Hanagriff: 'This is something that was thrown on us'

Parish President David Hanagriff addressed the “problem” of bears in St. Mary Parish.
There was a meeting Tuesday with representatives of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries as well as U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, organized to share information between those agencies and local entities, especially law enforcement.
Hanagriff aired a contention with some of the comments during that meeting. He said that the beginning was the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge creation, when the Louisiana Black Bear was listed as threatened.
A state management program is in place to deal with bear and human conflicts. “Our conflict officer, Catherine Siracusa, is a parish employee, but her salary is funded through a grant through this program and the federal program,” He said. “They did that because they wanted to put someone in place to have a bridge to help the public deal with issues with the bears” as are being experienced currently, with some animals habituated to garbage in residential areas.
“She is probably the most abused parish employee out there,” Hanagriff said. “She gets everything, and people are confused by the fact that she is a parish employee, therefore it’s the parish that’s doing this.
“It’s not the parish,” he continued. “She is a parish employee and paid for by a grant.”
The parish president noted that US Fish & Wildlife created the refuge and its efforts to resurrect the bear population and “they basically put it in the lap of the State of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and they put it in our lap, and everyone else’s lap, and the sheriff’s department’s lap.”
He said parish government is doing “everything we can, but we are limited.”
For instance, the parish has negotiated their waste collection contract with Pelican Waste that resulted in the acquisition of bear-proof residential trash containers from Patterson to the Charenton Navigation and Drainage Canal.
“This is something that was thrown on us, and we’re doing the best that we can, and I ask everyone to have patience and to understand,” he said.
Councilman Craig Mathews mentioned that there have been bear sightings beyond the canal, and asked if bear proof cans are possible in that area. Mathews said citizens should understand that if they make a call “we’re not going to go get the bear…they want us to go in their yard and get the bear!”
Hanagriff said he gets more calls about bears than he does potholes.
“If people feel threatened, that their life is threatened, call the sheriff’s office,” he said. “They can shoot a bear…I’m not going to tell anyone to shoot a bear, but if your life is threatened, you do what you have to do, clearly,” Hanagriff said.
He added, “I’ve even been told this: If a kid gets hurt or gets mauled, that the blood is on my hands. That’s a pretty tough statement to make especially when I have no control over it. But I accept it, I take it, and I relay to message to wildlife and fisheries.”
Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said when calls are received and transferred to Wildlife and Fisheries “they do come down to assess those problem areas…make determinations if they feel a trap needs to be set, and they encourage citizens with information to help keep the bears from intruding in their yards and around their houses and garbage.”
In other business:
—The revenue budget and capital outlay budgets were adopted; an ordinance declaring surplus property, rezoning amendments, reimbursement of council members expenses, and regulating posting and removal of political signs where approved.
—A resolution in respect of Edgar G. Barrilleaux was approved; a resolution requesting St. Mary be a Certified Retirement Community” from the Encore Louisiana Commission was approved; and a resolution approved the Industrial Tax Exemption Program was approved for Bollinger Amelia Operations LLC.