Berwick council honors Student, Teacher of the Year

BERWICK — The Town Council took time out Tuesday from talk of roofing bids and subdivision rules to honor a student and a teacher from Berwick Junior High School.
The council devoted its monthly Beacon Shines On recognition to eighth-grader Mallory Menard and teacher Lani McElroy.
Mallory is the Berwick Junior High and St. Mary Parish Middle School Student of the Year.
She is the daughter of John and Nichole Menard.
She’s a 4.0 student and product of the school’s Gifted and Talented program.
Principal Kristin Percle praised her for continuing to achieve despite the recent death of her father.
McElroy is an English language arts teachers at Berwick Junior High.
“Her philosophy is that teaching is an opportunity to inspire the next generation of great thinkers,” Percle said.
Also Tuesday:
—Fire Chief Allen Rink gave the council statistics on mutual aid calls to and from Morgan City.
Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna last week told the City Council that he hopes to withdraw that city from the mutual aid agreement among parish fire departments. Dragna said he believes Morgan City provides more assistance than it receives. He wants to negotiate separate agreements with other departments.
Rink said that over the last four years, Berwick has sought firefighting help from Morgan City four times, while Morgan City has called on Berwick firefighters 14 times.
—The council introduced an ordinance designed to clarify the town’s subdivision rules.
The proposed ordinance says that subdivision approvals granted by the planning director as of Feb. 9 will be considered to have been properly administered.
A public hearing on the ordinance will be held at the March 9 monthly council meeting, followed by a passage vote.
In this context, “subdivision” doesn’t necessarily have the common meaning of a group of homes that are part of a single development. It refers to any division of one piece of property into lots for sale or development.
Subdivision rules and the approval process are supposed to ensure that each new lot has access to a public road, that emergency vehicles can get to them and that they have access to utility connections.
—The council passed a resolution supporting the Board of Adjustment’s decision to grant a zoning variance for the planned expansion of the St. Mary Parish Library Berwick Branch.
Based on the size of the expansion, zoning rules would have required 31 parking spaces. But creating those spaces would intrude on the Texas Street-Fourth Street intersection, Planning and Zoning Director Gary Beadle said.
The board ruled that the expansion would be allowed to have 27 parking spaces.
—The council voted unanimously to accept a bid by B&J Enterprises of Metairie Inc. to put a new roof on the town hall.
The B&J bid of $298,000 and $25,000 for alternate was the lowest of four bids submitted for the project.
The current flat roof has leaked since it was installed, Mayor Duval Arthur said. B&J will replace it with peaked roof.
—The council voted to pay Southern Constructors LLC $136,622.43 and Miller Engineers & Associates $11,731.61 for work on Belleview Front and Gus streets, part of the Concrete Improvement Project.