PLEASE LOG IN FOR PREMIUM CONTENT. Our website requires visitors to log in to view the best local news from St. Mary Now. Not yet a subscriber? Subscribe today!
Every public body and beyond performed admirably when Hurricane Barry set its eye on St. Mary Parish.
That was the consensus among the administration and parish council Wednesday.
Chairman Gabriel Beadle praised the coordination and cooperation between the parish and municipalities as Barry crept ashore. “It was amazing to see the municipalities, the parish and also state and federal all coming together as one. Absolutely amazing.”
He added, “To see the sheriff’s office, to Coast Guard, to the National Guard, coming in…we were prepared. We still had some issues on the west side (of the parish) with some flooding, but this could have been so much work, and I believe that we had so much going on and prepared, it was amazing to see.”
Councilman Dale Rogers said, “I like the idea of the job that (St. Mary Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security director) David Naquin has and the job that Jimmy Broussard did, two (emergency operations centers), one to the east and one to the west. That thing worked great. They were communicating so great with Parish President Hanagriff, it was just beautiful see how the organization worked.”
Hanagriff also lauded parish employees as well as Naquin and Broussard. “There are things we can do to make communications even better,” he said. “We were almost in the same room. Now don’t get me wrong, in any storm there are issues, and I think there are issues that we can get better at.”
Noting that parish council members themselves were out and about during the storm, he said someone said to him, “You must be tired,” to which Hanagriff said, “No, those guys out there flood fighting are tired.
“Going forward, we’re going to look where we can improve, and try to make it better.”
Councilman Ken Singleton said, “We have several volunteer fire departments, and one I saw, Chief Clarence (Clark at Fire Protection Dist. 11) doing some big stuff over there on the west end. As a member of my fire department in my area, as it started, we were in the area getting between 10 and 15 calls putting out fires and lines on houses and other things. They’re unsung heroes, people don’t see them, they’re not a paid department, they leave their families at home, most of the families leave…they stay at the fire station and they don’t get recognized.”
Coucilman Craig Mathews said that patting backs for a job well done is good, but “there are a number of people that are hurting still today as a result of the impact of this storm. I’m very interested to hear what resources are available to us now that people, where they can go for help.”
Problems in his district include fallen trees on homes, insurance company issues and more, Mathews said.
He also asked the administration to question power company Cleco, “which is a fine company,” what protocols are in place to determine when they mobilize in the midst of a severe storm.
Also, Chief Administrative Office Henry “Bo” LaGrange said that debris pickup crews are working from the extreme east and west borders of the parish toward the center in the unincorporated areas. A second sweep will be made to pick up any remaining debris, LaGrange said.
St. Mary Parish Councilman At-Large for Dist. 9 Paul Naquin announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election this fall.
“At this time I will not seek re-election to Dist. 9,” Naquin said at the end of the council’s meeting. “I’d like to spend a little more time with my family.
“I ran in 11 elections, lost none, I’ve exceeded my goal of 35 years (in office) and I will stop while I’m ahead.”
He received a standing ovation from the council and members of the audience.
Councilman Craig Mathews was the first to address Naquin. “It has been an honor to serve alongside you since my first meeting in 2007. It was a great honor to have your constituency in the various capacities that you have as a lifetime resident of St. Mary Parish. I believe that you’ve done fine work and expert leadership to the citizens of St. Mary Parish, and I for one, am going to miss you.”
“I didn’t know Paul too much before I ran for election,” Councilman Sterling Fryou said. “He came see me about eight years ago when I decided to run. Me and Paul became good friends, he taught me a lot.”
Councilman Kevin Voisin said when he was elected in 1995, “Mr. Naquin was one of those who took me under his wing, including his eight years as parish president…he’s always been sort of a father figure to me, and his wife Miss Sandra has been a mother figure. I enjoyed serving and traveling with him and I’ve seen the dedication he puts into public service, and also a past president of the Police Jury Association. That’s a hard thing to do, you have to stay in office a long time.”
Voisin added, “He’s always been available if somebody needs something, or need some crawfish boiled for free, for Center of Hope, or a school, or a graduation, he’s there.”
Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon reported Wednesday the state of Louisiana’s insurance industry at a St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Forest Restaurant.
“As a Republican, I believe in less government and fewer taxes,” Donelon began. “And, since I took office in 2006, as your insurance commissioner, my authorized civil service workforce shrank from 275 full-time employees to 222. And, 12 years later, for this concluded year, my budget was $31 million, whereas my first budget from 2006 was $30 million.
