Monday is inauguration day for newly elected officials

Staff Report
The current St. Mary Par-ish Council has less than a week left before turning legislative leadership over to a new council that includes seven members elected in 2019.
The oaths of office will be administered at noon Jan. 13 at the St. Mary Courthouse.
Five parish office-holders who have been re-elected or were unopposed will also take their oaths for the 2020-24 term.
The incumbent council members who will be back for new terms are James Bennett and Patrick Hebert of Morgan City, J Ina of Jeanerette and the Rev. Craig Mathews of Franklin.
They’ll be joined on the council by:
—Rodney Olander of Franklin in District 3. He’ll succeed Dale Rogers, who ran unsuccessfully for one of the three parishwide at-large districts.
—Scott Ramsey of Morgan City in District 4. Ramsey edged ahead of two primary opponents for 50% and an outright win in the Oct. 12 primary.
—Leslie Rulf of Patterson in District 5.
—Mark Duhon of Amelia in District 8.
—Kristi Prejeant of Mor-gan City in District 9, the first of three at-large dis-tricts.
—Gwendolyn Hidalgo of Morgan City in District 10. Prejeant and Hidalgo, who emerged from three-candidate races, are the first women elected to the council since it was created by home-rule charter.
—Dean Adams of Morgan City in District 11.
Prejeant and Adams won outright in the Oct. 12 pri-mary. Hidalgo defeated Jeremy Chesteen in the Nov. 16 runoff.
Assessor Jared Longman and Coroner Eric Melancon qualified without opposition.
Parish President David Hanagriff, Sheriff Blaise Smith and Clerk of Court Cliff Dressel all won re-election victories in the primary.
Also taking office with the new year will be a new legislator: Republican Vincent St. Blanc of Franklin, who won the race to succeed Franklin Democrat Sam Jones, who is term-limited. He’ll represent District 50, which covers most of St. Mary Parish and four St. Martin precincts, when the Legislature convenes for its 2020 regular session March 9. The session must end by 6 p.m. June 1.
Another Republican, Beryl Amedee of Gray, easily won a second term in District 51, which represents a portion of the Morgan City area.
State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, qualified for reelection without opposi-tion.
St. Mary voters will head to the polls next on April 4 for state and parish party positions and Louisiana’s presidential primaries.
Local elections are on tap May 9. Voters parishwide are likely to see a half-cent sales tax for schools on that ballot. Morgan City voters will be asked to renew a property tax for operating and maintaining Municipal Auditorium.
The deadline to register to vote in the April 4 election will be March 4.
Qualifying for the party elections will be Wednesday through Friday this week.