Plaquemine wins top state award for community achievement

BATON ROUGE -- The City of Plaquemine won the highest state award given by the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA) in community achievement on Saturday night at the LMA awards banquet for the construction of the Plaquemine Community Center.

The award was presented during the annual LMA convention, which was held at Raising Cane’s River Center.

The city beat out all Louisiana cities, including large cities such as Alexandria and Baton Rouge, in winning the Best of Show award.

It beat projects ranging from economic development to technology to infrastructure to win the award.

The judges were impressed with the City's redevelopment of a blighted area into a beautiful facility, the inclusion of historical elements in the state-of-the-art facility, the planning that affords the city the capability to use the facility for both community and large regional events, and the extremely positive response to the facility has received from residents. The Community Center is almost totally booked through the end of 2022.

"We are very proud that residents have embraced this new facility and it is being used weekly," said Mayor Edwin "Ed" Reeves, Jr., who made construction of the facility his top priority when he became mayor in 2017. "The Community Center has already proved beneficial for community events, and we envision great things for it in the future."

The award for Plaquemine gave Iberville Parish the top honor for the second consecutive year. The Village of Grosse Tete won the award in 2020 for its work in the broadband connectivity project, which is bringing online service to many rural areas across south Louisiana.