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Franklin readying for 'Christmas Under the Lampposts' Dec. 2

Mon, 11/13/2017 - 7:31am

Franklin will ring in the Christmas season the evening of Saturday, Dec. 2, in the downtown business district.
Before the Christmas parade, residents can join the members of the City of Franklin’s Main Street Program’s Design Committee and the St. Mary Chapter of the Louisiana Landmarks Society for the Tour of Homes and Churches Saturday.
Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the tour. Homes can be viewed from 12-5 p.m. and churches will be open from 11 a.m.to 3 p.m. The Lamp Post will have refreshments. Purchase tickets online at Eventbrite or in person at Chic & Shabby, Grevemberg House or The French Door. For more information, contact Diane Chauvin, 337-346-1299.
The theme for Christmas under the Lampposts is “Christmas on the Bayou.” Entry and vendor forms are available now. The deadline for entry and vendor forms will be Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 4 p.m.
Floats, boats and golf carts can be entered into this year’s parade, which begins at 6 p.m. There is no entry fee. Line-up for the parade will begin at 5 p.m. on Jackson Street.
Church groups, school clubs and athletic teams, scouts, youth groups, veterans and community service organizations that choose not to enter a float, boat or golf cart are invited to participate in the Christmas parade as walkers.
Nonprofit organizations are asked to become vendors. Vendors must provide their own self-contained set-up in the Blevins building.
After the parade, remember to check out the lights along Main Street and Teche Drive.
Here’s a hint about this year’s Lamplighter: The Lamplighter provides assistance to those in need.
The Christmas parade and lamp-lighting ceremony is also Saturday. Line-up for the parade will begin at 5 p.m. on Jackson Street, and the parade will begin at 6 p.m. on the corner of Jackson and Main Streets. The parade will end at the St. Mary Parish Courthouse Square where the Lamplighter will be revealed.
Mayor Raymond Harris has issued a dare to local businesses to enter the Christmas parade.
“At this time, I’d like to challenge local businesses to participate in the Christmas parade as walkers or by decorating a golf cart,” Harris said. “I hope the members of the business community will take me up on the challenge and join us in the parade. I can assure them that they will have a great time.”
For more information and for registration forms contact the Community Development Department 337-828-6345 or ashields@franklin-la.com.

'Chambers of Health' initiative seeks to get residents healthy

Mon, 11/13/2017 - 7:30am

Dr. Gary Wiltz, CEO of Teche Action Clinic in Franklin, told the St. Mary Parish Council that the state has been ranked 48th to 50th in health care, according to the United Healthcare Foundation for the last 25 years.
“That’s been a very depressing fact to live,” Wiltz said. “Every time that we write grants, we have to give state statistics. And it has pained me for 25 years to lead off Louisiana ranks 48th, 49th, 50th. I have been a part of healthcare reform panel going back to Edwin Edwards, every governor has come into the state and tried to do health care reform…we’ve had great programs and great initiatives and a lot of money has been spent, but it has not improved our ranking.”
Wiltz said that may be because such change has to start at the local level rather than federal and state.
“We came up with this concept of the Chambers of Health,” he said. “We’re going to do it on a parish-by-parish basis. The solution can’t be crafted out of D.C. or Baton Rouge. It has to begin with the local communities.”
The Chambers of Health initiative is working to synchronize local culture around the goal of intervention through primary health education. This is to be done with cooperation from local and parish governments, schools, businesses, organizations and communities.
Of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, St. Mary ranks 34th in its region in smoking, obesity, physical activity, hypertension, diabetes and more. Adult smoking nationally rings in at 18 percent, while Louisiana is at 22 percent.
“All of you remember the tobacco settlement when the attorney general sued the tobacco companies,” Wiltz said. “We created a trust fund in Louisiana, it was $200 million.”
A trust was set up to hold the funds, and qualifies anyone in Louisiana who’s smoked before Sept. 1, 1988, to get free coverage to help them quit, free medication, counseling and doctor visits. Teche Action is in the process of developing services in St. Mary. If that fund is not used, it reverts back to the tobacco companies involved in the original suit.
“We’ve got to get this word out,” Wiltz insisted. He commended the parish council for smoking policies at the courthouse adopted in past years. “We’re not out to criminalize anyone. Most people who smoke want to quit.”
Wiltz said he’s hoping to work with the parish in the Chambers of Health initiative.
“I’m proud to live in St. Mary Parish,” he said. “All of us had a choice. We could have lived anywhere in Louisiana, in the country, in the world, but we chose to live in St. Mary Parish…we don’t want to be 34th. We don’t want to be 50th, but for sure we don’t want to be 34th.”
Wiltz said local governments can be proactive in aiding the initiatives with policies in place regarding smoking. Businesses will also be offered similar guidance at no charge, he said.
“I know we have a lot of talented people, Louisiana is rich in so many ways,” he said. “Unfortunately we have allowed some of the lifestyle that we have to get the best of us. That’s something about the culture that hasn’t changed, and we’re committed to it.”
It all begins with a grassroots movement in the communities, Wiltz indicated. “We hope to put this all over the parish so that every person that’s been with tobacco has an opportunity, if they want to take it, that they can take advantage of and we can have a healthy community and healthy workers.”

