Parish Council, firefighters will talk about more funding

FRANKLIN – The St. Mary Parish Council and the parish’s firefighters plan to explore ways to come up with more funding for fire protection.
“The floor is open to all options,” council Vice Chairwoman Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink said after the regular second-Wednesday council meeting.
The council agreed to meet with the St. Mary Parish Fire Association to talk about funding, although no date for the meeting has been set. The council designated five of its members to take part: Rink of Centerville, David Hill of Bayou Vista, Mark Duhon of Amelia, and Rodney Olander and J Ina of Franklin.
The funding question came to a head after Franklin Fire Chief Chuck Bourgeois said last month that his department will stop serving Fire Protection District No. 5 under a decades-old contract with the parish government unless it agrees to new terms.
The $2,700 a month payment from the parish no longer covers the cost of protecting the district, where the population now nearly equals the city of Franklin’s population of 6,200 in an area of 180 square miles, Bourgeois said.
District 5 has no fire protection property tax of its own, and the parish government’s budget problems have reduced payments to fire protection districts.
The Franklin Fire Department will stop providing service to the district Nov. 1 if no agreement can be reached, Bourgeois said after Wednesday’s meeting.
Rink said, also after the meeting, that the Franklin situation wasn’t the only motivation for the decision to explore funding sources.
“That’s what was fueling it,” Rink said, “but we were already dealing with the funding issues in Amelia.”
Amelia and Bayou Vista were identified as departments with insufficient funding when association members Justin Martin, Franklin’s assistant chief, and Centerville Fire Chief Brandon Lejeune spoke to the council.
“It’s not just a Franklin issue,” Martin said. “It’s a parishwide issue.”
The funding options that have been discussed without final conclusions are a parishwide sales tax, a property tax and a parcel fee, a flat rate assessed on individual pieces of property.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting:
•A council resolution asked for an attorney general’s opinion on whether the parish government can give $20,000 to help St. John Baptist Church rebuild after a fire.
•Another resolution joined the drive to create the Atchafalaya Gateway Trail. The effort is designed to link facilities such as the Morgan City and Berwick walking trails into an entity that can be branded and promoted.
The parish resolution encourages unincorporated areas of the parish to participate. Berwick and Morgan City have already signed on.
•The council congratulated two young St. Mary men on their success at the 2026 Civilian Marksmanship National Matches in July at Camp Perry in Ohio.
Brady Domangue earned First Place New Junior in the Freedom’s Fire Trophy Match and first among 4-H contestants in the Rimfire Sporter Match.
Mason D’Antoni earned First Place Junior from Louisiana as a member of the Six-Man Team Match and fifth place among 4-H contestants in the Rimfire Sporter Match.
Their coach is Michael Burke.
•The council approved two resolutions of respect.
One honors the memory of Aheny Elizabeth Chauvin, 11, who died Aug. 3. She is the granddaughter of council member Les Rulf of Patterson.
The second resolution is in honor of Russel J. Cremaldi, whose work as Patterson city attorney was part of a long list of public service accomplishments.
Councilman Dean Adams of Morgan City, a former firefighter who once served on the city’s civil service board, called Cremaldi “one of the most honorable attorneys in the parish.”
•Other resolutions proclaimed Oct. 6-11 to be National 4-H Week and October to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month in St. Mary.
The Roots & Ribbons Foundation’s fourth Puttin’ on the Pink fundraiser is set for Oct. 3 at Patterson’s Morey Park.