“So, we are doing more for less on your behalf and living up to making government be more accountable and efficient.”
He went on to report having recently repealed an assessment which he said “had been on the books for decades,” that affected every property and casualty policy in the state of Louisiana.
“That will result in a savings of $20 million per year for all of us who buy property and casualty insurance in the state,” he said.
Next, Donelon discussed current insurance particulars as they apply to different types of insurance in Louisiana.
He began with flood insurance, and Louisiana’s national standing as the top recipient of flood insurance benefits nationwide, with $19 billion collected from the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978.
With the program in its 11th short-term extension, set to expire in September, Donelon assured luncheoners that with bi-partisan support, a delegation is working toward authorizing a new extension.
Pivoting to homeowners insurance, he said that since his taking office in 2006, the Louisiana Department of Insurance and the Coalition to Insure Louisiana succeeded in depopulating the “market of last resort,” which until then had held more than one-third of the policies in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
He said the result of the depopulation was the privatization of the homeowners market, which allowed the state to vacate the market, freeing up private insurance companies to better spread the risk globally. This also made it easier for the state to incentivize smaller companies to move to Louisiana, driving competition up and premiums down.
In discussing the state’s insurance challenges, Donelon turned to the auto insurance industry.
He began with commercial auto coverage, saying that commercial truckers in Louisiana are having a difficult time finding suitable coverage.
“The commercial auto arena is deregulated,” he explained. “So, those companies can charge whatever they want, whatever the market will bear. And, they do so.”
He said that 30% rate increases in the commercial market are considered to be “on the low side,” having prompted him to call for tort reform.
As far as private liability auto coverage throughout the state, Donelon said, “Our problem is our claims to litigation rate. We pay the price for that.
“For decades our base (cost for coverage) has been one of the highest in America, because of our claims to litigation ratio.”
He further reported continuing to work in conjunction with fellow litigators to improve auto liability rates in the state through various bills and by altering regulations.
In reference to worker’s compensation insurance, Donelon marked the news as “good.”
He said this year he approved a reduction of 5.6% in coverage costs as recommended by the National Conference of Compensation Insurers, resulting in a total of a 19% reduction in worker’s compensation coverage costs for employers, within the last five years.
“That is great news for employers,” Donelon said. “It is driven by the fact that we have more companies writing worker’s comp in our state today than in any time in our state’s history.
“Competition is really the only way to control prices.”
He closed by saying that making the business environment more friendly in Louisiana results in more competition, which results in lower rates for coverage, as evidenced by the worker’s compensation coverage cost drop.
Also taking place at the luncheon, Ramona Landry, of the St. Mary Parish Office for Economic Development, was awarded by the SMPCOC, Administrative Assistant of the Month for July 2019, and was presented a plaque.
Chester Baudoin served as St. Mary Parish Sheriff for 20 years.
And he became something of a legend in his own time, and thereafter.
Many remember the larger-than-life sheriff from his tenure of 1964-1984, a five-term run in law enforcement’s top job.
Chet Wallace, a resident of Marietta, Georgia, has just released a book on Sheriff Baudoin, “Two Wings and A Star: The Life and Times of Sheriff Chester Baudoin.” The former sheriff is a grandfather to Wallace, whose mother is Mary Jane Baudoin Wallace, otherwise known in the local area as Sissy Wallace.
“I had heard him tell stories about him being a sheriff and a law enforcement officer,” Wallace said. “I think the first time I tried to interview him in a professional stance was when I did an informative paper in high school for an English class. I decided to interview him, but just about his war years. Years later I went to college, in the late 90s, and it was at that point that I came up with this idea that I wanted to write a book about one of the most famous cases he worked on, the Mejia case in 1966.”
Roy Mejia was accused and convicted of killing a Berwick mother and her three children in April, 1966.
But then Wallace got busy with college, though he still hoped to document personal stories from Baudoin.
One he recalls is when his grandparents were married. “When he married my grandmother, they had planned to elope, and they did,” he said. “My grandfather at that point in time didn’t realize you had to have a marriage license or anything like that, so they had to go through this whole process to get the marriage license. And my grandmother wasn’t of age at the time either!”
He collected interviews and stories and personal recollections from his mother. Then he was speaking with Lafayette journalist Vince Marino, and mentioned that he was considering a book on the sheriff.
“Don’t talk about it, do it,” Marino urged.
“So that’s what I did,” Wallace said. “My grandfather had somebody keep binders of all the years he was in the sheriff’s department. By the time he passed away in 2003 he had those in his house and I decided to take all of them.”
