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A 32-year-old Bayou Vista man was booked Monday on a warrant for failure to appear on sex offender charges, St. Mary Parish Sheriff Scott Anslum said in a news release.

—Brandon Poole, 32, of Arlington Street in Bayou Vista, was arrested at 9:48 a.m. Monday on a warrant for failure to appear on charges of failure to register and notify as a sex offender, failure to possess a special ID card-sex offender ID and failure to pay annual registration fee.

A corrections deputy made contact with Poole when Poole was transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center from East Baton Rouge Parish on the failure to appear warrant. Poole was jailed with no bail set.

Anslum reported that deputies responded to 31 complaints in the parish.

Morgan City Police Chief James Blair reported that officers responded to 30 calls and reported the following arrest:

—Tara Oubre, 28, of Railroad Avenue in Morgan City, was arrested at 5:22 p.m. Monday on a warrant charging her with filing a false complaint.

Oubre was located in the area of Sixth Street and Brashear Avenue and arrested on a warrant. The warrant stems from an incident in May where Oubre filed a complaint. Investigators determined that the complaint was false, Blair said. Oubre was jailed.

Patterson Police Chief Janis Merritt reported the following arrests:

—William Lawrence Richardson, 24, of Taft Street in Patterson, was arrested at 10:05 p.m. Monday on charges of second-degree battery with medical attention and simple battery. No bail was set.

—Don Terry Bennet Jr., 31, of Second Street in Patterson, was arrested at 2:22 a.m. Tuesday on a charge of simple battery. Bennet posted $454 cash bail.

Berwick Police Chief James Richard reported the following arrest:

—Malaysia Ruffin, 25, of Park Street in Patterson, was arrested at 11:31 a.m. Monday on a warrant for battery of a dating partner. Ruffin posted $2,500 bail.

There’s no shortage of alligators as the start of the month-long hunting season kicks off next week.

But an oversupply of hides in the market is causing low alligator prices and fewer hunters to participate in the season, because the demand can’t meet that great supply, said Jeb Linscombe, fur and alligator program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“The demand’s still there. It’s just the supply is high of not only alligators, of other crocodilian leather on the market worldwide,” Linscombe said.

Demand for alligator meat is still “fairly solid,” he said.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries divides the month-long wild alligator hunting season into an east and west season that are staggered one week apart. East hunting season starts the last Wednesday in August, which is Aug. 29 this year. West hunting season begins the first Wednesday in September, which falls on Sept. 5 for 2018.

St. Mary Parish has areas in both the east and west zones. East of the Atchafalaya River or east of the East Atchafalaya Basin Levee is in the east zone. West of the Atchafalaya River or west of the East Atchafalaya Basin Levee is in the west, according to the Wildlife and Fisheries website.

Alligator hunter, Sidney “Peanut” Michel of Morgan City, said alligators are plentiful in the region, but prices were extremely low last year. He hunts in the marshes south of Berwick from the Wax Lake Outlet to the mouth of the Atchafalaya River.

Michel doesn’t expect the 2018 season’s prices to be any better.

The prices are so low, mainly due to the lack of demand for alligator hides in the economic downturn. The hides are considered luxury items, Michel said. Some landowners aren’t opening their land to hunters this year due to the lackluster prices, he said.

Alligators are priced by foot for wholesale with a certain price for small, medium and large gators. Those size ranges may be 5- to 6-foot, 6- to 8-foot and over 8 feet, but the exact ranges vary each season, he said.

Last year’s prices per foot were about $5 per foot for small alligators, $8 per foot for medium alligators and $10 per foot for large alligators.

The alligator population is certainly healthy, though.

“If anything, the population’s growing fast,” Michel said.

Michel attributes that growth to the Wildlife and Fisheries’ management of the alligator population by limiting how many alligators are harvested and releasing young alligators from farms into the wild after they hatch.

Michel has close to 200 tags to harvest alligators on private land during the 2018 season as he did last year, too. He sells the whole alligators to Johnny’s Seafood & Bait in Berwick for processing.

Wildlife and Fisheries’ Lottery Alligator Harvest Program also provides more than 300 resident alligator hunters the opportunity to harvest roughly 800 alligators on almost 40 Wildlife Management Areas and public lakes located throughout the state. Lottery applications are available mid- to late May of each year, according to the website.

While Morgan City High School may not have scored during its scrimmage Friday with H.L. Bourgeois, the Tigers’ offense certainly got better during the two-plus hours of work against its Terrebonne Parish opponent.
“Really pleased the way the kids played hard,” Morgan City High School Coach Chris Stroud said. “I thought early we got a little dazed, because H.L. got the best of us early. Those kids are big. They played hard, so we kind of little had that look in our eyes.”
However, Stroud said his team, which has a lot of players on offense and defense, got some rest with the second-string players working on the field.
“They really fought through it pretty good,” he said. “We had a few bangs and bruises, but played hard. In that live quarter, we looked like a decent football team.”
After a rough start on its first play block in which the team was unable to gain a first down, Morgan City bounced back with its second drive as Tate Alcina connected with Maurice Martin for a 54-yard catch-and-run on the Tigers’ first play of its second play-block.
However, the Tigers were unable to get any points off the drive.
Later in the play block, Deondre Grogan made a nice adjustment on a throw by Khai Hartley, coming back in front of the defender to catch the pass for a 30-yard gain.
Defensively, the Tigers’ first-team surrendered just one touchdown during first-team work when D’keyvion Sanders scored on a 3-yard run.
“We saw some good things,” H.L. Bourgeois Coach Ryan Fournier said. “I thought defensively, we played really well. Anytime you go a night where you don’t give up any touchdowns is a good thing. Offensively, we’re behind. We’re young on offense, and it’s a new system for our kids, so I’m hoping we can learn something from the film and get better next week going into the jamboree on offense.”
During the 12-minute live quarter, both teams moved the ball into the others’ territory, but neither could reach the end zone.
Morgan City’s best drive was its first of the live quarter as the Tigers moved the ball down to the H.L. Bourgeois 21.
The Tigers lined up for a 33-yard field goal attempt on 4th-and-7 from the H.L. Bourgeois, but the play was blown dead after what Stroud said was a mistake on his part, calling a fake punt on the play during the controlled scrimmage.
Later in the quarter, H.L. Bourgeois recovered a Morgan City fumble at the H.L. Bourgeois 48.
The Braves then moved the football inside the Morgan City red zone where, on fourth down with 13.9 second remaining, the squad attempted a 30-yard field goal. Conner Kimball’s attempt was short, keeping the live quarter scoreless.
“We’re calling them the silver-hat defense,” Stroud said of his squad, referencing the color of their helmets. “We try to get 11 silver hats to the football. … We had some depth issues. We had a few injury issues, but kids that are on the field are running to that ball, and they are playing very hard.”
Alcina’s heave down field on the scrimmage’s final play was intercepted to keep the game scoreless.
Earlier in the scrimmage, H.L. Bourgeois scored its junior varsity touchdown when Ty Henry crossed the goal line on a 3-yard run.
Morgan City will have its final preseason prep Friday when it meets Patterson at approximately 7:30 p.m. in Morgan City’s annual jamboree.