City Celebrates Partnership with Tellurian Inc.

 

Lake Charles —Mayor Nic Hunter recently joined representatives from Tellurian Inc., Boys and Girls Clubs of Acadiana, and several community members to celebrate the reopening of JD Clifton Community Center.

 

Located at 2415 Gieffers St., the Center has been closed since Hurricanes Laura and Delta caused significant damage to the building in 2020.

 

To commemorate the completion of repairs, the City also celebrated its long-standing partnership with Tellurian, through its Partners in Parks and #ReTreeLC Initiatives.

 

“When I reflect back over my time as Mayor and the work my Administration has accomplished, initiatives like Partners in Parks and #ReTreeLC stand out as successful strides we’ve made in positively impacting our community through transforming our City parks,” said Mayor Nic Hunter. “Tellurian has been a partner since the first day in this effort, with their investments at both McMillan and JD Clifton Parks. Transformational changes have been achieved thanks to their investment and we are so thankful for their partnership.”

 

The Tellurian 2019-2020 Washington-Marion High School LEAD Council selected JD Clifton Park as their community project. Their commitment to seeing this project through led to new benches, trash cans, a sand volleyball court, upgraded basketball court and other amenities.

 

“The initial idea was to find somewhere in our community to beautify, make it look more appealing to the eye, simply because that’s where everyone goes,” added Asia Senegal, 2019-2020 Tellurian Washington-Marion LEAD Council member.

 

“This project was paramount because of the simple fact that Jessie D. Clifton has such close ties to the Washington-Marion community and what she meant to the greater Calcasieu Parish community, being the first African American woman to be a principal,” explained Washington-Marion High School Principal Crystal Bowie. “To have our students revitalize this park, named after her and her legacy, is just really huge.”

 

In November 2022, Mayor Nic Hunter announced the launch of Phase II of the City’s successful #ReTreeLC Initiative, which was initially announced in December 2021 as an effort to restore the City’s natural tree canopy following the devastating of Hurricanes Laura and Delta.  

 

Tellurian was a supporter of #ReTreeLC, contributing $25,000.

 

“As part of our national commitment to reforestation efforts, Tellurian is proud to partner with the City of Lake Charles in the #ReTreeLC initiative,” said Heather Hohensee, Tellurian’s Director of Government and Public Affairs. “This is an important step in restoring our parks and making them more enjoyable for the community.”

 

Through this contribution, employees with Tellurian Low Carbon Initiative Team and student volunteers from the Tellurian Washington-Marion High School LEAD Council 2022-2023 planted dozens of Live Oaks and Crepe Myrtles.

 

In total, Tellurian has invested over $140,000 in City parks and hosted a series of free community events at parks to provide educational entertainment to residents.

 

Additionally, as part of the day’s commemoration, Boys and Girls Clubs of Acadiana announced their goal of expanding their Lake Charles services to include a Club location at JD Clifton. The group currently operates a Club at the City’s Columbus Circle Recreation Center, and hopes to extend services to another area of the City, contingent on passage of LC REBOUND, the City’s upcoming bond proposal.

 

Partners in Parks launched under the Hunter Administration in 2018, as an established fund at the Community Foundation Southwest Louisiana. Since its launch, more than $1 million in private and grant funds have been raised to support programs like #ReTreeLC. Aimed at addressing not only infrastructure needs at parks citywide, Partners in Parks also aims to re-energize park programming, attracting a new generation of park-goers to neighborhood parks. All of these efforts are achieved without placing any additional burden on taxpayers.

 

For more information about Partners in Parks, visit www.cityoflakecharles.com/partnersinparks.