| So........What Now? It would appear that after the December 16, 2003 Council Meeting was over that there was nothing else to do but accept the boundary as proposed by those who on behalf of LCG (Lafayette Consolidated Government) and Vermilion Parish, which also means you and I. I with the help of a few volunteers and the support of the Duhon's began to do the Forensic Research that I beleived was yet to be done. I was right. What I have found is the line which was predetermined, based on the 1931 Bernard Survey and the Gervis Lombard Abstract is wrong. The 1931 Bernard Survey was indeed thrown out of court, but it is also misrepresented. The Lombard Abstract too is incorrect and both are assumptions made with inadequate historical and authoritative data. There is indeed a proper method of researching toward a truthful conclusion. This again is not what was done. The LCG Council was given only what was necessary to reach a false conclusion, and the council accepted the information without question, despite the fact that the data was limited and questionable at best. What was offered in the State Land Office as "extensive research" was a study of the Lafayette Police Jury minutes from 1929 to 1935, with one meeting mentioned in the Vermilion Police Jury minutes. One Vermilion meeting was dated 21 October 1930 and one Lafayette meeting was 11 April 1929. The assumption made was that Lafayette must have agreed with Vermilion because Lafayette approved an expenditure for Mr. Bernard to provide "land ownership maps" to the Tax Assessor. It was the assumption that made me suspicious. What I found was there was mention of Bernard's Survey in other Vermilion Police Jury minutes regarding the boundary survey that was not mentioned in the report. And although Lafayette approved the expenditure for Bernard to provide landowner maps (which are quite different that boundary surveys"), there is no indication that the work was done nor was paid for the work. As is stated in the State Land Office report, the current Tax Assessor could find no record of it in his office or in the Clerk of Court Record. Because it was never done? So the boundary is based on the Bernard Survey of 1931, (which was thrown out of court) and a total of two (2) Police Jury Meetings. A boundary which was determined in 1844 mentions no record prior to 1929, and no map of consequence. This is extensive research? Is that the best they could do? Oh, don't let me forget the Gervis Lombard Abstract which the State Land Office relied on, yet said was unreliable. I found that the Lafayette Police Jury Record is quite intact and in very good condition back to 1823 and there is substancial information there. I knew that the Vermilion Record was limited because the Courthouse burned in April of 1885, thus destroying all the Public Records it contained. Yet, we relied on information provided from Vermilion Parish. This report was not passing the smell test and the stink meter was pegged out. This matter has been one that everyone has kept at arms length. Politicians don't want to get close to it, and the press wouldn't investigate it deeply enough because it was only "sexy" news if there was contraversy between two political candidates. 9 |
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