Early voting ends Saturday
Over 1,200 St. Mary Parish voters have already cast their ballots for the April 29 parish council runoff election. Early voting began April 15 and continues through Saturday.
Hours for early voting are 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Early voting will be conducted at the registrar’s office on the third floor of the courthouse in Franklin and the registrar’s branch office in Morgan City located at 301 Third St. You may vote early in either office.
Through Wednesday, 1,207 parish voters had cast their ballots early. Daily voting totals were the following: Saturday, 377; Monday, 263; Tuesday, 220; and Wednesday, 297. Fifty voters mailed in ballots prior to the start of early voting April 15.
On the ballot is a run-off for the At-large, District 10 St. Mary Parish Council seat between Gabriel Beadle, R-Berwick and Reginald Weary, D-Patterson. Both candidates are vying to fill the seat vacated by Steve Bierhorst, who stepped down in September 2016 due to health reasons.
During the March 25 primary election, Beadle got 49 percent of the vote, while Weary received 43 percent. Third-place finisher Darryl Perry got 8 percent of the vote.
District 10 covers half of Berwick, extending west to Centerville and also includes Four Corners, but all voters in the parish are eligible to vote in the race.
Voters from Centerville to the Patterson area will be able to vote on millage proposition for the newly formed St. Mary Parish Water and Sewer Commission No. 3.
The parish council created the new commission in September 2016, consolidating Waterworks District 5 and Sewer Districts 5 and 8 into one commission.
Approving the proposition will allow the commission to levy an 8.60-mill property tax for 10 years to pay for maintenance and operations waterworks and sewer facilities.
If voters approve the proposal, Waterworks District 5 and Sewer Districts 5 and 8 will no longer levy their millages, which should reduce the overall millage that most residents in those areas pay, Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said.
Also on the ballot is a 10-year, 5-mill property tax renewal for Fire Protection District 7 in the Bayou Vista area.