Council chairman Warren Gachassin, right, discusses ARPA funding while Councilwoman Natalie Broussard listens. 

Work on the Louisiana SugArena is progressing after a sudden discovery caused project leaders to make a change order to the project.

Iberia Parish Government received $400,000 in state capital outlay funds this fiscal year to upgrade and renovate the SugArena, which provides many events that draw in people to Iberia Parish every year.

Although some of the initial work included constructing an announcer’s table and painting the steel poles in the SugArena, architect for the project Gerald Gesser said a visit from the Louisana Department of Health led to other considerations.

“More things came to light when the board of heath came and we said we needed to address those issues,” Gesser said at Wednesday’s Iberia Parish Council meeting.

Some of those concerns included upgrades to the kitchen in the SugArena, as well as work in the bathrooms that were not in the original specifications of the project.

The council approved a change order in the amount of $87,000 to provide funding for repairs to the restrooms, fans, office building, concession kitchen and officials booth at Wednesday’s meeting.

Gesser said all of the concerns from the state have been addressed and the project is on track to be completed by Aug. 31.

President of the Acadiana Fairgrounds Commission Pat Carlyon said the completion of the renovations would be a boon for Iberia Parish due to the large amount of traffic the SugArena gets for the events it puts on throughout the year.

“Our arena has been doing a lot of good business,” Carlyon said. “We have a big impact and these improvements are going to make things even better.”

Councilman Paul Landry agreed with the renovations, and said the state funding being used for the project would be helpful for the parish.

“This is state capital outlay money,” Landry said. “We have more needs than we have money for and they’re going the right way.”

In other business, the council approved spending $310,000 to appropriate funding for the American Rescue Plan Act Broadband Initiative in the Coteau and Loreauville areas.

The project was announced last week by Iberia Parish President Larry Richard in a press conference, and the parish funding will be in conjunction with $5 million in state and federal funding to bring broadband access to the two areas of the parish.

Councilwoman Natalie Broussard said that although she did not disagree with the plan, she was concerned that no Master Plan for ARPA appropriations had been presented to the council.

“I know I sound like a broken record but until we have a plan on how we’re using ARPA funds I have a problem voting for any of it,” Broussard said.

Chairman Warren Gachassin said the potential for broadband access could be a huge boon for local businesses that reside in those areas of the parish.

“I think there’s a lot of potential to influence businesses with this,” he said. “This could be very huge for those two areas of the parish.