UPDATE: MC Senior Center will get new home

FRANKLIN— St. Mary Council on Aging Director Beverly Domengeaux joked that she blew her top and the roof caved in. Half of that is true.
Domengeaux told the St. Mary Parish Council on July 8 that meal deliveries to Morgan City seniors are continuing despite a ceiling collapse in the kitchen of the senior center on Third Street.
And, she said, the H&B Young Foundation has stepped up to fund the building of a new senior center.
“We will have a new place in Morgan City that will be owned by our seniors,” Domengeaux said.
The collapse happened during the Fourth of July weekend. Meal deliveries continue with sealed meals that don’t require preparation in the kitchen.
Domengeaux said she was due to talk with the Louisiana Department of Health on Monday.
The council delivers up to 140 meals to Morgan City seniors each day.
Also at the July 8 Parish Council meeting, Breaux Bridge resident Shayla Anderson learned she’ll have to wait a little longer for a possible variance allowing her to open a Sorrel lounge.
Anderson wants a liquor license for the bar at 300 Bosco Road, which she hopes to run and is owned by Columbia Talmore Jr. of Baton Rouge.
Current law says a liquor license requires six months of residency in the parish. Anderson is asking for the variance and the liquor license, a process that began in April. She has given the council a petition supporting the lounge and bearing the signatures of people who live within 200 feet of the lounge.
At the June 24 meeting, Latarsha Charles objected to the variance. Charles doesn’t live near the lounge but her mother does.
Charles said the lounge lacks sufficient parking, so neighbors will have to deal with haphazardly parked vehicles. She also questioned whether the petition signers were informed about what they were signing.
On July 8, Anderson and Talmore defended the petition.
“Every signature submitted on our petition was gathered with honesty and transparency,” Anderson said.
Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews, whose District 1 includes the Bosco Road area, said he has talked with the lounge’s neighbors.
“One lady told me that her family has lived there, I believe it was for three generations,” Mathews said. “As long as she and her family have lived there, there’s been a lounge in that community.”
The neighbor foresees no problems with the opening of the lounge, Mathews said.
The request for the variance did not appear on the July 8 council agenda. Mathews cited a miscommunication.
The variance could come up for a vote at the July 22 council meeting.
Two items that did appear on the July 8 agenda were passed over without action.
Councilman J Ina of Franklin had introduced two proposed home rule charter amendments.
One would limit voting for council members in the three at-large districts to residents of those districts.
Currently, the charter creates eight traditional council districts and three at-large districts from which members are elected by a parishwide vote.
Ina has argued for more minority representation on the council.
Limiting the at-large voting to residents of those districts would effectively create a Black majority in District 9.
The charter currently limits the chair and vice chair council leadership posts to representatives from the at-large districts.
Ina’s second ordinance would open the leadership slots to any council member.
Ina asked the council to put off the passage vote on both ordinances.
Anderson, of Breaux Bridge, is seeking a variance from rules that require two years of residency in the state and six months in the parish before a liquor license may be issued.
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