Morgan City kicks around youth sports ideas

The Morgan City Council returned to its home field Tuesday for a discussion about youth sports.

The council also signed on to deals that would sell land that New Zorah Baptist Church wants to use for classrooms and turn part of the old power plant into a marina at Lake End Park.

The council returned to its usual meeting place, the Morgan City Court chambers, for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions went in place in spring 2020. Since then, the council has met either in the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium theater or its lobby to accommodate social distancing.

“I’d say we were back home,” said Mayor Lee Dragna, who took office in January 2021, “but this is my first day here.”

The discussion on youth sports grew out of a question from Councilman Ron Bias about the possibility of putting Pop Warner football back in the field.

That led to a discussion among Bias, Dragna, Councilman and Morgan City High Principal Tim Hymel, Recreation Director Dwayne Barbier and Barry Walker, a resident who hopes to make baseball available to youngsters of junior high age.

Attracting youngsters is one problem. Barbier said a recent attempt to bring older kids into Biddy Basketball failed even though athletes were allowed to sign up with no fee obligation unless enough signed up to play.

Dragna said that if kids want to play youth sports, a way can be found to make it work for those who legitimately can’t afford the fees.

Nothing firm came out of the discussion except for a consensus around looking for ways to bring more kids into sports and to find the money for it.

Also Tuesday, the council agreed in principle to sell just more than half an acre of land adjacent to New Zorah Baptist Church, 604 Julia St., to the church.

“We’ve grown … and we’re trying to stretch out,” New Zorah Pastor Terry Joseph told the council.

The church is looking for space to build classrooms, he said.

The ordinance authorizing the sale, pending an appraisal, passed 5-0.

The council also gave its OK to a change in its contract with Bean Excavating & Dirt of Mississippi, which has a $401,000 contract connected with the demolition of the old power plant that dates back to the 1940s.

The change authorizes Bean take tons of concrete from the project to Lake End Park, where it will be used to create a marina.

The council:

--Hired Kolder, Campagne, Slaven and Co. to perform the city government’s annual audit.

--Appointed Utilities Director William Cefalu to represent Morgan City on the Louisiana Municipal Natural Gas Purchasing and Distribution Authority board. Dragna is the alternate.

--Declared property at the Swimming Pool Complex to be surplus.