Our top 10 St. Mary stories of 2018

Hospital district seeks
new manager for TRMC

This year, the sparks were generated by LifePoint Health’s decision to give up its Louisiana operations, including management of Morgan City’s Teche Regional Medical Center. Tennessee-based LifePoint had run the hospital since 2005, when it took over a 40-year lease with the hospital district. The departure meant Hospital Service District 2's commissioners had to negotiate the end of the lease and look for new management.

Meanwhile, the board began negotiating with Ochsner Health System of Jefferson Parish, a well-regarded operator of 12 hospitals and clinics in Louisiana and Mississippi, to take over Teche Regional management.

At a series of contentious meetings, hospital staff members joined members of the public and even elected officials in saying the board lacked transparency in its negotiations. The board named a citizens advisory council. The board passed a resolution threatening to take LifePoint to court in order to force it to continue managing the hospital until a replacement could be found.

Along the way, board member Natchez “Trey” Morice, who cited his campaign for coroner, resigned, as did a longtime board legal counsel Nicholas LaRocca, who cited unspecified disagreements with the board. Negotiations continue.

Romaire gives back to his hometown

Morgan City native Lee Romaire donated a Cajun Christmas display to his hometown to be displayed in the median of Brashear Avenue on the Spirit of Morgan City shrimp boat. The display garnered lots of attention outside of the area, especially for the two alligators with blue crab antlers that Romaire created.

Romaire, CEO and founder of Romaire Studios in Los Angeles, and a team of artists and designers created the display, which includes Cajun Santa decked out in white shrimping boots. Santa’s outfit has brown fur instead of white fur to represent the fur industry, both of which were once prevalent in the area. Instead of reindeer, Romaire chose to create albino alligators that are more “Christmassy” than regular alligators.

The lead reindeer also has a glowing nose to represent Rudolph. Elves of different ethnicities were also part of the display. Romaire Studios, founded by Romaire in 2000, is “one of the foremost providers of live-action creatures, characters and animated props for the entertainment industry.”

Longtime officials leave St. Mary political scene
Political goodbyes were a major part of the election scene in St. Mary this year. Berwick Mayor Louis Ratcliff, Patterson City Council member Larry Mendoza and St. Mary Parish School Board member Mary Lockley are stepping down after each served their governments for 24 years. Longtime Coroner Chip Metz resigned, as did Sheriff Mark Hebert, who left the post as his wife entered the final stages of the illness that would claim her life.

Voters chose experience over youth when they elected former Chitimacha Police Chief Blaise Smith, who got his start in law enforcement in 1971, over Scott Anslum, the former chief deputy whom Hebert chose to serve as interim sheriff nearly a year before the election.

Dr. Eric Melancon topped a three-person field in the race for coroner. Council member Duval Arthur moves up to mayor in Berwick, and Sylvia Lockett will be one of three new members on the 11-member school board. Patterson will get a new police chief in Garrett Grogan, who won outright election in the Nov. 6 primary.

St. Mary voters also helped re-elect freshman U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, who won easily in the primary against a field of lesser-known candidates.

October homicide claims
life of retired educator

Patricia Lynne Russo, 70, was found dead Oct. 1 in a Walnut Drive home in Morgan City. Investigators’ assessment of the scene determined that foul play was involved in Russo’s death.

An autopsy confirmed Russo’s manner of death was a homicide. On Oct. 7, Morgan City police arrested Michael L. Guidry, 50, of Morgan City, and charged him with first-degree murder in connection with her death. Guidry was also arrested on charges of bank fraud and parole violation.

Russo served as principal of Maitland Elementary School in Morgan City from 1988-91, principal of J.S. Aucoin Elementary in Amelia from 1991-2001 and Title I instructional specialist for St. Mary Parish public schools from 2001 until her retirement in 2004.

The investigation into Russo’s death is still open, and no information has been released on her cause of death.

Personnel shakeup after
two parish jail escapes

In June, five inmates escaped from St. Mary Parish jail in two separate incidents within two weeks. All of the escaped inmates were captured within a few days of their escapes. Several other suspects were arrested and charged with assisting in the escapes.

After the escapes, five sheriff’s deputies were fired, and the jail warden was reassigned to another position within the sheriff’s office.

On June 3, four inmates escaped from the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center in Centerville. Those inmates were William Deans, 40, Elias Todd, 24, Jamie Scarbrough, 28, and Tanner Scarbrough, 18. Deans and both Scarbroughs were located early June 4, and Todd was found later that day.

Jeremy Anthony Perez, 25, then escaped from parish jail June 15, and authorities reported June 19 that he had been captured in Crowley.

Deans was in jail on a charge of domestic abuse by strangulation. Jamie Scarbrough was in jail on charges of illegal possession of stolen things, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of marijuana. Tanner Scarbrough was in jail on charges of illegal possession of a stolen firearm and possession of a firearm with an obliterated number. Todd was in jail on charges of theft of a motor vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia, obstruction of justice, theft and criminal damage to property.

