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Bridging the Gap II: La. 182 span will be open to walkers, bicyclists Saturday

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:39am

Staff Report
Mayors at both ends of the Long-Allen Bridge over Berwick Bay were happy with last month’s Saturday bridge closure to accommodate bicyclists and walkers. So they’re ready to try it again.
The old bridge will be closed to vehicle traffic 6 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
The event that has been dubbed “Bridge the Gap,” is part of an initiative from St. Mary Excel to “bridge a gap,” said Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi.
St. Mary Excel, an advocacy group, raised private and public money to commission an Urban Land Institute study of development opportunities in Morgan City and Berwick.
The study recommended completion of the Morgan City Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan, which could be linked to Berwick’s walking trail via the old bridge.
The report stresses the importance of the two downtowns and their riverfronts and the opportunities to create new ways to connect and enhance them.
“Concentrating community investment across the bridge together would create and enhance a center of activity,” the study says. “Concentrated reinvestment would support an experience for residents and visitors alike, affecting equitable community recreation opportunities, strengthening walkability, bikeability, and water access.”
The bridge is also a longstanding symbol of the communities.
It is a truss bridge that was built by the Mt. Vernon Bridge Co. and was opened to traffic Dec. 20, 1933. It replaced the Morgan City-Berwick ferry that existed to the south by Railroad Avenue.
Last month, a trial run with an abbreviated schedule of 6 a.m. to noon was offered to see what kind of interest there was for this idea.
“It went great,” said Berwick Mayor Duval Arthur. “I estimate 100 people went across. I think that’s pretty good.”
A group of volunteers came out as well and cleaned up some of the trash, helping to beautify this piece of history that crosses the Atchafalaya River. Arthur said he saw them again at a local restaurant this week.
They’re from Bayou Vista and said they wanted to clean the bridge before the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.
Bridge the Gap is now planned to be every first Saturday of each month.
The bridge will be getting more attention soon. Both the La. 182 bridge and the U.S. 90 bridge have done deals for refurbishment.
Grizzaffi is “anticipating the refurbishment of both bridges with the new bridge starting very soon. This time next year the old bridge will be refurbished for the first time in many, many years.”

Our Lady Star of the Sea

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:36am

Submitted Photo
Members of the Confraternity of our Lady Star of the Sea celebrated its 44th anniversary Saturday. The confraternity meets near the Lady Star of the Sea statue each year to pray for protection from hurricanes.