Amedee: Series of sessions, and still a looming deficit

Mon, 11/13/2017 - 7:29am

State Rep. Beryl Amedee, Dist. 51, gave a legislative update to the St. Mary Parish Council Wednesday evening.
Amedee, of Houma, said many sessions this year ended when a “high-ranking official” in the state released (a statement) to the media that said, ‘We just witnessed an epic failure in leadership. The House leadership clearly chose to put party politics ahead of the people’s business, over the needs of the people of Louisiana.’”
Her response to that unnamed official was, “When the revenue estimating conference has been wrong 15 times in the last nine years, when you have mid-year shortfalls year-after-year, when you know that a billion dollar fiscal cliff is coming in just 12 months, if you’re responsible and it’s unrealistic to craft a budget that uses 100 percent of the forecast, that’s not party politics, that’s common sense.”
Amedee said “majority agreement took a little longer than the session would allow” and a special session began 30 minutes later.
The House passed a budget that spent only 97.5 percent of projected revenue, leaving a $200 million cushion to address a shortfall, she said. “The Senate spent a month revising the house version of the budget,” Amedee said. “Meanwhile the REC came back with updates that reduced our $200 million to $100 million. So we were already going downhill. We reached a stalemate.”
That stalemate boiled down to a disagreement on whether the word “appropriation” means “spending or not,” Amedee said. “The House leadership believes that if it’s appropriated it’s as good as spent. The Senate leadership believes that if departments are instructed to hold back some of their spending, that should be money saved.”
In the next special session, an agreement was forged, using 100 percent of forecast, but requiring Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne to reserve $60 million by asking some departments to withhold monies. “So we have not arrived at a deficit again,” she said. “This is good.”
The budget stands at $28.2 billion in operating expenditures, and $32.7 billion altogether when the judiciary branch, legislature and other areas. Amedee said $9.4 billion is general fund. “This is where we have to go looking when we have a deficit,” she said. “Of the $9.4 billion, $3.6 billion goes to K-12 education…there are 720,000 public school students statewide. We spent an average of $12,000 per year, per student. That’s from all sources, federal, state and local money. We spend about mid-range of all states.”
The state department of health gets $2.4 billion from the general fund; $1 billion to higher education, and the remainder “goes through a lot of smaller designated budgets.”
Amedee said in additional to “the usual color and variety in Louisiana politics” the legislature also debated the gas tax increase, hair-braiding, monuments, sunscreen and the name of a state high school.
The high school issue brought in more comments to her office than any other, she said.
Bills were passed allowing terminally ill patients with access to experimental drugs; addressing Medicaid fraud; and requiring driver’s education how to interact properly with police in routine traffic stops. Bills killed included those that would have raised taxes on small business, raised the prices of goods and services and made the state less competitive.
Amedee said the passage of fiscal reform was “very disappointing. Three bills passed, and one was vetoed. The only one left requires that 50 percent of statutorily dedicated funds are required to be reviewed every two years. We have 387, to the tune of $4 billion. We also passed an individual income tax credit for improvements to residences of individuals with certain disabilities…so if you suddenly become wheelchair-bound and if you have to hire a carpenter to widen your doors so you can get around, save those receipts you may qualify for an income tax reduction.”
TOPS is fully funded this year, but is not sustainable, she said. The program has blossomed from $30 million at its start to $375 million today. A task force has been charged with finding a solution to that.
A bill requiring residential contractors must provide homeowners with their names, contractor license number, classification, proof of liability insurance and worker’s compensation insurance.
In state capital outlay requests is $3.8 billion total; but the most that can be spent is $385 million this year, Amedee said. Reformation of capital outlay is in the works, she added.
St. Mary has several applications for funding with the state.
The legislature faces a $1.6 billion deficit in the next session set for March. This session is a non-fiscal one, and financial matters cannot be addressed.

Mississippi college honors Amelia business owner

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 11:23am

Staff Report

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College named the athletic complex at the Perkinston campus after Tri-City area businessman Earl P. King Jr. on Oct. 12.

The complex, now called the King Center, was dedicated during a formal ceremony before the home football game against the Southwest Mississippi Community College Bears.

“Mr. King is not only a generous donor to the MGCCC Foundation, he has also served on the foundation board and is a very active participant and fan of all things Gulf Coast,” college President Mary S. Graham said.

King, owner of King Trucking Inc. in Amelia for 50 years, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College from 1963-65 on a full athletic scholarship.

He played offense and defense on the football team and was also on the track team. He received All-State Honorable Mention his freshman year and first team All-State his sophomore year.

King was inducted into the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004; received the college’s Spirit of Gulf Coast Award in 2007; and was named to the MACJC Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

He received the In the Blue Award at the 2016 MGCCC Scholarship Gala.
Founder of King Trucking Inc. in Louisiana, King also served on the MGCCC Foundation Inc. Board of Directors from 2005-10. He went on to earn a marketing degree at the University of Mississippi.

