RSS Feed

Community COVID-19 testing is ongoing at Ochsner St. Mary Monday afternoon and will continue until 6 p.m., unless all test kits are exhausted sooner.
The testing, which is being conducted in the medical office building behind the hospital in Suite 400, began at 2 p.m. Monday.
It is part of Ochsner Health System’s testing this week in the Bayou region, and the test is open to those ages 2 and above.
Those wishing to be tested should bring their ID and an insurance card, if applicable. There are no out-of-pocket costs to be tested, and no one will be turned away based on their insurance status.
Meanwhile, St. Mary continues to have three vaccination sites through the Louisiana Department of Health’s network of providers given an allotment of COVID-19 vaccines.
However, Walgreens Pharmacy in Morgan City, which had been listed as a vaccination site, has been removed. Now, Walmart Pharmacy in Morgan City, at 1002 La. 70, is on the list.
It is among 82 new providers added in the state’s network through the Department of Health.
St. Mary also has vaccination sites at Teche Action Clinic in Franklin (1115 Weber St.) and Walmart Pharmacy in Franklin (200 Northwest Blvd.).
Assumption has three locations: Assumption Community Hospital Pharmacy (135 La. 402) and Reddy Family Medical Center (154 La. 1008), both in Napoleonville, and Reddy Family Medical at 3407 La. 70 in Pierre Part.
Vaccines at this site are available only for those in Phase 1B, Tier 1:
—Persons ages 70 or older.
—Health-related support personnel (labs, mortuary and pharmacy).
—Outpatient clinic providers and clinic staff.
—Urgent care clinic providers and staff.
—Community care clinic providers and staff.
—Behavioral health clinic providers and staff.
—Dialysis providers and clients.
—Home care providers (including hospice workers) and home care recipients (including older and younger people with disabilities over age 16 who receive community or home-based care, as well as clients of home health agencies).
—Dental providers and staff.
—American Sign Language interpreters and Support Service Providers working in community and clinic-based settings, and clients who are deaf and blind.
—Students, residents, faculty and staff of allied health schools (if not already receiving or in a plan to receive from their respective schools).
Eligible residents must make an appointment with a participating provider. Patients who arrive without an appointment will not be vaccinated.

The 2021 Atchafalaya Basin crawfish season is off to an earlier start, while progress is being shown in the pond season.
The storm surge from hurricanes prompted the crawfish to appear, so while crawfish in the Atchafalaya Spillway would appear in late February or early March, they were being caught in December, according to Sidney Michel, owner of D&B Seafood in Morgan City.
Mark Shirley, an LSU AgCenter crawfish specialist, said that water levels have been between 12 and 15 feet at Butte LaRose during the last month, and when water levels hit those levels, it is good for the crawfish industry.
Michel said prices are high at the moment due to a limited supply of crawfish, but he said the sales are still good.
While the hurricane surge, which brought mostly fresh water to the basin, was good for this area, to the west, saltwater intrusion affected coastal crawfish ponds below Erath and in the Henry area, said Barry Toups, who represents the Crawfish Industry on the 2020 Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board.
The hurricanes also brought bad water and flooding issues in August and September in ponds.
“It really, in some cases, caused those ponds to flood too early when temperatures were still very high, and the plant matter in the ponds was decaying and causing poor water quality,” Shirley said. “So that may have affected production this year, and we’re still not sure to what extent the hurricanes impacted the crawfish population.”
Toups said he was unsure if rains from hurricanes affected his crop this year, which he said is the “worst start ever” for him.
“I kept some of that water,” he said. “I think I lost my first crop, to be honest with you. I’m starting to see crawfish now.”
However, his numbers aren’t anywhere close to where they have been in the past, noting that the average farmer brings in 500 pounds per acre each year.
“I’ve had some years where I’ve caught 1,000 pounds to the acre,” he said. “I don’t know what my number’s going to be right now. I’m starting to see crawfish now. It might just be a later season. The cold weather slowed them down.”
Cold weather will slow crawfish growth, which is something that Shirley said the area has experienced recently in the pond industry.
With rising temperatures in the last week, there has been progress.
“We’re starting to see a little bit of activity in the ponds,” Shirley said, adding that recent cold days will cool the water again.
While hurricanes can have positive or negative impacts, Shirley said COVID-19, which fishermen, processers and restaurants had to endure on top of hurricanes, was worse.
He said that March, April and May is the peak time of the pond season. But instead of thriving, markets were shut down and restaurants were restricted and group gatherings were limited during the year.
“So it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the crawfish industry,” Shirley said.
Toups, who runs a Kaplan-area bed and breakfast that offers crawfish excursions, said “the price of crawfish dropped to hardly nothing” and many ceased fishing.
“We had trouble moving them, and the price had dropped to a dollar something a pound,” he said. “You still had people doing it, but I wasn’t going to give it away.”
Shirley said many farmers were limited to how much crawfish they could sell to buyers.
“So that meant instead of fishing every day, six or seven days a week, some of them were on a restricted harvest of maybe one or two days a week, so it definitely hurt their harvest or their income,” he said.
Because restaurants had limited capacity or were closed, the crawfish processers suffered, too, because demand for crawfish meat was down, too, during the summer, fall and winter, Shirley said.
While Toups said he doesn’t run a large crawfish farm, as his property consists of 40 acres for crawfish, he said the COVID-19 pandemic also shut down his bed and breakfast from mid-March through the summer. He said business didn’t resume until Sept. 1, and that’s around the time hurricanes devastated southwest Louisiana. So he did have business in September through November due to the storm.
In Morgan City, Michel, who said crawfish is about 60% of his business per year, said COVID-19 didn’t affect him overall because his business involves take-out. He said he had to make adjustments with the COVID-19 guidelines in place.
However, because he is a retailer as well as a wholesaler, he said that the retail business picked up with customers eating crawfish at home because they couldn’t eat them at restaurants.
“So they did a lot of boiling themselves,” he said.
This year’s crop will not necessarily produce bigger pond or spillway crawfish, either, just because it didn’t get picked a year ago, Shirley said.
“Some of the ponds that left crawfish in the field last year, if those crawfish survived until this season, it may cause population to be a smaller size,” he said. “Crawfish growth is very much influenced by the population density. So when crawfish are crowded in a pond, they tend to stay small, so some of those fields that have a lot of crawfish to carry over to this season may have a large population that will wind up being small to medium and very few large crawfish.”
However, he said new ponds that began being stocked last May or June for the first time may produce medium and large crawfish in February and March because they are new.
The older ponds may produce more small and medium crawfish and fewer larger crawfish, he said.
In the spillway, a lot of different animals eat crawfish, meaning that many crawfish likely were eaten in the past year and won’t have carried over to this year, although some will, Shirley said.
“The basin crawfish have to run that gamut and survive all those predators and … it kind of depends on water levels and vegetation as to how well those crawfish can hide and get away from those predators, or conversely if there’s too much water, the fish predators can get at them anywhere,” he said.

