The Jeanerette business community and civic leaders celebrated the official opening of a long-awaited business that is now located next to City Hall on Main Street. 

The Jeanerette Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony for O’Reilly Auto Parts, where Mayor Carol Bourgeois Jr. along with other public officials like Clerk of Court David Ditch attended to celebrate the opening of the business. 

Although the store has been open since November, the ribbon cutting was a chance for town officials and store employees to commemorate the opening of the auto parts store that many hope will be around for years to come. 

“This adds to the economic development of the city,” Jeanerette Chamber of Commerce President Wilfred Johnson said. “We have been working hard with the mayor in trying to bring more businesses, and Jeanerette is rising.”

The new store was built from the ground up in downtown Jeanerette, which hasn’t been done since a Subway restaurant opened in the town several years ago. 

“A lot of folks are excited about it,” Bourgeois said. “We see traffic going back and forth which indicates sales are taking place and that means more tax revenue for the city of Jeanerette.”

The next project that local residents are excited about is the incoming Raintree Market, a grocery store that will be located right across the street from O’Reilly Auto Parts and will take the place of Mac’s Sugar City Market which burned in a fire two years ago. 

Bourgeois said plans for that grocery store are still ongoing and progress should be made this year.