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Franklin Supermarket is celebrating 25 years of business next week; and it is not the only grocery store in town, but it may be the friendliest.
Co-owner Rory Romero shares ownership duties with his brother Kerwin, and Rory asserts that the thing that makes Franklin Supermarket the success it has been for the last quarter of a century is that its employees and its patrons are like friends and family.
As Rory said this, a grumbling customer walked by with two full hams, one hanging from each fist.
Rory asked her what was the matter and if he could help her find anything.
She stopped and said, “No, I’m looking for my husband. I just can’t get him to quit talking.”
Rory laughed and said, “Well, I don’t know where he is. Oh, there he is,” standing by the freezers talking to another shopper.
And if overstimulating conversation is the sole complaint of shopping progress, there are probably worse situations to be in.
As you looks around Franklin Supermarket, you begins to notice warm conversations here and there, all over the store. It is a common sight for anyone who has visited and stopped to notice the phenomenon. But, not all markets contain the same atmosphere.
“It’s like a big family here,” Rory said. “Our customers know all our workers, and that’s the biggest key (to success) besides our employees. They make it a friendly store.
“Over all these years, we have made so many friends. We may not know all their names, but we know their faces. And… we know most of their names, too. It’s been fun.”
Kerwin added that the success of their store is due to their being independent, and the freedom that provided. “We came here,” he said. “We met our customers, and we learned their names. And so, we made it a family,” a pleasantry which is not usually available at a bigger, chain store.
Rory said that aside from the atmosphere and employee loyalty, from a business perspective, he estimated the success of Franklin Supermarket could be attributed in large part to the meat and produce departments.
Pointing to the meat section, Rory said, “We still do it the old fashioned way. The meat is cut fresh daily. All these steaks and roasts are all cut by hand. The bones are cut by saw and the ground meat is ground fresh every day.
“That’s been the backbone of our business.”
As for produce, Rory said they get produce deliveries all day every day, so that the produce stays fresh.
“One thing about folks around here is they love to cook,” Rory said. “In a lot of other cities like Baton Rouge, for example, the markets are changing.”
He attributes the changes to a faster paced metropolitan market and the popularity of ready-made dinners that come packaged to-go and need only to be cooked, to save time and effort.
“But here,” Rory said, “people still love to cook. So, we are in good shape.”
The market was originally owned by Rory, Kerwin and their father, Eddie “Chip” Romero.
Kerwin said they owned a market in New Iberia called Chip’s Supermarket, “and when National (in Franklin) went out of business, they sold us this place in ‘94.”
He said they worked both markets for a couple of years, but closed the New Iberia store in 1996, to work at Franklin Supermarket full-time.
Rory said that Chip passed away 10 years ago, which left his brother and him the sole proprietors of the supermarket.
Rory also said the market has been run the same way since day one, having seen no distinct barriers to success after 1996.
In reference to the longevity of the place, Rory ultimately laid it at the feet of the employees, saying, “Our biggest asset has been our employees. You are only as good as your employees, and we’ve been lucky.
“We are family. A lot of the employees do things together on their off time, and when we started here, we (Rory, Kerwin and Chip) were down here working with them. We were down the aisles stocking and taking orders. So, we don’t ask them to do anything we wouldn’t do. They’re loyal and we’re loyal.”
Franklin Supermarket’s 25th anniversary ad will be in this Wednesday’s edition of the Banner-Tribune.

At the Feb. 13 meeting of the St. Mary Parish Council, Fire Protection Dist. 11 Chief Clarence Clark said his department has been answering calls to a business not in the boundaries of the district for many years.
Clark sought some $15,000 in revenue that goes to Fire Protection Dist. 1, the Cypremort Point area, for servicing Compass Minerals Cote Blanche Mine. The chief said that amounts to some $440,000 since 1983, but did not request retroactive funds past the most recent.
Dist. 11 runs 911 calls and such services as hydrant testing, employee training and more, without charge. A longtime employee said Dist. 11 has never responded to a call to the island that he is aware of. Dist. 1 services an approximate area south of US 90.
Records from the 911 system in St. Mary Parish show 19 official calls since 2013:
—Nov. 15, 2013, a man with chest pains.
—May 10, 2013, a man hit with stray buckshot.
—April 16, 2013, someone was hit in the head with a scale.
—March 26, 2013, a male collapsed.
—Sept. 11, 2014, male suffered crushed hand.
—July 24, 2014, someone fell.
—April 26, 2014, someone fell.
—March 20, 2014, grass fire.
—Nov. 7, 2014, car submerged.
—Sept. 21, 2015, heat stroke.
—July 24, 2015, seizure.
—July 12, 2015, patient light headed.
—Jan. 24, 2015, a miner was injured.
—Feb. 18, 2017, chest pains.
—Feb. 9, 2017, male subject injured.
—Jan. 25, 2017, vehicle in water.
—Jan. 4, 2017, employee exposed to chemical.
—Jan. 11, 2018, ill employee.
—April 5, 2018, ill employee.
However, there are other services provided by Dist. 11 to the mine which are not 911 call-outs.
The most recent audit of Dist. 1 shows cash and cash equivalents of $523,034; investments of $340,021; $53,158 in ad valorem taxes; and capital assets with net accumulated depreciation of $466,966, for total assets of $1,383,159. Liabilities are $1,762 and net position is $1,381,398.
Fire Dist. 11’s most recent audit shows:
$68,275 in cash and cash equivalents; $366,064 in investments; $16,494 in prepaid insurance; $2,141 “other” for $452,974 total current assets.
Adding in noncurrent capital assets of land, $5,000; net of accumulated depreciation of $682,549 and net assets of $687,549, total assets are $1,140,523. With liabilities of $63,893 considered, the district’s net position was $969,630.
Clark also mentioned his district’s fire rating is a 5, the other is a 9.
A meeting between the two fire districts, the parish and the mine was settled upon at the Feb. 13 meeting, though no date has been announced.
Though there are reportedly various options to work out the situation possible, such as cooperative governmental agreements, a re-districting of the island from Dist. 1 to Dist. 11 would likely result in Compass Minerals leaving a 2 mils tax district to a 12.81 mils district, raising a current tax payment of about $15,000 a year to approximately $97,000.
Coincidentally, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office this month released an opinion regarding Catahoula Parish Fire Protection District No. 2 and Catahoula Parish Fire Protection District No. 4. The opinion is that Dist. 4 may enter into an agreement whereby District 2 reimburses District 4 for fire protection services so long as it has a demonstrable, objective, and reasonable expectation that it has received equivalent value in exchange for the expenditure of public funds.
In addition, District 2 may use ad valorem taxes to reimburse District 4 for fire protection services as long as that use is consistent with the ballot language as presented to the voters.

