St. Mary mayors point to progress in infrastructure

When St. Mary mayors met the public Feb. 19, the magic word was “infrastructure.”
The event was a St. Mary Chamber Business Breakfast at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City. Even by the standards of the annual get-together featuring the mayors, when developments like the new public safety taxes in Baldwin and Franklin might have loomed larger, this breakfast was all about pipes, cement and the grants that are paying for them both.
“Someone told me years ago,” said Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan, “that if you put up flags around Patterson and flowers and this, that and the other, people will love and respect you. But they can’t see the infrastructure and things that are underground that need to be taken care of.”
“We need to build infrastructure,” said Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna, “so we can build betterment for the community.”
Here’s what they talked about.
Berwick
Mayor Duval Arthur pointed to grants totaling $8.2 million. The money is funding or will fund drainage work in a flood-prone area of Country Club Estates; $580,000 from the Legislature for an upgrade to automated water meters; an $800,000 street program that will include paving Sixth Street; $600,000 for sewer rehabilitation; and $4 million for replacing natural gas lines.
The town government recently decided to buy gas from Patterson when demand from generators lowers the pressure in the system
The Lighthouse Festival drew 15,000 people in 2024, Arthur said. And he said the town soccer program drew 350 children. Berwick also offers softball, baseball, flag and tackle football, and coed basketball for children, and coed volleyball and pickle ball for adults on 13 pickle ball courts.
The Brown House town history museum is adding an exhibition hall.
Chitimacha
Reservation
The Chitimacha Tribe is receiving a Housing and Urban Development grant for eight new homes on the reservation; a $5 million grant to extend water service in the West St. Mary area served by Water Works District No. 4; and $3 million for coastal protection along Cote Blanche Bay, Tribal Chairman Melissa Darden said.
A new market in Jeanerette is underway, and the tribe is looking at an expansion of the reservation school now serving 125 students. The tribe is also working with a state on a bridge that will help emergency services move get into Charenton, and a bid has been let for a public boat launch.
Improvements are being considered for reservation roads and an upgrade of the health clinic.
Darden pointed to the new sports complex with 78 new parking spaces. The reservation offers T-ball, softball and flag football.
Morgan City
The key, Dragna said, is to plan not for now, but for two, three or four years from now.
“If you build for now, you’re already behind,” Dragna said.
One example: business facades and home improvements taking place in the city come from a grant applied for three or four years ago.
A grant of $11 million-$12 million is building a new water plant modeled after Patterson’s new plant, which processes water more efficiently than conventional plants.
Morgan City has two new parks and is working on a third, and the city is investing in miles of walking trails.
The youth sports programs have grown because the administration emphasized that growth, Dragna said, and the Christmas Festival has seen a rapid rise in popularity in its three years of existence.
Franklin
“We have an aging infrastructure,” Franklin Mayor Eugene Foulcard said. “It didn’t get that way overnight. We won’t fix it overnight. I just want to leave it a little better than I found it.”
Toward that effort, Franklin has completed a $2.5 million street, drainage and sewer rehabilitation project on Cayce Street and a Yokely Canal widening project. Also done or in the works are new air conditioning at both recreation centers and $400,000 in new playground equipment, both through Community Development Block Grant funds.
The Franklin Fire Department has a new $500,000 training facility in Landry Park, and a new Economic Vitality Committee in the Main Street Program. Cajun Coast helped develop a QR code map in Franklin, and the Robert Dafford mural is complete in the pocket park.
Soon, the city will embark on a $2.5 million water distribution system upgrade; $536,000 targets sidewalk improvements to make them Americans with Disabilities Act-complaint; and $100,000 in state money will go toward an upgrade of the Teche Theatre for Performing Arts.
After demolishing 60 blighted properties, Franklin hopes to bring down 37 more in phase 2 of the program.
Patterson
Grogan quoted Ecclesiastes, the part about a season for everything. And this is infrastructure season, he said.
The Patterson work includes $2.3 million worth of upgrades to nine sewer lift stations.
“There’s no more sewer smell in Patterson,” Grogan said.
Another $5 million is going toward the new water plant, $1.5 million is earmarked for rehabilitating gas lines, and $700,000 will fund new gas meters.
Grogan touted Patterson emergency text system; the Chamber Leadership and Louisiana Municipal Association awards won this year by Community and Economic Development Director Holden Murray; the city’s health data dashboard; and the work of nurse practitioner Mary LeBlanc at the Patterson Total Care Clinic.
He also praised the work of city accountant Monica Mabile and longtime city employee Pam Washington for their work on a difficult budget situation for Patterson last year.
“Patterson is back,” Grogan said.
Baldwin
Mayor Clarence Vappie’s town is the smallest municipality in St. Mary, but Baldwin also was able to acquire some grant funding.
The big items was $2.6 million in federal funds that will go to railroad crossing rehabilitation and elimination. The grant requires a town match, but Vappie said he was able to negotiate the match down to $900.
“We can handle that,” he said.
Design work is underway on a sidewalk and bike trail to be funded with a $400,000 Safe Streets grant, and the state is putting up another $200,000 for a new basketball court.
The town is using $250,000 in federal money to rehabilitate sewer system lift stations. The Port of West St. Mary has new sugar storage structures.