Cat 2, cats, races in St. Mary and in Paris: Some of the events that made news in 2024

Staff report
As we look back on 2024, one name will stand out: Francine.
The year saw the most damaging hurricane strike in St. Mary for more than three decades, and the ramifications are likely to be part of 2025, too.
This year was a political year, and St. Mary’s conservative roots showed when voters here went for Republican President-elect Donald Trump by a bigger margin than in either 2016 or 2020.
Conservative though the parish might be, voters here didn’t exactly embrace Republican anti-tax skepticism. Voters in the parish enacted three new major levies.
Stray cats — the feral animals, not the rockabilly band — became an issue worthy of new legislation in east St. Mary.
Morgan City police used advances in DNA technology to solve a 26-year-old homicide and make an arrest.
On a lighter note, the Mr. Charlie rig museum was designated as a National Historic Landmark.
And a sports year that wasn’t especially engaging for local fans was redeemed by a 32-year-old Morgan City High grad known by the name Tootie.
Mean Francine
After a near miss by Hurricane Ida in 2021, St. Mary Parish was spared so much as a strong breeze for two straight hurricane seasons. But as June 2024 approached, experts began to predict a more active than normal tropical weather season.
The season was expected to produce half again as many named storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes as in the average year.
Yet the early months of the season were quiet for the Gulf — a big break, considering that westbound U.S. 90, a major evacuation route, was narrowed to one lane each way between Baldwin and Sorrel and again through New Iberia.
But the lull lasted only until Francine made its way west from the African coast and into the southwestern Gulf by Sept. 8. Then the storm began to head northeast.
Francine would make landfall at the St. Mary-Terrebonne parish line about 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11. The National Weather Service account says the storm was carrying 100 mph winds, enough to knock out power into the following weekend. But Francine’s real threat was rain.
Officially, 8.5-10 inches of rain fell before the storm slacked off by 11 p.m. But anecdotal accounts talked of 10- or 20-inch rain gauges that overflowed.
That was especially unfortunate in light of the failure of the Morgan City flood-control pump stations, operated by a gravity drainage district, to keep up with the downpour. A new pump station at Lake Palourde lacked the pumping capacity officials had hoped for.
Water was reported in 350 homes, many of them in the Lakeside Subdivision area.
Franklin and especially Morgan City became distribution points for state and federal hurricane aid. Food, ice and other items were distributed in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
In all, more than 6,000 people signed up for some kind of help in the first couple of weeks after the storm.
Tootie, Part Deux
Ah, Paris. The Louvre. The Eiffel Tower. The Arc de Triomphe. So many sights to see.
MCHS grad Vernon “Tootie” Norwood journeyed to Paris this year, but not as a tourist. Norwood went to work as a member of the Team USA 400 meters team at the Olympic Games. And Norwood was a sight to see.
Norwood had already brought home medals from the Tokyo Olympics: gold in the men’s 4x400 meters, and bronze in the mixed 4x400.
In the men’s 4x400 preliminary July 26-Aug. 11 in Paris, Norwood was slated to run the second leg after wunderkind Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old who had set a world under-18 record in the 400 meters earlier in the year.
But Wilson had a bad day. He ran his opening leg in 47.27 seconds, roughly what you’d expect to win a state track championship. Norwood took the baton from Wilson and went off like a rocket, running a 43.9 split to put Team USA back in the race.
The Americans finished third to claim the last qualifying spot for the finals, edging Japan by a third of a second.
Then, in the finals, Norwood joined Benjamin Rai, Christopher Bailey and Bryce Deadmon to finish with a world record time of 2:54.43 to win the gold.
Norwood was also a member of the mixed 4x400 team. His opening leg put Team USA in the lead, which lasted until Femke Bol of the Netherlands ran a blazing anchor leg to edge American Kaylyn Brown at the tape. Team USA came home with the silver.
On Sept. 25, Morgan City welcomed Norwood home with an event at Morgan City Municipal Auditorium. It was attended by local dignitaries and his family, including his mother, Charliette Ray.
“I told my mama I wouldn’t cry until I got home,” Norwood said. “I probably will.”
Read our lips
For the third election in as many years, voters in St. Mary approved new taxes.