He went through all those binders, paying attention especially to high-profile cases. “Some of the cases that my mother talked about I had trouble finding a lot of information in those binders so I couldn’t expand on those cases but mentioned them briefly in the book.”
He had already begun a book, “Stories of the Winecoff Fire,” based on the worst hotel fire in American history in 1946 in Atlanta, claiming 119 lives.
He began his book on Baudoin during that time, finishing the Winecoff book first and, in June, the story of his grandfather was published.
The book also covers Baudoin’s years as a Hump pilot in World War II. The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and the units of the United States Army Air Forces (AAF) based in China. (Wikipedia)
“He was in the China, Burma, India theater and he flew gasoline to Chenault’s Flying Tigers in China,” Wallace said. “There’s a chapter dedicated to all those years. I quoted the paper I had written in high school and he told me other stories.”
Asked about a favorite story Baudoin told him, Wallace said, “When he was flying over The Hump, mostly they were night missions under the cover of the Japanese. He told me that he had a pilot, co-pilot and radio operator on the plane. The two pilots were in the cockpit and when they would fly at night, sometimes there would be thunderstorms.
“If both pilots were staring ahead at the same time when lighting would occur, right in front of their plane, both of them would be blinded.
“One of the pilots would keep their eyes closed while the other would keep their eyes open. When a rap of lightning occurred, the pilot that was looking would be blinded and he would nudge the other pilot to open his eyes, and the other pilot would close his eyes. So that way someone was always looking.”
When asked how he thinks his grandfather would have felt about the book, Wallace said, “I think he would have been proud of me. He was a very interesting man, and flamboyant, he liked the high life,” Wallace chuckled.
The book is available through Wallace directly, and on Amazon. See the Facebook page “Chester Baudoin” for more information.
An effort to change the time of St. Mary Parish Council meetings failed Wednesday.
The move by ordinance to change the time of council meetings from 6 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. was an offshoot of an effort that began several meetings ago when a large group of Wednesday church service participants asked that the council change their sessions to Thursday nights. That request ultimately was denied on vote of the council.
Councilman Patrick Hebert moved for adoption of the current action, with a second by Councilman Ken Singleton.
Councilman Dale Rogers then motioned to amend the ordinance to a 5:30 p.m. session opening, with a second by Hebert. That move failed with a vote of three in favor, six against and two absent, council members James Bennett and Glen Hidalgo.
Before the vote, Councilman Kevin Voisin said he spoke with attorneys about the ordinance. “Both of them…said the only thing this really changes is the time,” Voisin said. “Going from 5:15 to 5:30 more or less changes the entire body of the ordinance. If this would happen to pass I will personally write a letter to the attorney general, asking for a legal opinion if this was done legally. I feel by not having to reintroduce this at 5:30, you’re lacking the advertising period, the layover period and the public hearing. We held a public hearing here for 5:15, now we’re going to change it.”
Councilman Hidalgo had sent correspondence that was read into the record, opposing the change.
Chairman Gabriel Beadle noted, “I kind of echo Mr. Hidalgo’s thoughts on this. I think what we try to do is create ordinances that create more inclusiveness from the parish body. I believe that this ordinance is more exclusive to the parish’ residents…if this does pass, I’m going to urge the parish president to veto it.”
On the subsequent vote, the ordinance failed with two in favor, seven against and two absent.
St. Mary Parish Government is again bonding $10 million in revenue bonds for more street and road repairs.
There were, however, questions about the formula that would determine what percentage the municipalities would receive, which was 25%, or $2.5 million in the last bond issue.
Parish President David Hanagriff said there may be a chance at upping the municipalities’ share to 30%, since bids for contracts came in “very reasonable and under budget, so that might be something we could talk about as far as allocating the cities 30%.”
Chairman Gabriel Beadle inquired about the interest rate on the second bond issue, and a representative from Foley & Judell bonding attorneys said the rate would be 3.5%.
An ordinance moved by council members Dale Rogers and Kevin Voisin on the bond issue was approved.
In other business, appointments were made to:
—Elizabeth B. Davis Memorial Park Advisory Committee, Four Corners, Eva D. Rollins, present member.
—Recreation Dist. 5, Four Corners, Sorrell and Glencoe, Felicia Jolivette, with a second opening deferred.
—Recreation Dist. 7, Centerville and Verdunville, Donna Bogan, present member.
