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Franklin Fire Chief Chuck Bourgeois announced the fire department’s award of $261,800 in federal grant funds Tuesday at the recent Franklin City Council meeting.
Bourgeois said the FFD applies for the Fire Act Grant funds every year, and has been denied for the last six years due to so many fire departments applying nationwide.
He also noted that this year the number of applicants was significantly less than in previous years, as well as that the FFD scaled back its request of equipment from that of previous years to one of immediate necessity only, presumably resulting in this year’s award vs. past years’.
In other news, the monthly report from Franklin Police Chief Morris Beverly was made available to the council and mayor.
Beverly reported that in the month of May there were 23 misdemeanor arrests, eight felony arrests, one DWI arrest, two marijuana arrests, one rape reported and one burglary reported.
He also took the opportunity to remind juveniles of the city-wide curfew hours for the duration of summer months.
From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Monday through Thursday, juveniles are required to be indoors unless accompanied by a parent or guardian at least 21 years of age. On Friday and Saturdays, the hours of curfew are from 11:59 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Apart from the fire chief and police chief, guests on the meeting agenda included Claudia Provost, Southern Louisiana Community College, who advised of the 2019 SLCC Employment Workshop and Career Fair slated for Oct. 16 at the SLCC Franklin campus, and Oct. 23 at Broussard-Harris Recreation Center; Dawn Kaiser-Melancon, who confirmed the “Bikers on the Bayou” motorcycle rally for July 13, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Parc Sur la Teche; and Dr. Gary Wiltz and Renee Stansbury, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, proposed an ordinance to prohibit smoking in all workplaces and public places in Franklin.
An ordinance was introduced and adopted to extend the lease of the property at 803 Willow St. to Ameripure Processing Company; another was adopted to declare certain public property as surplus, and to authorize the mayor and council to auction said property to the highest bidder in a sealed bid process; as well as an ordinance to regulate the operation of motor vehicles or boats on flooded public streets within city limits.
Resolutions approved included a resolution to request grant funding from the Delta Regional Authority for renovations to Franklin’s waste water treatment plant, and a resolution to form a complete count committee in Franklin, for the benefit of the 2020 US census.
Under new business, Jackie Roberson and Paul Prevost were approved appointments to the Zoning Board of Adjustments, and condemnation hearings relative to properties on Third and Sixth Streets were tabled until next month’s meeting due to the absence of the Inspector Jeff Hildreth.
Closing the meeting with announcements, Franklin City Councilman Chuck Autin made a public address regarding roadside trash and debris. During which, he asked Franklin citizens not to leave unwanted trash or lawn clippings on roadways, as he had recently witnessed a rash of such incidents.
—Franklin City-Wide Clean-Up is scheduled for July 13 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Brown Shopping Center parking lot.
—A dance recital and student art show is scheduled for July 20 at Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts with doors opening at 5 p.m. and the recital starting at 6 p.m.