Abraham and Edwards tangle over taxes and justice

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:34am

MONROE (AP) — Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican challenger Ralph Abraham made spending promises to sheriffs Thursday while offering diverging tax pitches to mayors and municipal leaders, as the pair traveled to campaign forums on opposite ends of Louisiana seeking to woo local officials’ support in the governor’s race.
The candidates sparred on criminal justice laws, tax policy and economic development in appearances before the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association in Baton Rouge and the Louisiana Municipal Association in Monroe. Both told the sheriffs they supported providing more state dollars to local law enforcement and largely dismissed the idea of a constitutional convention.
But they offered differing images of Louisiana.
Edwards described his four-year term as stabilizing state finances, providing new investments in education and roadwork and improving employment for residents. He talked of the bipartisan budget deal that he and the majority-Republican Legislature struck last year, but didn’t mention the taxes that financed the compromise and ended the budget shortfalls.
“We are out of the ditch. We are firmly on the road to a brighter future,” the incumbent governor said.
Abraham brought up the taxes, however. He said tax rates are too high, and Edwards’ policies are chasing jobs and businesses from Louisiana.
“This is a phenomenal state, so much promise, unique culture, more oil and gas than Texas,” Abraham said. “But yet, we can’t harness that, and we’re still at the bottom of the barrel. That’s just not acceptable.”
Edwards addressed one tax policy directly, promoting at both forums the changes he made to the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, a lucrative property tax break offered to manufacturers. Edwards rewrote the rules to tie the tax breaks to jobs and to give sheriffs, school boards and other local elected officials a say in whether the tax exemptions are granted since the property taxes fund their operations.
“My opponents don’t support that position,” the governor told the municipal association. “They don’t want you to have a seat at the table.”
Business groups have objected to Edwards’ changes, and Abraham has previously said he wanted to undo them. On Thursday, Abraham defended the need for the tax breaks, saying too many people are leaving the state to find jobs.
“You have to incentivize these businesses,” he said.
But when questioned after the forum, Abraham stopped short of saying he’d reverse Edwards’ changes. Instead, he talked of continuing some local government review of the tax breaks, but in a more streamlined fashion with fewer officials required to sign off on the exemptions.
The third major contender in the governor’s race, Republican businessman Eddie Rispone, didn’t attend the events, citing scheduling conflicts.
Abraham and Edwards talked to the sheriffs about increasing the daily rate they receive for housing state prisoners in their local jails and boosting the pay supplement the state provides to local law enforcement.
Abraham, however, went further in his promises.
The GOP congressman said the $1 per-day prisoner payment rate increase made by Edwards and lawmakers this year — and the $1 per-day increase planned for next year — don’t go far enough. He talked of raising that by $7 to $10 per day, a proposal that would cost as much as $60 million a year. And while Edwards said he wanted to raise the pay supplement “as we have opportunities to do so,” Abraham committed to a pay hike, saying: “We’re going to fix that.”
Abraham didn’t detail how he could cut taxes as he proposes and find millions to increase spending on law enforcement. He talked of eliminating sales tax exemptions to free up cash and said “there are pots of money that nobody’s talking about,” without offering further explanation.
Edwards suggested Abraham was making promises he couldn’t keep.
“In Louisiana, unlike Congress, you have to balance your budget every single year. You can’t just balloon the deficit,” Edwards said.
Edwards comes from a family with four consecutive generations of sheriffs, and he received the sheriffs’ association endorsement four years ago. But Abraham said he’s hopeful he could get that backing this year.

Barry reduced dead zone; still eighth largest

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:31am

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — This year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” is the eighth largest on record, but Hurricane Barry reduced its size from an expected near record, the scientist who has measured it since 1985 said Thursday.
Every summer, a large underwater area with too little oxygen to sustain marine life forms off Louisiana as nitrogen and other nutrients from the Mississippi River Basin feed blooms of algae that die and decompose on the sea floor. That decomposition uses up oxygen from the bottom up.
A research cruise that ended early Wednesday measured it at 6,950 square miles (18,000 square kilometers), lead researcher Nancy Rabalais said during a media teleconference Thursday.
“It’s not as large as we expected,” but still stretched from the Mississippi River to west of Galveston, Texas, she said. Rabalais described the affected area as surprisingly large, given that Hurricane Barry ‘s waves had mixed oxygen back into the water.
“I would predict that in one week from now the area will be larger than it is right now, but we can only spend so much time on the water,” she said.
And, she noted, it’s “still 2.8 times greater” than the goal of a federal-state task force created 19 years ago to try to reduce the area’s size. Two task force members — Steve Thur, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Bill Northey — also were on the conference call.
Thur said this year’s experience highlights the need for other ways to measure the low-oxygen condition called hypoxia. A test of underwater robots a few years ago didn’t work out, he said, but he was hoping for another test in the next fiscal year.
Scientists had predicted a near-record 7,800 square miles (20,200 square kilometers) because record floods had carried so much nitrogen and phosphorus from the nation’s heartland down the Mississippi, which drains 41 percent of the continental United States.
Hurricane Barry formed as a tropical storm in the Gulf on July 11 and made landfall two days later — 10 days before the measurement cruise began.
Rabalais noted that although her survey is generally from the Mississippi River west into Texas waters, a survey of groundfish — fish that, like cod or flounder, are found on or near the ocean floor — in June had found hypoxia east of the river.
The week before her cruise, she said, another researcher was collecting some oxygen data, though his research wasn’t focused on hypoxia. “He did not find low oxygen in areas where I normally find it, meaning he was more affected by Hurricane Barry than we were. And in that short time, it redeveloped” between their cruises, so that the area was hypoxic when Rabalais checked, she said.
Rabalais also noted that floods had a clear effect across the entire area she checked: “Freshwater was evident across the Gulf.”
Its effects are also visible across Mississippi’s coast, where every beach closed because of toxins from bacteria also fed by nutrients from the river water. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have asked the Commerce Department to declare a fisheries disaster because of the effects of freshwater on oysters, crabs and finfish.
One reason the water is traveling so far east is that the Army Corps of Engineers had to open a spillway west of New Orleans twice this year, for 44 days ending April 11 and 79 days ending July 29, to protect New Orleans’ levees from the high river’s rush.
Asked what it would take for the federal government to step in, Thur said NOAA’s role is research.
Northey said there’s been more progress in the past decade or so than in previous years, both in understanding how hypoxia develops and getting states involved.
“It’s slow, it’s expensive, it’s going to take a long time, but I feel the momentum is in the right direction — though I certainly don’t see an endpoint where things are going to have a massive improvement, either,” he said.

