The article below comes to us courtesy of The Daily Iberian, which recently covered the very successful opening of Delcambre’s new boat landing and shopping pavilion (dubbed the Bayou Carlin Cove). The waterfront site is also the new home to Delcambre’s fresh seafood and farmers market, which originally opened in March 2013 under the guidance of West End Health and Wellness, a Challenge for a Healthier Louisiana grant supported project.

The market now draws as many as 3,000 visitors to this town of roughly 1,800 people, said Marti Harrell, a West End Health and Wellness project leader and program manager for Best Life Iberia. 

“On market days, we more than double the size of the community,” Harrell said. “Of all the things we are doing through the Challenge Grant, we knew this would be a sustainable project because of all the partnerships involved to make this happen… This represents a true rebirth of this community.”

The $4 million project also involved funds from the Twins Parish Ports Commission and disaster recovery dollars from the Louisiana Office of Community Development. 

“It’s all part of the revitalization of the community in the wake of Hurricane Rita,” said Harrell. The city suffered serious devastation in the 2005 storm. “What you see today is a lot of pent up excitement over a dream for the community coming to fruition. This has been a dream come true for Delcambre.” West End, Delcambre

For more details, check out the Daily Iberian’s report below:

THE DAILY IBERIAN |

DELCAMBRE — A little rain never stopped a good time in South Louisiana, and it sure didn’t stop Saturday’s grand opening of Bayou Carlin Cove, the new dock, pier and pavilion in Delcambre.

“We had one light rain shower. It lasted about 20 minutes,” Port of Delcambre Director Wendell Verret said.

“There was one lightning strike that scared a few people, especially me,” he said with a laugh.

Despite the rain, people from Delcambre and the surrounding areas came out in droves to see the new space. At the peak of the day there were nearly 3,000 people, Verret said.

The parking lot was full and cars were lining up on the road to wait to get in, he said.

“They ran out of burgers and they’re almost out shrimp,” Verret said of the vendors and four shrimp boats that were set up for the market at the grand opening event.

Thomas Hymel, of the LSU AgCenter and the ports seafood director, said the four boats, three of which were sold out, had sold more than 10,000 pounds of shrimp. He said the effort was aided because the public can keep track on when shrimp boats are coming at delcambredirectseafood.com or on their Facebook page.

Shrimpers weren’t the only successful merchants of the day. The market under the pavilion had everything from fresh squeezed lemonade and homemade hot sauces to hand-crafted dolls, paintings and other artwork.

Elaine Bourque, a Delcambre native, said she only brought 10 gallons of her lemonade to sell, which was gone before she knew it. They had to crank out another 10 gallons throughout the day as people were buying it, she said.

“We’re all excited about it,” Bourque said of the new pavilion. “I love it. It’s been a very successful day, better than expected.”

Juliette and Richard Shales traveled from New Iberia to check out the market.

“My husband and I like to go to markets and check things out,” Juliette Shales said. “We saw they were opening this today and decided to come. There’s people who are selling wine, which I’m interested in. We’re hoping to eat dinner out here.”

The couple came to look around at the market, but said they may stick around and dance  to the evening’s live music for a while when the market closed.

“This is really going to help Delcambre,” Richard Shales said. “I just bought some Brother-In-Law hot sauce.”

All around, Verret said, it was a very successful day.

“It’s so great to finally see it happen,” he said. “You expect a certain image in your mind and then when it happens, it’s better than you imagined. It’s exactly what we were hoping for.”