BALDWIN _New York Giants safety Micheal Thomas brought his Camp Mike T Football Camp to the West St. Mary High School Football Field and Gymnasium recently in hopes of giving back 4-Corners community where he grew up. .
Prior to workout drills on the field on, a hard rain shower forced the opening of the camp to be moved to the gym as with Thomas and staffers along with campers racing for cover in the friendly confines of the WSMHS Girls’ Gym where the Q&A session gave Thomas a golden opportunity to address questions from the campers, all dressed in the Red, White and Blue T-Shirts.
Thomas, who enters eighth season in the National Football League, stated he was pleased to bring his camp to the area in which he grew up in.
“I grew up in Four-Corners, Louisiana and obviously moved to Houston, but this was my first home, I grew up here and this is always still home,” Thomas, who begins his second season with the New York Giants, said.
“I have always done camps in youth camps in Houston but my family always told me to come back to 4-Corners and give back to where I was born and raised.”
Thomas, who played safety at Stanford, was excited to bring his Camp Mike T to Baldwin, stressing the importance of academics and financial literacy.
“I was told to come back to 4-corners because campers would love the types of camps where we talk academic components and financial literacy and they can see that somebody from 4-Corners made it to the NFL,” Thomas said.
While gathering his gear before the quick rain shower on Monday at the West St. Mary Field, Thomas said he spent the 2012 season as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers. after graduating from Stanford. He said he signed with the Miami Dolphins in December of 2013, where he played five seasons signing with the Giants in 2018.
Before dodging raindrops and making the short trek from the WSMHS football field to the WSMHS Girls’ Gym, for the all-important Q&A session of the camp, Thomas stated it was a dream of his to make it to the NFL and to give back to the community.
“It was always a dream of mine to make it to the NFL,” Thomas said. “When growing up you see all those Play 60 commercials when they come in doing camps on your field and they speak to your class, that’s what I want to do,” he reminisced. “
“I made promise to myself, if I ever made it to the NFL, I would go back and at least give back to the class and neighborhoods that I grew up in and that’s really what this camp is about.”
During the Question and Answer session at Camp Mike T _ where he awarded campers for intelligent questions _ Thomas was asked what was his best memory so far in the NFL.”
“So far, my best memory would have to be my intercepting New England quarterback Tom Brady with two seconds remaining in the game in my first game with the Miami Dolphins in 2013.”
Thomas, who earned a Master of Business Adminstration from the University of Miami Business School, was also named to the 2019 Pro Bowl.

FRANKLIN -- A 90-year-old Morgan City murder case made it to national TV Friday night. And so did "Ghosts of Morgan City."

A near-capacity crowd came to Franklin's Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts to watch the premiere of the eight-episode Travel Channel series "Ghosts of Morgan City" on a big screen.

The were joined by some of the people who made the show possible.

Producers of the series, a follow-up to the cable channel's "Ghosts of Shepherdstown" series about paranormal goings-on in West Virginia, promise to explore supernatural happenings in Berwick, Patterson and Franklin as well as Morgan City.

The central idea, as laid out in a press release, is that Morgan City police were confronted with reports of a shape-shifting mist. In the show, the mist is related somehow to Ada LeBoeuf. In 1929, LeBoeuf became the first white woman to be hanged in Louisiana after she was convicted of conspiring with her lover, a Morgan City physician, to have her husband killed.

Then-Lt. Gov. Paul N. St. Cyr opposed LeBoeuf's execution, touching off a long political feud with Gov. Huey Long. The Kingfish called the killing of LeBoeuf's husband a "conscienceless" crime.

To investigate the more recent mist reports, according to the Travel Channel, a team of paranormal investigators came to St. Mary. They included Jereme Leonard; former FBI agent Ben Hansen and psychic medium, Sarah Lemos.

Diane Wiltz, active in local media and in productions of the Teche Theatre, said producers enlisted her help on local history. She also put the production team in touch with local people.

Along the way, Wiltz was tested to see how she'd look on the air.

"They said, 'Yeah, they want you,'" Wiltz said.

She said Shepherdstown, West Virginia, experienced a surge in tourism because of the "Ghosts" show there, and she's hoping the Morgan City show will enhance local efforts to promote tourism.

"If the TV program can help us do what we're trying to do on our own, sign me up," Wiltz said.

"They said half the people believe and half the people don't," said Morgan City Mayor Frank "Boo" Grizzaffi just before the show began. "W're going after the half that does."

Wiltz offered one word of caution: The show isn't a documentary. It's billing itself as a docudrama, which hints at a certain amount of dramatic license.

The license may have started in the original press release. It says that Morgan City police got in touch with colleagues in Shepherdstown because of similar experiences there.

The alternate explanation is that former Morgan City Police Chief Steele Viccellio had moved to Virginia, where he's the neighbor of a TV executive. Viccellio, hearing that the search was on for a Louisiana follow-up to the West Virginia shows, suggested Morgan City.

You can follow the show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @TravelChannel and #GhostsOfMC

This story has been corrected to reflect the proper spelling of Steele Viccellio's name.