A no-wake zone is in effect for lower St. Martin Parish until further notice as per an executive order by Parish President Chester Cedars. The water level is high and boaters traveling at a high rate of speed have the potential to throw additional water into yards and homes along the bayou, a St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Office news release said.

Growing up in Michigan, my brothers and I cut our teeth hunting small game. Rabbits, squirrels and pheasants were our primary targets back in the 60s and 70s.
We hunted farm-field hedge rows, mainly between railroad tracks and cornfields. We’d also hunt the edge of woodlots that were essentially small stands of hardwood trees left as windbreaks or in some cases, swampy habitat that couldn’t be farmed.
The bag limit on rabbits was pretty much the same as it is here, and we’d walk from daylight till noon hunting them. If we killed two rabbits, that was a big day for us. My grandmother would meet us boys at the back door and make over the game we harvested. Then, she promptly would take it from our hands to clean them for supper. We weren’t very good field dressers back then, but she never let us know that.
There are distinct differences between the rabbits I hunted up north and the ones I now hunt here in the Deep South. The rabbit we hunt here in St. Mary Parish is a totally different species.
Back home, we hunted eastern cottontails (sylvilagus floridanus). Here in the coastal marsh, we hunt the swamp rabbit (sylvilagus aquaticus). And, though the swamp rabbit looks just like an eastern cottontail, it’s much larger, has slightly different (darker) hair colorations and produces less young than its cousin.
Perhaps the biggest difference is the sheer numbers North to South. One of the first rabbit hunts I ever made along a canal bank in the marsh was with a friend and my oldest son, who was perhaps 11 years old at the time. The three of us harvested 22 rabbits, two shy of our three-man limits. We could have jumped a few more to finish out with our 24-rabbit limit on a different canal bank, but we said why bother? We had more than enough and plenty to clean when we got home.
Tactic-wise, hunting rabbits North to South is pretty much the same. You have dog hunters and those that have to walk.
There’s nothing like the chase when it comes to hunting rabbits with dogs. Most dog hunters take great pride in how their beagles strike and then pack up. The guys with dogs I’ve hunted with really couldn’t have cared less about the kill. It was the pursuit that thrilled them. And, the camaraderie they shared afterwards.
Swamp rabbits typically are hunted in February, traditionally following the duck season. At this time of year, the marsh is flat from the impact of cold weather and frost, thereby reducing their habitat.
As a result, canal spoil banks and other higher ground, such as sandbar ridges, become safe havens for them. Here, there’s thick vegetation like briar patches and Roseau cane where they can hide from raptors and four-legged predators like bobcats and coyotes. And, also humans.
Quite often, it takes a group of hunters to kick them out of cover for a shot. It’s tedious hard work, not for the faint of heart. Between briar needle scratches and soreness from unworked, dehydrated muscles, it can be physically challenging. But, if you’ve done some scouting, you can spare yourself some time and effort.
Rabbit poo is the first sign every hunter looks for. But, there are other things experienced hunters like Hunter Andras and Justin Andras have learned through the years and point out. The Andras brothers share a lease south of Gibson in the marsh.
“We combine nutria hunting and rabbit hunting together,” Hunter Andras said. “The best part about it is it’s just family and friend time. We’re not hustling so hard, like with duck hunting. But, where there are nutria, we usually find rabbits. If we hit a thick pile of nutria, we always get out and start walking, and it’s where we have our most success.”
Other tricks to flushing out rabbits are to walk cover, like briars, slowly. Rabbits “do not” want to get out of cover if they can help it. Quite often you have to nearly step on them to flush them out. But, when you do, the action will be quick, because they won’t stay out in the open for long — just an instant, in fact. There’s been many times when I’ve fired a load of No. 6 shot at a fleeing rabbit, only to find a few hairs that happen to settle on the foliage were left behind.
One of the prime public areas to hunt swamp rabbits is the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area. It’s a great location to check out and hunt that produces good to great hunts annually.
There is one week of rabbit season left for hunters to get in on the action. What’s more, it doesn’t take many swamp rabbits to make a meal. Smothered rabbit with a side plate of white beans and rice like grandma’s is hard to beat.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Flores is The Daily Review’s Outdoor Writer.