Melba Jean Rodriguez Gros Robin, 71, a native and resident of Morgan City, died Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans.
She is survived by her husband, Joseph Robin; four sons, Scott Rodriguez of Morgan City, Kevin Rodriguez of Pierre Part, Conn Robin of Petal, Mississippi and Matt Robin of Waynesboro, Mississippi; two brothers, Kenny Benoit of Morgan City and Keith Mire of Berwick; 11 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother.
Visitation and services were Saturday at Hargrave Funeral Home in Morgan City. Burial followed in Morgan City Cemetery.
Hargrave Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

September 10, 1932 — January 28, 2021
Albert Adam Mason Sr., 88, a resident of Morgan City, passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 28, 2021, surrounded by his loving family in Moss Bluff.
Albert was born on September 10, 1932 in American Bayou, the son of Edrick Mason and Lydia Hymel Mason.
Albert had a love for music and played the guitar and fiddle for over 40 years. He served his country proudly in the United States Army serving during the Korean Conflict where he was a Sergeant tank operator. While in the service he played music with other service members. After his time in the military, Albert was a welder inspector working for Avondale Shipyard for many years. When he wasn’t working or playing or singing his swamp pop music, Albert loved to go fishing and hunting as well as taking frequent trips to the casino. Albert was a member of the Knights of Columbus Council 12179. He loved his family and cherished every moment he was able to spend with them.
He will be sadly missed and lovingly remembered by two children, Albert Mason Jr. and wife Debra of Morgan City, and Sheila Mason Constance and husband James of Moss Bluff; five grandchildren, Shondell Trahan and fiancé Daniel Dreyer, Denise Collins and husband Micah, Heidi LeBlanc and husband Casey, Steven Mason and wife Jo’le, and Amanda Mason Talbot and husband Shane; 10 great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; and three sisters, Doris McKee of Morgan City, Enella Sharp and husband Luther of Arkansas, and Janette Billiot of Baton Rouge.
Albert was preceded in death by his parents, Edrick and Lydia Hymel Mason; his wife and soulmate of 63 years, Rosella Crochet Mason; step mother, Annie Mason; and grandfather, Thomas Mason.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at noon on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at Holy Cross Catholic Church. A visitation will be held from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at Twin City Funeral Home. Following Mass, Albert will be laid to rest with Military Honors in the Morgan City Cemetery. Military Honors will be rendered by the Fort Polk Honor Guard.