MARTHA JONES FORD

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:30am

Martha Jones Ford, 54, a native and resident of Amelia, died Friday, July 19, 2019, at Ochsner Medical Center.
Visitation will be Saturday from 8 a.m. until services at 10 a.m. at Pilgrim Grove Baptist Church in Morgan City. Burial will follow in Union Bethel Cemetery in Amelia.
She is survived by her mother, Hilda Jones; four children, Roger Jones, Ka’Shera Jones, J. C. Ford Jr. and Jerrence Ford Sr., all of Amelia; four sisters, Bessie Wilson of Houston, and Connie Williams, Karen Jones and Kanersha Joseph, all of Amelia; four grandchildren; and a host of other relatives.
She was preceded in death by her father, husband, a brother, two sisters and a granddaughter.
Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

CALVIN PILGRIM

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:28am

Calvin Pilgrim, 63, a resident of Bayou L’Ourse, died Monday, July 29, 2019.
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Lejeune Pilgrim of Bayou L’Ourse; two daughters, Hope Vaughn and Tessa Pilgrim, both of Bayou L’Ourse; and six grandchildren.
Visitation is Friday, 6-9 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at Hargrave Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Morgan City Cemetery.
Hargrave Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Wheel House for Aug. 2

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:27am

BACK TO SCHOOL
Lee Chapel AME Church Youth People Department giving away 250 backpacks and school supplies to Morgan City school students grades Pre-k to fifth at its Fellowship Hall, 609 Freret St., Morgan City, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 3. Must show enrollment or report card. For info email ethel_morrison@bellsouth.net.

CHILDREN’S DAY
Area children invited to participate in the free Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival’s Children’s Day King and Queen Event 3:30-5 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Bayou Vista Spray Park. New royalty for 2019 will be selected in a random drawing. Entry forms may be filled out at the Spray Park on the day of the drawing. There is no entry fee. Only children ages 8 to 12 are eligible to enter the drawing but all ages may attend. The new royalty will be presented at the adult royal coronation on Aug. 24 at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium and will reign over the Children’s Day Activities at 9 a.m. in Lawrence Park, Morgan City, on Aug. 31, where children are invited to participate in a host of field games, races and more.

FAMILY/FRIEND
Golden Hand Ministries, 345 Southeast Blvd., Bayou Vista, holding Family and Friends Day at 2 p.m. Aug. 4. Guest speaker the Rev. John Scott, New Magnolia Baptist Church, Schriever. Public invited.

mini parade
The Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival Children’s Day Mini Street Parade will parade around Lawrence Park, Morgan City, at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. All children are welcome to participate. Bikes, wagons, scooters (non-motorized) and walking are allowed. Participants are welcome to dress in costume and have throws. Judging categories are Most Original, Theme Related, Festival, Bike, Walker and Group. The theme for this year is “Shall We Dance?” Registration for judging purposes is 10-10:45 a.m. Aug. 31 in front of Morgan City City Hall. The parade will begin at First Street and Lawrence Park and end at the gazebo in the park.

BERWICK
Housing Authority taking applications for all units from 8:15-11 a.m. and 1:15-3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8 and 15. Must bring birth certificates and Social Security cards for all members of the household, picture ID for all members over 18 and current proof of income. For info call 985-385-1546.

