Breaux Bridge Officials seek to honor late councilman

Breaux Bridge city officials are looking to honor late councilman Gary “Bimmie” Champagne, who died in early March following heart surgery.

The bridge is up for a $1.2 million set of refurbishments in the 2018-2019 budget. Champagne’s campaign urged city officials to move the project up on the city’s list of priorities and convinced a grassroots campaign to raise thousands of dollars for the bridge before the city overtook the project.

City officials have proposed that the city’s downtown bridge, for which Champagne urged city officials to save, be named the Gary “Bimmie” Champagne Memorial Bridge.

Champagne served on the council for 11 years and was not seeking re-election at his time of death.