King chaired the Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries Board under Govs. Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal. He has also served on the boards of the St. Mary Industrial Group, the Oilfield Carriers of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.

King was the 69th Shrimp and Petroleum Festival king in 2004.

Veterans Day remembrance

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 11:18am

Irvin Loupe Jr. submitted the January 1945 photo, top, of his father, Irvin Loupe Sr. of Morgan City, far right, and his grandfather, Leo Loupe, to his right. Also pictured are Roland Ghirardi of Morgan City, center, and, to his right, Ghirardi’s father, P.B. Ghirardi. The man at far left is unidentified. Leo Loupe and P.B. Ghirardi traveled by train to San Diego to visit their sons before they left for the Pacific in World War II. Bottom photo: Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan, Patterson Junior High Vice Principal Tara Fabre, and Principal Mark Spradling (back row) with members of the Patterson Garden Club and local veterans from American Legion Post 242 and 589, VFW Post 4222, and Marine Corps League during the PJHS Blue Star Marker Memorial Service held Nov. 3.

CHRISTOPHER SINGLETON

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 10:38am

Christopher Singleton, 23, a native and resident of Morgan City, died Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, at Teche Regional Medical Center.

Visitation will be Saturday from 9 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. at Siracusa Recreation Center. Burial will follow in Union Bethel Cemetery in Amelia.

He is survived by his parents, Cheryl Singleton of Amelia, and Vincent (Shawn Miller) Joseph Sr. of Thibodaux; two brothers, Vincent Joseph Jr. and Kyrin Joseph, both of Thibodaux; three sisters, NaToya Williford of Greenwood, Collin Joseph of Napoleonville, and Akasia Joseph of Thibodaux; maternal grandparents, Harold and Cheryle Stewart of Plaquemine; paternal grandmother, Louella Miller of Morgan City; and a host of other relatives.

He was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, his maternal grandmother, and his maternal and paternal great-grandparents.

Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements

JOSEPH LUKE 'TEE JOE' CARLINO

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 10:35am

July 10, 1927- November 9, 2017

Joseph Luke “Tee Joe” Carlino, a lifelong resident of Patterson, passed away to be with his Lord at the age of 90 on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, at his home surrounded by his family.

Joe was born on July 10, 1927, in Patterson, the son of Luke and Frances Carlino. Joe loved his family as he put their needs first always. He had a passion for the outdoors, working in his yard, cutting grass, and planting his seasonal garden. He also loved going to the casino almost every day.

He will be missed by his loving wife of 67 years, Rita Pinho Carlino; his daughters, Carla Carlino and Paula Carlino, both of Lafayette; his son, Lucas Carlino and his wife Mindy of Patterson; and his two grandchildren, Cody Mark Carlino and Lauren Elizabeth Carlino. He also leaves his sisters, Leona Carlino, Rosemary Ayers, Josie Hagel and Pat Pinho.

Joe was preceded in death by his father and mother, Luke Carlino and Frances Lipari Carlino; and a sister, Mary Cremaldi.

Funeral services will be held at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Patterson on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, during an 11 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial. Father Michael Russo will be the Celebrant for the Mass with Father Angelo Cremaldi concelebrating.

Visitation will be held at the church from 8:30 a.m. until time of services, with the Holy Rosary being prayed at 10 a.m. Interment will follow in the St. Joseph Cemetery Mausoleum.

Family and friends may view the obituary and express their condolences online by visiting www.iberts.com.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Ibert’s Mortuary Inc., 1007 Main Street, Franklin, LA 70538, (337) 828-5426.

JOHN CLARK

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 10:34am

John Clark, 80, a native and resident of Berwick, died Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, at his residence.

Visitation will be Saturday from 10 a.m. until services at 1 p.m. at St. John Baptist Church in Berwick. Interment will follow in the Berwick Cemetery.

He is survived by four daughters, Christina Boulanger, Connie Roberson, Claudine Jennings and Cora Butler, all of Patterson; three brothers, George Clark Sr. and Lawrence Clark Sr., both of Berwick and Clarence Clark of Amelia; five sisters, Vera Black, Carol Williams and Virginia Johnson, all of Berwick, Florence Harris of Morgan City and Glenda Stackhouse of Patterson; 14 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, grandparents, two brothers and two sisters.
Otis Mortuary of Franklin is in charge of arrangements.

JAMES ODOM

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 10:32am

James Odom, 82, a resident of Alexandria and longtime resident of Morgan City, died Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Alexandria.

Twin City Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.

Wheel House for Nov. 10

Fri, 11/10/2017 - 10:26am

BERWICK HOUSING
Authority taking applications for all size units 8:15-11 a.m. and 1:15-3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16. Must bring birth certificates and Social Security cards for all members of household, picture ID for all members over 18, and current proof of income. For info call 985-385-1546.

ST. JOHN
Baptist Church, 508 Utah St., Berwick, annual Homecoming Service at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19. Guest speaker the Rev. John Scott, Sunlight Baptist Church, Chacahoula. Public invited.