After business complaint, man faces drug charge

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:24am

Staff Report
Morgan City police officers answering a call about a man sleeping outside a business wound up arresting the man on a charge of second-offense marijuana possession, Chief James F. Blair said.
Harold Allen Sheets, 35, of Everett Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 6:25 p.m. Wednesday on charges of possession of marijuana (second offense) and disturbing the peace.
Officers were dispatched to the Brashear Avenue business to answer a report about an intoxicated person sleeping outside the business. Officers located and identified the person as Sheets. Sheets was found to be in possession of suspected marijuana. Sheets was jailed.
Blair reported that the Morgan City Police Department responded to 48 calls of service, and made the following arrests:
—Alanni Marchae’ Clark, 25, of Railroad Avenue in Morgan City, was arrested at 8:01 a.m. Wednesday on a warrant for two counts of failure to appear. Officers came into contact with Clark on Mallard Street and a warrants check revealed City Court of Morgan City held active warrants for her arrest. She was jailed.
—Kevin Paul Knapp, 51, of Country Road in Bourg, was arrested at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday on charges of driving while intoxicated (second offense), driving under suspension, and resisting an officer. Officers were dispatched to La. 182 in reference to a reckless driver. Responding officers located the vehicle on La. 182 swerving in and out of the lane of traffic. A traffic stop was conducted and the driver was identified as Knapp.
A computer check revealed Knapp’s driver’s license was under suspension. During the investigation, the officer suspected driver impairment, Blair said.
As the officers ordered Knapp out of his vehicle for a field sobriety test, he attempted to start the vehicle and drive off.
Officers were able to stop Knapp and place him under arrest. He was transported to the Morgan City Police Department. Once at the Morgan City Police Department he was given a field sobriety test which he performed poorly on. Knapp refused the Intoxilyzer test. He was jailed.
St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith reported that the Sheriff’s Office responded to 28 complaints and the following arrests were made:
—Nicholas Walter Grimmet, 38, of South Verret Street in Amelia, was arrested at 9:31 p.m. Wednesday on charges of expired license plate and driving under suspension. A deputy was patrolling the area of La. 182 in Amelia when he observed a vehicle with an expired license plate. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, identified as Grimmet. The deputy learned that Grimmet was driving under suspension. He was jailed and released on a summons to appear in court Oct. 16.
—Kayla Katreke Clark, 39, of Leitrim Way in Houston, was arrested at 12:20 a.m. Thursday on charges of no headlights, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. A deputy was patrolling the area of U.S. 90 near Zenor Road in Patterson when he observed a vehicle with only one operable brake light. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, identified as Clark. During the investigation, drugs were found. Clark was jailed and released on a summons to appear in court Nov. 8.
—Ariel Domangue, 27, of Felicia Street in Bayou L’Ourse, was arrested at 12:43 a.m. Thursday on a charge of possession of marijuana. Deputies were traveling on Arlington Road in Bayou Vista when they observed a vehicle with only one operable license plate light.
The deputies conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the driver and a passenger who was identified as Domangue. During the investigation, drugs were located in her possession. Domangue was jailed and released to appear in court Nov. 8.
—Deven Wayne Vining, 26, of Alabama Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 1:46 a.m. Thursday on charges of no driver’s license and possession of marijuana. A deputy was traveling west on U.S. 90 near Delmar Street in Bayou Vista when he observed a vehicle with its fog lights on. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, identified as Vining. During the investigation, drugs were found. Vining was jailed and released on a summons to appear in court Nov. 8.
—David Wade Woods Jr., 34, of Sixth Street in Berwick, was arrested at 1:58 a.m. Thursday on charges of turning movements/required signals and driving under suspension. A deputy was patrolling the area of Grace Street in Siracusa when he observed a vehicle fail to use proper turn signals. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, identified as Woods. The deputy learned that Woods was driving under suspension. Woods was jailed and released on a summons to appear in court Nov. 8.
—Brock Matthew Menard, 32, of Jupiter Street in Bayou Vista, was arrested at 3:45 a.m. Thursday on charges of improper lane usage, driving under suspension, and possession of drug paraphernalia. A deputy was patrolling the area of La. 182 near Myrtle Street in Morgan City when he observed a vehicle cross the center line. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and made contact with the driver, identified as Menard. The deputy learned that he was driving under suspension. During the investigation, drug paraphernalia was found. Menard was jailed and released on a summons to appear in court Nov. 8.
—Steven James Morris, 32, of Degravelle Road in Amelia, was arrested at 1:49 p.m. Wednesday on a warrant for violation of protective orders. Morris turned himself in at the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office in Morgan City on an active warrant for his arrest. He was transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center where he was jailed with bond set at $2,500.
—Glenn Michael Sapia, 61, of Pailet Avenue in Harvey, was arrested at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday on a warrant for failure to appear on the charge of driving while intoxicated. Sapia was transported from Richland Prison to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center on the active warrant for his arrest. He was released on his own recognizance.
Patterson Police Chief Garrett Grogan reported the following arrest:
—Keven Bruce Lynch, 47, of St. Michael Street in Patterson, was arrested at 7:57 p.m. Tuesday on two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, disturbing the peace intoxicated, and disturbing the peace by alarming the public. He was jailed with no bond set.
Berwick Police Chief David Leonard Sr. reported the Berwick Police Department made no arrests.

