Parish Council passes long list of capital funding requests

FRANKLIN — If they gave endurance awards for St. Mary Parish Council meetings, Clerk Lisa Morgan would have been a medalist Wednesday.
For the record — literally — Morgan read three- or four-line descriptions for 20 separate resolutions, each representing a project that parish government hopes will receive state capital outlay funding.
The council passed all 20 proposed resolutions seeking funding under provisions of the state 2022-23 Capital Outlay Act. The deadline for submitting such requests is Nov. 1.
Two other requests for funding, for improvements on a road used heavily by cane trucks and for an emergency generator for a central parish water district, were put off for the time being.
Also Wednesday, the council paid its respects with resolutions honoring St. Mary Chamber President Donna Meyer and School Board member Sylvia Lockett, both of whom died this month.
And a Bayou Vista resident with a newly repaired curb at his property wondered why the work took so long.

Capital projects
The state generates ideas for projects and accepts recommendations, which are ranked by priority and funded as money becomes available.
Among the projects for which the council is requesting state capital funding are:
—Construction of a welding training school at the Charenton Canal Industrial Park.
—Emergency power improvements at the Parish Courthouse.
—Expansion and improvement at the St. Mary Law Enforcement Center in Centerville.
—A new fire station for Fire Protection District No. 11 in the Four Corners area.
—A walking-biking trail from Teche Road to Venus Road in Bayou Vista.
—Roof work, interior modernization and an elevator code upgrade at Fairview Treatment Center in Bayou Vista.
—New ballfield lights and other improvements at Kemper Williams Park.
Councilman Craig Mathews of Jeanerette asked for one more project to be added: improvements to Guidry Road, which runs between La. 182 and U.S. 90 near La. 318 and the St. Mary Sugar Co-op.
Mathews said the large number of cane trucks on the unpaved road — Parish President David Hanagriff put the number at 70 a day — means “something has got to give.”
Adding to the complaints is a large pile of bagasse, the waste product from sugar processing that rots and smells bad, Mathews said. A pile of bagasse is stored on land near Guidry Road.
Mathews said he thinks the co-op should share responsibility for improvements.
Hanagriff said the co-op is cooperating in plans to spray water on the road to keep dust down at least once, and maybe twice, per day.
Chief Administrative Office Henry C. “Bo” LaGrange suggested developing a cost estimate for surfacing Guidry Road and putting it in a resolution for consideration at the Oct. 27 meeting.
Another request came from Councilwoman Kristi Prejeant Rink of Morgan City. She asked for $110,000 for a new emergency generator at the Water and Sewer District No. 3 water plant in central St. Mary.
Rink had hoped the appropriation would come from federal American Rescue Act money received by the parish government from the federal government. Among other problems, Rink said, a failure at the water plant would mean prisoners couldn’t be housed at the parish jail in Centerville because the sprinklers wouldn’t operate.
Hanagriff said District No. 3 has $8 million in funds of its own. Rink said most of that money is already earmarked for other work, but Hanagriff and other council members said the request should wait until the parish develops a comprehensive plan for using the federal COVID aid money.
“I’m not saying there isn’t need for this,” Mathews said. “I’m saying this is not the way to do it.”
Rink refused to withdraw her motion, which failed by a 6-5 vote. Members Gwendolyn Hidalgo, Matthews, J Ina, Rodney Olander, Scott Ramsey and Patrick Hebert voted no; James Bennett, Mark Duhon, Rink, Dean Adams and Leslie “Les” Rulf voted yes.

Respect
Hidalgo introduced the resolution honoring Meyer, who was Chamber president for 17 years.
“She was a pack of dynamite,” Hidalgo said.
“She could light up a room,” Hanagriff said. “Very professional. ... Somehow, she brought everyone together.”
Mathews introduced the resolution honoring Lockett, who served as a teacher and principal across the parish for nearly 30 years before being elected to the School Board in 2018.
The resolution says Lockett “exemplified true leadership and servanthood in her family and community throughout her life, and she will be truly missed by her friends, family and community.”

Curb appeal
James Sharp of Bayou Vista first asked to have the broken curb near his Bayou Vista home to be repaired a year ago.
It was finally fixed Wednesday, the day Sharp appeared before the Parish Council to ask why the work took so long. He said he’d even indirectly accused of breaking the curb himself.
“I went through all the right channels,” he said.
CAO LaGrange said the parish government “dropped the ball.” Sharp’s request became part of a list of such projects for parish public works employees, and Sharp’s curb was supposed to be at the top of the list, LaGrange said.
But on the day before the meeting, LaGrange found that Sharp’s curb repair hadn’t been done. By the time the council met Wednesday, the work was complete.
Sharp said after speaking to the council that he thinks he finally got action because he posted pictures of his curb on Facebook.