Groundbreaking For Museum Archives Building

The Louisiana State Exhibit Museum (LSEM) and Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announce the construction of the new archives building on the museum campus at 3015 Greenwood Road. After years in the funding and planning stages, it is finally coming to fruition.

The grounds have been cleared, and construction is underway. The new building will house offices for the staff members, a research library, conference room, curatorial lab, commercial kitchen and storage area for artifacts. The original offices in the museum’s rotunda are planned to become a security office and museum gift shop.

Architectural design is by Somdal Associates, and Thrash Construction Services was selected as the contractor on this project; both are Shreveportbased companies. Construction of the

archives building will take between nine months and a year. During construction, the museum will not be able to host night events including the Friends of LSEM’s biennial “Glitz & Grits” rescheduled for 2020. The daily operation of the museum will not be affected during this time.

Busy Summer Travel Season at Shreveport Regional Airport

More people are choosing to fly from Shreveport Regional Airport (SHV) this summer, making June of this year the busiest June in 19 years, which was also the 15th consecutive month of increased passenger activity at Shreveport Regional Airport. In June, 68,235 passengers flew in and out of the airport, which was an increase of 14%, or 8,611 additional passengers in June 2019 compared to June 2018.

Part of that increase is thanks to the additional flights at SHV. For the first time, Allegiant is offering nonstop flights to Destin, Fla., twice a week through Labor Day, and, because of increased demand last summer, Allegiant is also offering nonstop flights to Orlando/Sanford three times a week instead of only twice a week as in previous years.

Year-to-date passenger numbers are up as well. From January through June, 324,457 passengers traveled through SHV, which is an increase of 9% or 26,948 more passengers this year compared to the same time last year.

“Thousands of additional passengers are flying through Shreveport this summer, and we are excited and so thankful for this increase in traffic. We ask the Ark- La-Tex to continue to choose to fly from Shreveport, which will help us be able to add destinations like Allegiant did this summer with Destin,” said Stacy Kuba, interim director of airports for the Shreveport Airport Authority.

With the additional traffic, there are fewer available parking spots and longer than normal wait times at the TSA checkpoint. Passengers are reminded to arrive at least one hour before their scheduled departure if flying American, Delta or United, and at least two hours before departure if flying Allegiant.