Amelia stop sign objection; bear issues continue

Andrew Gros, of Amelia, objected to a three-way stop sign on Barrow Street planned by parish government.
Gros said that 20 area residents signed a petition in support of the signage.
He runs a 17-year-old vehicle servicee business behind his home, and has an entry and parking area for truck deliveries. Gros said speeding problems have decreased “since the last election.”
Several parish councilmen came to speak with him, he said, about the issue. “It would be detrimental to have a three-way stop sign there,” he said. “There’s one family that has an electric gate that takes a while to open up, and he stops waiting for the gate to open. Another guy…he knows he can’t back his boat up, so he’ll back up from the street all the way to the back.
“If you put a stop sign in front of my place, that leaves me pumping oil with their trucks on the street. I bought a piece of land on the side of me so trucks could pull up off the road.”
The council gave no comment.
Also Wednesday, Parish President David Hanagriff reported that long-running issues with Pelican Waste are being resolved. “They are getting better,” he said. “They’re living up to their end for the unincorporated areas. There’s still issues…but they are moving in the right direction.”
Hanagriff also reported that bear-proof can distribution is ongoing and should be complete within a few weeks. He said it should alleviate some of the problems.
“I get a tremendous amount about the bears,” Hanagriff said. “Trust me, I am very aware about the situation with the bears, and I see the criticism of the council and of myself. People have to understand, we’re doing everything we can. We didn’t create this problem.”
He said when he received a complaint of nuisance bears, he forwards it to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, who handles such issues. He admitted, “Unfortunately, this problem is going to get worse as more bears populate, more bears breed, we’ll have more problems here.”
Councilman Dale Rogers said when “you go to ask the people that are in charge, they want to be defensive. It’s all the people’s fault, it’s the people’s fault. I don’t buy that.”
He retold an incident he was aware of when a woman was eating lunch and a bear “put his mouth on her arm. Luckily he didn’t bite down. These things are getting bad and somebody better step up, state government, somebody, or somebody’s going to really get hurt, and then it’s going to be a big deal.”
Hanagriff said, “I’m not on the side of the bears by any means. Councilman Rogers, you’re exactly right, this is not the people’s problem, this is a problem that was put upon us when dealing with an endangered species…the problem right now is this is not an easy task.
“Council members, myself, Catherine Siracusa (parish bear conflict officer) get beat up and bashed day in and day out,” he went on. “That’s where some of the frustration comes to play.”
He said education of the populace can often help alleviate nuisance bear problems.
The Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2001 in lower St. Mary Parish by the United State Fish & Wildlife Service with aid from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries. Thus, St. Mary Parish Government has no governing authority whatsoever in its operation and control of the Louisiana black bear.
In other business Wednesday:
—Ordinances were adopted authorizing the parish president to execute a contract for emergency and non-emergency ambulance services; and granting a non-exclusive franchise and rights agreement with Atmos Energy Corporation.
—A resolution was approved for the issuance of $5.25 million in refunding bonds for refinancing at better rates.
—Allocation requests were approved for $10,000 for Fire Protection Dist. 7 bunker gear; $3,000 to the Baldwin Police Department for a part-time administrator; $6,500 to Fire District 2 for fire hydrants; and $15,000 to the City of Patterson for the volunteer fire department to purchase bunker gear.
—Lamonika Coit-Dwyer was reappointed to the Consolidated Gravity Drainage Dist. 1 board; Myrone Bourque and Robert Wilkerson were reappointed to the Fire Protection Dist. 7 board; Lucy R. Watson was reappointed to the St. Mary Parish Library Board of Control.