In the Dec. 7 election, the big issue was in east St. Mary, where Hospital Service District No. 2 proposed a 9-mill property tax. The district board wants to use the money for physical repairs and upgrades at Ochsner St. Mary, which is operated by Ochsner Health but owned by district.
The four-decades-old building is showing its age, and Hurricane Francine provided a senior moment. Water infiltrated the building, forcing the hospital to stop admitting patients for a few weeks after the storm Sept. 11. The district board said the building needs to be sealed and requires a new heating and air conditioning system.
The board also proposed using a portion of the $3.4 million the tax will raise each year for scholarships to help local young people entering health care fields.
The tax passed in the hospital district, which runs from the Calumet Cut east the parish line, by a 70%-30% margin.
The tax takes effect next year, but district officials may use the future revenue stream to borrow money to begin work right away.
Also Dec. 7, voters in Franklin and Baldwin passed separate sales taxes for public safety.
In recent years, voters parishwide approved a 0.45% sales tax for teacher and school staff pay in 2021, and Morgan City voters passed a 0.5% sales tax for police and firefighter pay and training in 2023.
The timing of tax propositions may be an issue in the new year. St. Mary Parish Councilman Dean Adams of Morgan City opened a discussion at the Dec. 18 council meeting, saying he’d received many complaints about tax propositions being placed on the Dec. 7 ballot rather than the Nov. 5 primary ballot, when turnout is traditionally much higher.
Cats (not
the musical)
The proliferation of stray cats led to legislative action in east St. Mary.
Both Morgan City and Berwick passed ordinances prohibiting people from setting out food for stray animals. The idea was to cope with the rapidly multiplying number of strays, especially cats.
At a Berwick Town Council meeting, residents and officials talked about fleas from stray cats infesting elementary classrooms, ruined flower beds, unpleasant odors in vehicles that strays got into, and even an attack on a local woman.
Berwick eventually scaled back its ordinance enough to allow people to set out food on their own property but kept the prohibition on feeding on publicly accessible property.
All politics is local
In a wild political year, St. Mary’s voters offered 60% support to former President Trump in his bid to return to office, and Trump ally Clay Higgins, a Lafayette Republican, was returned to his seat in the U.S. House from Louisiana’s 3rd District for a fifth term.
Higgins will represent all of St. Mary in the new Congress. A small portion of eastern St. Mary, and all of Assumption, had been part of the 6th District represented by Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge.
But the Legislature was forced by a court ruling to create a second U.S. House district with a Black majority. The Legislature chose the 6th District, and moved it north of St. Mary and Assumption and stretching westward to pick up African American voters.
Cleo Fields, the Baton Rouge Democrat who served briefly in Congress in the 1990s, won the race in the newly drawn 6th District. By then, Graves had already announced that he would not seek re-election.
Another result of the district shake-up is that Assumption is now in the 2nd District, dominated by New Orleans and represented by Democrat Troy Carter.
Closer to home, Morgan City Council elections resulted in two re-elections and a new council member.
Councilmen Louis Tamporello and the Rev. Ron Bias had each served on the council for 20 years. Bias won a three-way race to return to office, but Tamporello was unseated by businessman and former police officer Eriq Blanchard, who campaigned on a next-generation theme.
Bonnie Leonard, who had been appointed to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Mark Stephens, won her election over former parish Chief Administrative Officer Jean Paul Bourg.
Mayor Lee Dragna qualified for a second term without opposition, as did incumbent Councilmen Steve Domangue and Tim Hymel.
In the Legislature, Robert Allain, R-Franklin, assumed the state Senate District 21 seat held for three terms by his father, Bret Allain. He joined a St. Mary delegation that also includes Reps. Beryl Amedee of Gray and Vincent St. Blanc of Franklin, both Republicans.
The year also saw the death of Sheriff Blaise Smith, a 40-year veteran of local law enforcement. He died Feb. 26.
Smith had announced that he wouldn’t seek a second full term in 2023. His chief deputy, Gary Driskell, won a multicandidate race to succeed Smith. Driskell took the oath after Smith’s death.
Sam Jones of Franklin took office as the parish president, succeeding David Hanagriff, who was term-limited.
Two new Parish Council members took office in 2024: James Davis of Morgan City and David Hill of Bayou Vista. Hill succeeded Councilman Scott Ramsey, also of Bayou Vista, who did not seek re-election in 2023 because of health concerns. Ramsey died Dec. 7.
