Coroner wants a truck; Parish Council will look for the money

FRANKLIN -- The St. Mary Parish Coroner's Office will have to wait a while for a new truck.

At Wednesday's Parish Council meeting, Coroner Dr. Eric Melancon's request for about $47,000 for the truck, to be used for transporting the deceased, ran into questions over where in the parish budget the money would come from.

The request will be the subject of a Budget and Finance Committee meeting in the hour before the full council meets again July 13.

Also Wednesday, the council heard that more St. Mary people are renting their homes under a Housing and Urban Development Section 8 voucher program. And the man who started a water safety program for children in Terrebonne and Lafourche asked for help in offering the program in St. Mary, too.

Melancon's request is for a 2022 Chevrolet truck with a shell and two gurneys to be used for transporting bodies.

The Coroner's Office has been using a 2013 Ford van purchased from Acadian Ambulance for $500. The van needed another $4,500 worth of work, Melancon said, but it saved the parish money that would have been spent to hire transportation to take bodies for autopsies.

In homicide cases, turning over remains to an outside entity for transportation also complicates the chain of custody that must be established in prosecutions, Melancon said.

Councilman Dean Adams of Morgan City brought Melancon's request to Wednesday's agenda.

But Councilman Rodney Olander of Franklin wondered where in the budget the money would come from. And Parish President David Hanagriff said this year's parish budget had an unbudgeted fund balance of only $15,000.

"You can't just make an allocation out of the air and say it's going to go here," Hanagriff said. "That's why we have a budget."

Melancon said that his request for two vehicles didn't make it into this year's budget, and earlier requests for more morgue space have also been unsuccessful.

"I'd like to see my budget not be ignored," he said.

But Coroner's Office expenses went from $257,000 in 2019 to $346,000 in 2021, said Chief Administrative Officer Henry C. "Bo" LaGrange.

"It's not like we're trying to cut the Coroner's Office," LaGrange said.

Councilman James Bennett of Morgan City suggested the Budget and Finance Committee meeting to look for a funding source.

"You're talking about family members who love their people," Bennett said. "If you've got a coroner's van on the side of the road with the dead body of my family member and it's 100 degrees and it's broken down, there's going to be some issues."

Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Craig Mathews of Jeanerette set a meeting on the issue for 5 p.m. July 13.

Housing

HUD this year allowed an increase in the number of renters for whom vouchers subsidize a portion of their rent, said Angela Kraemer of the St. Mary Housing Choice Voucher Program.

The number of renters rose from 128 families last year to 137 families this year, Kraemer said. Thirty-five families are on a waiting list.

The program covers St. Mary except for Morgan City, which has its own program. And it's distinct from the apartment projects operated by local housing authorities.

"None of our families pay zero rent," Kraemer said. "That's a big misconception about the program. Everyone pays some rent."

Water safety

Joey Vidrine, who founded the Children's Water Safety Awareness Organization in Terrebonne in 2016 after a tragedy in his own family, told the council he'd like to bring the program to St. Mary.

Vidrine is looking for some event to introduce the parish to the organization's work.

The organization will pay up to $50 for swimming lessons for children and, for a $25 donation, will give each child a life jacket. The group will exchange the life jacket for a bigger size, free of charge, as the child grows.

Counseling is offered to families that have lost a child to drowning.

Since its founding in 2016, the organization has worked with more than 1,300 children.

The move into St. Mary is complicated by the fact that the parish has no public swimming pools. Vidrine is looking for pools that can be used for swimming lessons.