Chief apologizes over Sterling shooting

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:23am

Associated Press

A Louisiana police chief apologized Thursday to his city and to the family of a black man shot and killed by a former police officer in 2016, saying the officer should have never been hired.
During a news conference, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul and a police lawyer detailed repeated problems with Officer Blane Salamoni that they said should have raised red flags long before Alton Sterling was shot and killed.
Paul was not the chief during the shooting, which launched days of protests over police treatment of black people.
In particular, the lawyer, Lee Hamilton, said Salamoni had been arrested for a physical altercation prior to joining the police department, which normally would have prevented him from being hired. He also failed to disclose his arrest in his application, Hamilton said.
The chief said the Sterling shooting was part of a well-documented pattern of “unprofessional behavior, police violence, marginalization, polarization and implicit bias by a man who should have never ever wore this uniform.”
“I want to apologize to the family of Alton Sterling and also to his kids. We’re sorry because he (Salamoni) should’ve never been hired,” Paul said.
Salamoni and officer Howie Lake II encountered Sterling after responding to a report of a man with a gun outside the Triple S Food Mart.
Federal authorities, who opened a civil rights investigation immediately after the shooting, said Salamoni yelled that 37-year-old Sterling was reaching for a gun in his pocket before shooting him. The officers recovered a loaded revolver from Sterling’s pocket.
Lake helped wrestle Sterling to the ground, but didn’t fire his gun.
The shooting death came at a time of intense scrutiny across the country over the treatment of black people by police.
Two cellphone videos of the shooting quickly spread on social media, leading to nightly protests.
Many of the protesters complained about historic tensions between Baton Rouge police and the city’s African American residents. The police chief addressed those concerns Thursday, acknowledging past problems with law enforcement behavior.
“While we obviously cannot change the past, it is clear that we must change the future. And I sincerely apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in building barriers in communities of color in the city of Baton Rouge,” Paul said.
Both state and federal officials declined to prosecute the officers, but Salamoni was fired in March 2018.
He appealed and under a settlement announced Thursday, he’ll be allowed to voluntarily resign retroactive to March 2018 instead of being fired. He will not receive any compensation, Hamilton said. And Paul emphasized that he’ll never police city streets again.
Hamilton listed numerous problems discovered about Salamoni during the investigation. Hamilton said Salamoni regularly used profanity and unnecessary force during his work.
He even had problems with other officers. In one instance, Hamilton said Salamoni had a “blow up” with another officer that was so troublesome it caused another officer to say that if something wasn’t done about Salamoni, he could “eventually kill someone.”
“What became apparent from all the evidence presented to the chief was that Mr. Salomoni had a propensity for acting outside of the standards established by the BRPD for command of temper and use of force,” Hamilton said.

Rotary Club happenings

Fri, 08/02/2019 - 10:21am

Submitted Photo
Morgan City Rotary Club members heard at a recent luncheon from Maya Madise, a current Morgan City Rotary Club Scholarship recipient, about her college life. Shown from left are Madise and Jakob Dworaczyk, Morgan City Rotary Club president.