Toomey rest area undergoing $16M renovation
Published 1:01 pm Wednesday, May 31, 2017
<p class="p1"><strong>Why was the welcome center into Louisiana from Texas torn down? I stopped there every time coming from Texas. It was very nice.</strong></p><p class="p2">The Vinton-Toomey rest area — which closed on July 6, 2015 — is undergoing $16 million in renovations.</p><p class="p2">The work, which was originally slated to take a year and half to complete, will be finished late this year or early next year, said Deidra Druilhet, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation and Development.</p><p class="p2">The project, featuring a new 16,000-square-foot building, will include improved parking areas, enhanced lighting, a closed-circuit television security system, a drop-off area for buses, new pavilions, concrete walkways along Lake Bienvenue, revamped landscaping, a new water well and a new sewage-treatment system.</p><p class="p2">Officials built an information center at Toomey in 1968 and supplemented it with a landscaped rest area in 1976. From an <em>American Press</em> story published Oct. 22, 1976:</p><p class="p3">The Toomey Rest Area on Interstate 10, one of Louisiana’s newest gems, was officially dedicated in ceremonies Thursday morning under cloudless blue skies.</p><p class="p3">Built by the Louisiana Department of Highways at a cost of $775,000, the area contains 15 single and four double picnic shelters, 12 barbecue pits, eight water fountains, a cleanup shelter, restrooms, a well house and two sanitary dumps.</p><p class="p3">The new facilities were built around the tourist information center which was opened eight years ago.</p><p class="p3">Olivier Broussard III, District 7 engineer for the highway department, said the site covers about 107 acres and borders Lake Bienvenue which was created by the department as a borrow pit when the interstate highway was built.</p><p class="p3">The lake varies in depth from 10 to 55 feet, Broussard said, which provides a good habitat for wildlife.</p><p class="p3">A thousand-foot board walkway along the lake’s edge and over the swamp affords visitors the rare opportunity of a first-hand look at wildlife inhabiting the vicinity. A family of alligators can often be seen among the cypress knees along with nutria and other “critters.”</p><p class="p2">Access to Lake Bienvenue is closed for the duration of the current project, Druilhet said.</p><p class="p4"> <a href="http://www.dotd.la.gov" target="_blank">www.dotd.la.gov</a></p><hr /><p class="p6"> </p><h3 class="p7"><strong>Prescription drugs subject to local taxes</strong></h3><p class="p1"><strong>Is it legal to charge sales tax on prescription drugs? I thought they were exempt from sales tax</strong></p><p class="p2">Prescription drugs and food for home use are exempt from the state’s sales tax — which is 5 percent and will revert to 4 percent next year. But they’re still subject to local sales taxes.</p><p class="p4">l</p><p class="p5"><strong>Online:</strong> <a href="http://rev.louisiana.gov" target="_blank">http://rev.louisiana.gov.</a></p><p class="p4">l</p><p class="p8">The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by <strong>Andrew Perzo</strong>, an <em>American Press</em> staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.</p>