Luka Fagundes

NSU student

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the mechanic after driving in Natchitoches.

This town is known for many things. We are the home of Steel Magnolias, Natchitoches meat pies, the Christmas festival to end all Christmas celebrations and most importantly, roads that will have your grandma cursing when she hits that heart-shaped pothole just right.

To say that the roads in Natchitoches are a problem is putting it lightly. The roads here are the bane of a driver’s existence, causing damage left and right without remorse.

On Saturday, a pothole slashed the tire and cracked the rim of a Natchitoches local, as reported by a user of a local Facebook group titled “FIX THE ROADS IN NATCHITOCHES PARISH!!!!!!” That’s six exclamation points. 

I had to pay for an entire new front-end axel replacement just a few years ago on a vehicle I had only owned for two years at the time, not to mention countless tire replacements.

People throughout the town are fed up of the driving conditions we are met with every day because Natchitoches Parish either refuses to fix these roads or refuses to acknowledge that they cannot fix these roads.

Instead, Natchitoches built its very own sports and recreation park that no one asked for, at an estimated $10,800,000 for completion at time of first reporting. This was done to “bring more business in” to drive on roads that the parish cannot support.

We have come to the point where the conditions of the roads are getting worse and worse, and nothing is being done about them, despite the promises made to Natchitoches Parish residents. 

The roads seem to be nothing more than a political talking point during our local elections, and once those elections are over, it’s back to the same old same old that keeps this town in the decline.

Welcome to Natchitoches: cute town, terrible commute.