Perez was in jail on charges of aggravated flight from an officer, no driver’s license, careless operation, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Finally, Port of Morgan City
lines up more dredging funds

The Port of Morgan City learned during 2018 that it will receive roughly $45 million to dredge its waterways during the next couple of years. These funds are allocated through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ budget to dredge waterways in the Morgan City area, including the Atchafalaya River and Atchafalaya River Bar Channel.

Fluid mud, known as fluff, accumulates in the bar channel, making navigation difficult or impossible for many vessels. Buildup of sand in the river itself also impedes vessel traffic.

The port will receive $15.7 million in its budget for the Corps’ fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Morgan City had previously been receiving about $6 million for the past few years to dredge. About $20 million of the funds were the result of a supplemental funds package in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Port leaders plan to use the boost in funds to dredge the waterways to at least 20 feet deep and 400 feet wide to provide for waterway commerce. Officials hope the dredging projects will boost all industries in the area and bring back import-export ships that haven’t visited the area since 2015 due to lack of water depth.

Businelle pleads guilty
in drainage district case

Peter Businelle, an ex-maintenance supervisor for a Morgan City-area drainage district, entered a guilty plea July 27 and was ordered to pay $225,000 in restitution to the district in a case in which he was accused of illegally directing funds to himself.

Businelle, 70, pleaded guilty to a charge of unauthorized use of a movable over $1,000 in a plea agreement. Judge Vincent Borne of the 16th Judicial District sentenced Businelle to serve two years of supervised probation. Borne also ordered him to pay restitution to his former employer, St. Mary Parish Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 2.

A May 2015 Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s report alleged that Businelle used his position to improperly direct about $2.6 million in public funds from to himself while doing business as PAB Welding Service from January 2009 through November 2013.

Businelle was initially indicted on charges of prohibited splitting of profits, fees, commissions, public payroll fraud and public contract fraud. However, those original charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

He was also accused in the audit report of paying nearly $43,000 to former District Board Chairman Carl Kraemer, who pleaded guilty in February 2017 to a charge of criminal mischief in the case.

Young Memorial officially
becomes community college
Morgan City’s Young Memorial campus, which for decades had been a state technical college, officially joined the South Louisiana Community College system in an August ceremony.

The change means more than just putting up new signs. Young Memorial is now offering traditional academic courses in addition to its technical training studies, which means students can stay close to home while picking up college credits that can transfer to four-year schools. In December, the system announced four articulation agreements with Nicholls State, offering a smoother transition from Young Memorial to Nicholls when the time comes to transfer to the university.

At the August ceremony, Brenda Ayo of the H&B Young Foundation, named for the family that donated the land on which the campus sits, gave SLCC Chancellor Natalie Harder a symbolic check for $60,000, an endowment for a professorship in technical studies. Samuel Cannata presented a $10,500 check on behalf of the Morgan City Fishing Rodeo.

Oil roller-coaster fuels
development efforts
Oil prices flirted with $80 per barrel in 2018, a level at which offshore and deep-water exploration and production might look more attractive to the industry on which a significant number of St. Mary residents depend for their livelihood. But, after hitting $76 in October, the price of the benchmark West Texas intermediate crude plummeted to $42 by Christmas.

This cycle appears to have a long trough, with discoveries like vast reserves in the Permian Basin keeping the focus on inland shale plays, and the inability of OPEC countries to enforce production limits. One result: St. Mary total employment, which was at 27,115 when the slump began in October 2014, was at only about 21,000 at the end of 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economic development efforts have focused on diversifying the economy. Parish President David Hanagriff received the blessing of local governments for a streamlining plan to let him say aye or nay when it comes to approving Louisiana Industrial Tax

Exemption Program benefits to new or expanding employers. The state gets the final say.

St. Mary Excel raised $135,000 to commission an Urban Land Institute study on economic development opportunities in Morgan City and Berwick. So far, the work of Excel and Hanagriff remains a work in progress.

Job one for 2019 school board:
Find a new superintendent

Sylvia Lockett, Alaina Black and Dwight Barbier will join the St. Mary School Board beginning in 2019. They and their 11 colleagues have a big job to start the term with: picking a new superintendent.

Leonard Armato, who became superintendent in 2015 after Donald Aguillard left to become Lafayette Parish’s superintendent, announced his retirement just before Christmas.

The new board and the new superintendent will face many of the same challenges Armato and the board faced 2015-18: maintaining a generally good record in the state’s accountability system at a time when both enrollment and funding have been declining.

The board got about $1 million less this year from local property tax collections than during the previous assessment period. Enrollment is at about 8,600, down from 9,400 in only seven years.