The Voice of Southwest Louisiana

Officials from around Beauregard Parish participated in a ribbon cutting announcing that Beauregard Airport is officially a Louisiana Economic
Development ‘certified site.’ Among those who attended the event are: LED Secretary Don Pierson, Beauregard Police Jury President Rusty Williamson,
DeRidder Mayor Ron Roberts, Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance President/CEO George Swift and Executive Vice President Avon
Knowlton along with DeRidder City Council members, Beauregard Police Jury members, and supporters.
land and offer rides for $2. The area
became of high interest to the military in
1939 when war broke out in Europe.
American troops needed a place to train
and in 1940 the land was used for the
“Louisiana Maneuvers”, a series of military
exercises. The Deridder Army Air Base
was started in July 1941. After the attack
on Pearl Harbor, additional runways were
constructed and the base developed
rapidly as the U.S. entered World War
II. During that time, over 5,000 people
were active on the base. In 1947 the
Beauregard Parish Police Jury assumed
responsibility for the airport. One year
later the federal government deemed the
base to the police jury on the terms of
the Surplus Property Act which required
that the property was to remain a public
airport and all benefits of the property
were to go towards the benefit of the
airport.
The airport has over 6.2 square miles of
land and there are a number of excellent
locations for commercial and industrial
growth. The new certified site, located
1 mile from the airport, is the second
largest “shovel ready” industrial area in
the state. Don Pierson, secretary of the
Louisiana Economic Development, was
at the ribbon cutting in December, and
expressed to West Central’s Best that this
new site is a step in the right direction to
allow Beauregard parish to contribute to
diversifying the West Central Louisiana
economy, and it also allows the parish
to be ready to go for when someone
calls in with a facility in mind. When a
site becomes certified, it receives special
identification for any business that
may be looking for land to build on. In
previous years large companies have
looked in to Beauregard as a new place
to call home, but at the time there the
parish was unable to accommodate
large industrial corporations. Becoming
a certified site helps industries looking
for a new location to have an easier
time of finding land for them to use. The
certification tells the potential buyers
that the hard work has been taken care
of. The land has been surveyed for any
problems they may face and it notes that
the property lines have been drawn.
According to the Louisiana Economic
Development (LED), a site becomes
certified after it has “completed a
rigorous review process by LED and URS,
an independent, third-party engineering
firm. Specific details, such as zoning
restrictions, title work, environmental
studies, soil analysis and surveys,
are assessed for compliance and
Volume 4 • Number 5 WWW.THEVOICEOFSOUTHWESTLA.COM February 2017 9