Senator honored as top advocate by NLEP

Sen. Francis Thompson has been awarded the Top Advocate award by the North Louisiana Economic Partnership.
North Louisiana Economic Partnership announced the winners of its Top Awards, which honor projects or persons that made a tremendous impact in economic development during the NLEP 2017 Annual Meeting Jan. 25 at Sam’s Town Hotel in Shreveport.
The Top Advocate award recognizes an elected official serving in NLEP’s 14 parish region who has shown outstanding leadership in economic development. This year’s Top Advocate is Senator Francis Thompson. His lifetime of work exemplifies a career built on championing the economic welfare of communities in North Louisiana. His most recent economic development accomplishment includes leading efforts in the state legislature that resulted in an additional $500,000 in revenue for NLEP.
These additional dollars were used toward providing some seed funding for Louisiana Tech Research Institute that will be housed in Bossier City in collaboration with the Cyber Innovation Center and funding for an economic impact study of the Ouachita and Black Rivers being conducted by the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The study will be part of an initiative to maintain the water levels and hours of operation of the rivers and will be submitted to the Army Corps of Engineer.
The additional funding secured by Senator Thompson for NLEP also enhanced our financial commitment to Regional Air Service Alliance in northwest Louisiana; partially funded two site selector tours, showcasing Lincoln, Ouachita, and Natchitoches Parishes, and an outbound marketing trip to Atlanta, Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina. The funding will also go toward supporting a site selector tour later this year in Caddo and Bossier Parishes.