—St. Mary Parish Tourist Commission, Dist. 7, 8 and bordering Dist. 6 and two at-large, Donovan Garcia and Herman Hartman, present members, and Ed “Tiger” Verdin.
—Water & Sewer Commission No. 1, Amelia and Siracusa, Ray Mayon Sr.
—Water & Sewer Commission 5, Four Corners and Glencoe, Virginia Sutton and Wilfred Edwards Sr., both present members.
—Wax Lake Drainage District, Berwick, Bayou Vista, Patterson, Calumet, Barry A. Broussard, present member.
Qualifying for the fall elections has been set.
The primary election is Oct. 12, and the general election is Nov. 16.
Candidates can qualify Aug. 6-8 at the Clerk of Courts office on the second floor of the St. Mary Parish Courthouse in Franklin from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The office is open during the noon hour.
Ballot items and fees are (all candidates must be registered with their party affiliation):
State Senator, Dist. 21: No party, $300; Democrat, $600; Republican, $600.
State Representative: No party, $225; Democrat, $450; Republican, $450.
Sheriff, Clerk of Court, Assessor, Coroner and Parish President: No party, $225, Democrat, $450; Republican, $450.
Parish council members: No party, $115; Democrat, $230; Republican, $230.
Andre Jones, executive producer of “Quiet and Clear” poses on Main Street in Franklin, with the movie poster and one of the lead actresses in the film, Johnise Dowie. In the film, shamed after losing her virginity, a young teenage girl enters an arm wrestling match with small-town patriarchy to reclaim control over her body. There will be an upcoming screening at the Iberia Film Festival.
Bobby Weir and Matt Schoen of Florida won the Morgan City Madness Elite Redfish Tournament after turning in a two-day total of 57.76 pounds.
The duo from Santa Rosa, Florida, won a $10,000 check for their first-place finish.
Weir said he and Schoen fished an area about 40 miles east of Morgan City both days.
“Fishing is always typically phenomenal here,” he said. “It’s our favorite area to fish of any area of the circuits. You name it. This is the place that we like to fish.”
The duo started the tournament in fourth place after the first of two days with a four-fish catch weighing 27.47 pounds before bring a four-fish total of 30.29 pounds to the scale in day two.
“The weather on the first day threw us for a little bit of a curveball,” Weir said. “We were expecting sunny skies. It was cloudy all day. … Each day it took us to about 10 or 11 to get our limit. Today, the fish were extremely finicky.”
Schoen said sunshine was the difference on day two that helped them win the event.
“It was sunny all day. … When we got to our spot, the sun was out,” said Schoen, who is cousins with his fishing partner. “Yesterday, the sun didn’t come out until about noon, and we kind of had to do a changeup on how we normally fish. This morning, the sun came out, and when we showed up, there were just piles of fish everywhere.”
The Morgan City tournament is one of three in the Elite Redfish’s Check-It Stik Team Series. The first tournament was in Slidell and the final one of the series will be in Port Lavaca, Texas, Aug. 30-31.
This is the first tournament Schoen and Weir have fished in the series this year, and Weir said they may do one or two more tournaments this year.
The top 25 in in points in the Check-It Stick Team Series qualify for the Tidewater Team Championship, presented by South Padre Island Tropical Travel, Oct. 4-6, in South Padre Island, Texas.
This week’s event in Morgan City originally was scheduled for July 12-13 in Morgan City, but it had to be rescheduled due the threat to the area by Tropical Storm Barry.
The change in date meant the tournament did lose a “good number of teams,” said Pat Malone of the Elite Redfish Series.
He said they would have had 75 to maybe 100 teams had the weekend not changed.
Instead, the tournament had 35 teams, coming from as far east as Florida, as far west as Texas and as far north as South Carolina.
“Still, it was a really good opportunity to showcase Morgan City, because it’s been quite a while since they’ve had a big-time tournament here,” Malone said.
Malone was pleased with the hospitality shown for the event, too.
“As far as hosting the event and the folks around here, we want to come back,” he said. “It was awesome. We couldn’t have been treated any better. Everybody just went out of their way from the police department, the fire department.
“Everybody went out of their way to make sure we had the type of event that they knew we wanted and we wanted to film for Discovery (Channel), and it was just tremendous,” Malone added.
Franklin Banner-Tribune
P.O. Box 566, Franklin, LA 70538
Phone: 337-828-3706
Fax: 337-828-2874
Morgan City Review
1014 Front Street, Morgan City, LA 70380
Phone: 985-384-8370
Fax: 985-384-4255