When I pick up or drop off a visiting daughter at Lake Charles Regional Airport, I never find a parking space other than in the very last two rows of the parking area, farthest from the terminal.

I have been told that some departing passengers leave vehicles in the parking lot for weeks, even months. My question is, why can there not be some system for requiring such vehicles to be parked farthest from the terminal, thus providing some spaces closer to the terminal for those vehicles which will be there perhaps an hour or even less?

Lake Charles Regional Airport, unlike most Gulf Coast airports, offers free parking, meaning spaces are occupied on a first-come, first-served basis, said Heath Allen, airport executive director. He said the alternative system the reader describes is usually found in paid-parking lots.

“While it seems easy enough to accomplish, the reality is that it would require additional manpower and/or parking lot control and timing infrastructure to monitor vehicles in and out of the lot,” Allen wrote in an email. “The cost of operating this type of system would have to be paid for, likely by charging to park in the lot.

“Passengers enjoy the benefit of not having to pay for parking, and at this time the airport is able to offer this benefit by keeping operating costs at a minimum.”

Some parking provisions from the airport’s regulations:

“No person shall park a vehicle for loading, unloading or any other purpose on the Airport other than in the places specifically designated for such parking and in the manner indicated by signs, markings and other means.”

“It shall be unlawful to abandon any vehicle on the Airport. A vehicle shall be deemed to be abandoned if it is left unattended in an unauthorized area on the Airport without notice to a police officer or Airport official.”

Online: www.flylakecharles.com.

Singer’s family comes from New Iberia

At a news conference before this year’s Super Bowl, Beyonce said she was from New Iberia, but her bio says she was born and raised in Houston. What’s the truth?

Beyonce didn’t say she was from Louisiana.

“My family is from New Iberia, La., so it really makes me emotional to have a halftime performance,” the singer said at the news conference. “I think of all my heroes.”

“Beyonce’s maternal grandmother, Agnez Dereon (born Agnes DeRouen) grew up in Delcambre/New Iberia, Louisiana,” Janice Arenofsky writes in “Beyonce Knowles: A Biography.”

“Her background resembled a smorgasbord — a melange of descendants were Jewish American, African American, Louisiana Creole and Choctaw Native American. Diversity also dominated the genealogy of Beyonce’s maternal grandfather, Lumas Beyince. Also from Louisiana, he had a mixed ancestry of Chinese, Indonesian, French, and Spanish.”

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com

On the heels of recently completing maintenance to its runway in May