Greg Aucoin of Morgan City qualified without opposition to become the new clerk of court, and Jarrod Longman was re-elected as assessor, also without opposition.
Wednesday
night fights
Early in 2024, the St. Mary Parish Council engaged in a series of contentious discussions that sometimes took on the tone of a professional wrestling match — except that in pro wrestling, there’s a feeling that someone has arranged for a satisfactory outcome.
Among the debated topics were the parish finances. Parish President Jones had campaigned on what he said was the precarious condition of parish finances. He saw problems that included too much bonded debt and a lack of funds, or even will, to match state funding for local projects.
Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews of Jeanerette, who chairs the council’s budget committee, was among those who were skeptical about Jones’ assertions.
There were more heated arguments over, of all things, courthouse security, and whether a deputy should continue to be present during meetings.
The parish government’s new chief administrator, Jean Paul Bourg, resigned the post he held for less than a year. Finance Director Paul Governale was promoted to CAO.
The mood was calmer through the middle of the year. But there was more contention after Francine over Mathews’ allegation that people from outside east St. Mary towns were turned away when they tried to get relief supplies provided by the state and federal governments at local distribution points.
The mayors of Morgan City and Berwick denied that people were turned away. Dragna called Mathews’ assertion a lie before being escorted out of a council meeting by the security deputy.
Yet, after all the back and forth, the council managed to pass a balanced budget for 2025 with a modest addition to the parish’s fund balance.
Jones, Gov. Jeff Landry, Allain and other state officials also put together a deal in which state coastal protection funds would be used for new pumps in the Morgan City flood control system.
The council is also examining the structure of parish government itself. A Charter Review Commission was seated this year and met monthly after council discussion about such issues as making the parish presidency a full-time job and minority representation.
Councilman J Ina of Franklin introduced an ordinance that would require training for members of the boards and commissions that provide basic services across the parish.
Ina had already called for updates to the parish government’s organizational chart and its salary structure, and reviews are underway.
At the Dec. 18 meeting, the mood was congenial.
“When we had our differences,” Jones said, “we always ended up eating at The Forest.”
Hot on the trail
of a cold case
In November, Morgan City Police Chief Chad M. Adams announced the arrest of a local man in a homicide that happened in 1998.
John Pittman Jr., 44, faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Amber Lynn Jenkins Garcia in October 1998 because of DNA evidence linking him to the crime, police said.
Pittman was already in prison in connection with the death of Jennifer Vedol in December 1998. Investigators secured a conviction in that case, but the trail of Garcia’s killer went cold.
Investigators re-submitted evidence early in 2024, and obtained a warrant for Pittman’s arrest. He was booked on the Garcia murder charge on Nov. 6.
Garcia’s body was discovered near Youngs Park on Oct 8 that year. Vedol’s body was found near Duke Street months later on Christmas Day.
Making history
The Mr. Charlie rig museum was designated a National Historic Landmark earlier this month by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Mr. Charlie, which was once a productive rig, has long been a symbol of the early days of offshore energy production, when Morgan City was the staging base for the first rigs set up out of sight from land.
Now it’s a museum that is occasionally used for movie or TV productions as well as educational purposes.
“Mr. Charlie joins a list of the nation’s premier historic and cultural places, all of which were nominated through voluntary and locally led stewardship," Haaland said in a press release.
Good grades
St. Mary Parish public schools announced last month that the parish achieved a state school performance score of 86.2 in 2023-24, a B grade and better than the statewide score of 80.2.
The growth leaders were in Morgan City: Julia B. Maitland Elementary, which increased its score by 15 points, and Wyandotte Elementary, up 11.2 points.
The district has four A schools: Franklin High (98.2), Patterson High (95.8), Berwick High (95.1) and West St. Mary High (93.1).
At the School Board, meanwhile, the changing of the guard continues. An 11-member board once dominated by members with two or three decades of experience now has only two members, Marilyn LaSalle and Ginger Griffin, who have served more than two terms. Both are from Patterson.
The newest members are Guienzy Brent of Franklin, who was unopposed in her first election bid last month, and Lawrence Guillory of Centerville.
Brent had been named as an interim member after the death of Joseph Foulcard in late 2023, and Guillory was sworn in Nov. 14 to take the seat left vacant by the resignation of Murphy Pontiff.