St. Mary Excel reports on fourth-quarter activities

(Editor’s note: The St. Mary Excel Citizens Group submitted this report on its October-December activities.)
St. Mary Excel continues to implement recommendations of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) panel, "Morgan City and Berwick Louisiana: Building the Foundation for a New Economy Along the Atchafalaya River."). See https://2os2f877tnl1dvtmc3wy0aq1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uplo...
St Mary Excel :
•Hosted a Local Interest Group meeting on December 5, 2024. The Water Institute updated the group on resilience lab planning. “Resilience” is a way that communities anticipate, prepare, and recover from storm, water and economic events. Local stakeholders and university partners are involved in the planning. A grant appeal has been submitted to fund the lab. Hopes remain high, however, if the grant is not awarded, other sources of funding will be sought.
•Await the state recommended and NOAA accepted Atchafalaya National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) draft environmental impact statement and management plan.
The ANERR is included in CPRA’s coastal master plan with LUMCON as the lead state agency for the reserve.
•Continued work with the Friends of the ANERR, a nonprofit that financially supports reserve needs through grants and fundraising activities,
•Made initial outreach to the city of Morgan City to identify an ideal locale for a permanent ANERR facility as the process could take five years with initial operation in a temporary Morgan City locale.
•Hosted a breakout meeting to coordinate festival and market events in the Morgan City and Berwick area to maximize residents’ participation.
•Made plans to increase neighborhood revitalization in 2025 through support and resident involvement.
•Await a response from CPRA board chairman Gordy Dove and executive director Glenn Ledet on progress support to detail a coastal studies residential high school similar to the school in Natchitoches. state Sen. Robert Allain’s office has been supportive of the outreach.
•Applauded progress on current awarded bike/hiking trail grants connecting Lakeside Subdivision through the Cajun Coast and Auburn subdivisions to Brashear Avenue to make walking/biking safer by trail placement crossing under the Highway 90 Martin Luther King down ramp.
•Received updates from the city of Morgan City on: 1) placing pedestrian head crossings on three intersections identified as dangerous (Brashear/Federal; La. 182 Myrtle; and La. 182/Roderick), 2) and placing trails from downtown Morgan City to South Louisiana Community College.