Commuting to Fort Polk from Alexandria - advice needed! (Pineville: real estate, motels)

[lvdelta]

My husband and I are considering putting in for Ft. Polk as his next duty station. We are both from LA originally, and would love to be back home. I would hopefully be working at the VA hospital in Alexandria. Can anyone help us out on neighborhoods in western Alexandria or anywhere between Alexandria and Polk that would be do-able for both of us, in terms of commuting?

Currently he is stationed at Ft. Knox and we live in Louisville...he commutes 45 minutes and I commute an hour to school. We don't mind driving as long as its not any worse than it is now!

Any advice would be appreciated. We are a young couple, no kids, and would like to be near a city. Also, we already know we don't want to be in Leesville or De Ridder (meddlesome family members live there )
Thanks again so much!!!

[ral31]

There are a number of new neighborhoods just to the west of Alexandria near Hwy 28 West (the highway that leads to the Leesville-Fort Polk area.) St. Andrews Links Estates is a new but expensive neighborhood surrounded by a golf course just of 28 West. There are also some nice neighborhoods along Bayou Rapides off of Hot Wells Rd. Going towards the Kincaid Lake area, there's a new neighborhood being developed called West Lakes Estates. Then you have a couple of neighborhoods adjacent to Kincaid Lake. Further out to the west there are a some subdivisions in the Gardner/ Cotile Lake area.

If you want to live in western Alexandria, anything between Jackson Street and 28 West should be decent. Next year, the extension of Versailles Blvd. to 28 West is supposed to be complete, which will make the highway more accessible to neighborhoods further south. The only area between Jackson and 28 West that I would possibly avoid are those streets directly behind motels on MacArthur Drive or Windermere Blvd immediately near the drainage canal bridge (the canal backed up during Hurricane Gustav flooding nearby houses and townhomes). North of 28 West, you have the Grundy Cooper/ Cloverdale/ Westwind subdivisions, which I would consider a lower middle to middle class area.

I'm not sure exactly how long the commute to Fort Polk is, but I wouldn't think that it would be much more than an hour from any of these locations. The further west you are along Hwy 28, the better your commute will probably be.

[sharris2005]

He's right to suggest the newer subdivisions . . .you did not say whether your husband is an officer or not, so some of them may be higher than your housing allotment. If you like the outdoors, Kincaid and Cotile Lake both have reasonably priced homes but not often new/brick. We lived in Alex for several years and found a wonderful real estate agent: Linda Miller. She is FABULOUS and can be found with little effort--probably through Google. She will work with you tirelessly. If you are going to work at the vets' hospital, it is north of Alex. about 8-10 miles---the Pineville/Tioga area is prettier than west of town, but traffic is bad going across the bridge and would be a pain for your husband trying to come west in the mornings. Good luck on your appointment. Oh, and BTW, I now live in DeRidder and highly recommend it ;-)