in Louisiana included a long-awaited opportunity for New Iberia residents to have a voice in the way the city is policed after 13 years under the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office. New Iberians said with a clear voice at the polling sites that they want to be imposed a half-cent sales tax that will pay for the creation of a new New Iberia Police Department.

Obviously, the majority of voters welcomed and had confidence in New Iberia Mayor Freddie DeCourt’s plan and the numbers associated with building an NIPD from scratch. After the one-year contract with the IPSO expires in June 2017, NIPD police officers will patrol the city’s neighborhoods for the first time since the former local police department was disbanded by the New Iberia City Council in 2004.

The half-cent sales tax is expected to bring in $7.8 million to pay for the local police department and another $1.6 million going toward a one-time start-up cost to build the NIPD.

For many local residents, that was the most important issue on the slim ballot, more than enough reason, one way or the other, to head to the polls. They showed that during the early voting period, when 1,770 men and women voted in Iberia Parish, and again on Saturday.

Whether you voted “yes” or you voted “no,” a change is imminent. To borrow and paraphrase a well-worn fishing phrase, now is the time to fish rather than to cut bait.

This is a time to put any discord behind us. Hopefully, it’s time to establish a local law enforcement agency that will make us safer and make us proud.

We are anxious to see the end result.

DON SHOOPMAN

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR