IBERIA PARISH, La. (KLFY) — Bayou Jack residents in Iberia Parish say the community has the slogan “Like Being Bayouself.” They say it is very fitting because they believe parish government has forgotten about them and left them to fend for themselves.

“Been fighting this over two years now. Just this mess. They won’t help us back here. We are the last on every list they got. If there is a list and we are on it, we the last ones,” said long time Bayou Jack resident Henry Dubois.

Multiple residents say issues of roads, crime, dumping, R1-zone conflicts along with unwanted visitors have been problems they wanted addressed by the parish for years.

Michael Charpentier is another long-time resident like Dubois. They say they are seeing the decline in their once beautiful community. They spoke on a situation where paperwork with classified tax documents such as social security numbers were thrown in a cane field. They believe people are doing this in their community because of the lack of enforcement.

“The people have been complaining about this garbage in the trash and the lack of services from our government for over two years. Why are they dumping it here? It’s Dodge City back here. It’s wide open,” said Charpentier.

Bayou Jack is a residential neighborhood that has provided the Louisiana bayou experience for generations. So much so that short term rentals are popping up to profit off of it. Residents believe since they have come, the issues have started.

“We have people going up and down the street at all times of the night and never had that before,” Dubois said. “There is so much traffic on this road, I got more than highway 90.”

There is no ordinance in Iberia Parish for regulating short term rentals currently in place, but District 10 Councilman Brock Pellerin says he’s addressing the issues residents are having. It is up to parish administration to take action.

“All of the issues, the short-term rental and the zoning issues have been turned over to the administration months ago, and here we are and still nothing has been done,” said Pellerin. “Every time I have the administration of the response is we are working on it. As for residents back there. I can feel their frustration that they feel nothing’s getting done. Look, government moves slow. We all know that. But on some of these issues, I think we can move a little bit faster on them.”

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