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St. Mary Parish Council on Aging/Morgan City Senior Center participants recently took a morning trip to Lawrence Park to enjoy coffee and doughnuts.

M C Bank has announced three promotions:
—Jason Pye has been promoted to vice president, said Jeremy Callais, executive vice president, chief operations officer and chief financial officer.
Jason Pye currently serves as the IT manager and assistant security officer for M C Bank. In addition, Pye has more than 13 years of banking experience serving community banks. A resident of Morgan City, Pye holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Nicholls State University.
He is married to Rebecca Pye and is a member of the East St. Mary Kiwanis Club, a volunteer fireman and a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Morgan City, where he serves as an extraordinary minister of the eucharist and usher.
—Lisa Pellerin has been promoted to assistant vice president, according to Barton Blanco, executive vice president and chief lending officer.
Pellerin serves as a loan administrative assistant at the bank’s Main Office in Morgan City. She has more than 39 years of banking experience. She's a graduate of Franklin Senior High School and a lifelong resident of St. Mary Parish.
She is the proud parent of two children and has six grandchildren.
—Vicki Laubach has been promoted to assistant vice president, Blanco said.
Laubach serves as a consumer loan officer at the bank’s Main Office in Morgan City. With more than 18 years of banking experience, she also has knowledge in real estate lending.
She graduated from Berwick High School in 1985 and she also obtained an Associate’s Degree in Office Administration from Nicholls State University in 1990.
Laubach lives in Patterson and has three sons, Blaine, Trey and Travis.

There’s no money in the House-passed budget to address legal judgments that have been decided against the state and lawmakers are doubtful that any new dollars will be added to the spending plan to pay them next fiscal year, according to Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry, R-Metairie.
At one time the state was paying on average between $10 million and $12 million in judgments, but the last couple of years have seen those averages drop off due to revenue shortages.
The real problem, however, is that judicial interest is running on all of those unpaid balances, said Henry.
Judgments are traditionally paid through legislation, with lawmakers filing several such bills each session.
This year, there’s only one judgment bill.
HB 619 by Rep. Steve Pugh, R-Ponchatoula, would pay a suit against the state for “Jean Boudreaux and the Victims of the Flood of April 6, 1983, on the Tangipahoa River.”
With judicial interest dating back to 1984, this particular judgment adds up to somewhere in the neighborhood of $91 million or more.
While it’s a bill that Pugh and others have pushed for years, it’s unclear whether a little-known state law, which doesn’t allow the treasurer to pay any debt or claims after 10 years have lapsed, would come into play in this instance.

House bills may face fiscal threshold
The House and Governmental Affairs Committee is expected to vote soon on a proposed House rule that would require all legislation with fiscal costs of $100,000 or more to be recommitted to the Appropriations Committee.
HR 74 by Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, would therefore create a higher hurdle for bills with this kind of price tag starting in 2018.
It’s not a completely foreign concept at the Capitol.
A similar rule has been on the books in the Senate since the late 1990s, although the threshold was much higher — $500,000 — until it was lowered to $100,000 in 2010.

Speculation on PSC race starting
In the wake of news that Pubic Service Commissioner Scott Angelle of Breaux Bridge was being vetted in March for a position with the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, politicos have turned their attention to the possibility of his seat opening up on the PSC.
The District 2 seat stretches from Lafayette to Baton Rouge and includes a portion of the central coastline in the Terrebonne-Lafourche region.
If Angelle does indeed get an appointment from the Trump Administration, he would then have to resign his seat on or before June 14 for a special election to be added to the fall ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
If a move happens after that date, then it could turn into either a standalone special election or a long haul to the regularly-scheduled election in 2018.
Either way, the governor would be able to appoint a temporary replacement until an election could be held.
Speculation churned over the PSC seat last in 2016 when Angelle made an unsuccessful bid for Congress.
Dr. Craig C. Greene of Baton Rouge, an orthopaedic surgeon, and former state Rep. Joe Harrison of Napoleonville were angling hard for the job then.
Also thrown into the mix at the time were former Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Joel Boe and state Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, who has since cultivated deeper roots in the region as the former transition head for Congressman Clay Higgins.
Another name to keep in play is Senate Natural Resources Chairman Norby Chabert, R-Houma, who lives in the southern end of the PSC district. Local politicos have been trying to get Chabert to consider running for the seat over the past few years.
From the same area, former Rep. Lenar Whitney has been mentioned as a possible candidate.
Of course, this may all be fruitless speculation unless Angelle has been offered a federal post — and he decides to take it.

Mayoral
election notes
— Last month Nic Hunter became the first Republican ever elected mayor in Lake Charles. At age 33, he also became the second youngest politician ever elevated to the position. It was a victory that still has GOP diehards crowing. Hunter and his campaign team managed to flip an important Louisiana city that supported both Hillary Clinton and Foster Campbell, two Democrats, in 2016.
— State Rep. Greg Cromer announced his intentions last week to run for mayor of Slidell next year. Facing an exit due to term limits, Cromer, a Republican, served two terms on the Slidell City Council before moving to the Capitol. If he is ultimately successful, that would trigger yet another special legislative election in the Legislature this term, in House District 90.

Political History:
A Cadillac travels
Next month marks the 304th anniversary (June 5, 1713) of Antoine de la Mothe-Cadillac arriving in Louisiana as the French colonial governor.
Cadillac was a French explorer who traded in alcohol and furs, among other goods. But more importantly he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701, which was the geographic starting point for the modern Detroit in Michigan.
At one point during his nine years in Detroit, Cadillac was jailed for trafficking alcohol, but was cleared of the charges a short time later by the King of France.
He was also subsequently indicted on other charges related to abuses of power, but he managed to survive those indignities.
In fact, in 1710 the French king decided that Louisiana would be a good place for Cadillac, who in the process was named as the colonial governor of La Louisiana.
But rather than traveling directly to Louisiana, Cadillac ventured instead to Paris, where he found an investor for La Louisiana and used the money on a copper mining scheme that failed to actually produce copper.
By 1716, having been appointed colonial governor of Louisiana for six years and serving only three in person inside the state, Cadillac was removed from the office.

They said it
“There are only bits and pieces of bodies coming out of here.”
—Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond, on the process for bills this session in the House Ways and Means Committee
“In other parts of the world they drive on the left side of the road. In Louisiana we drive on what is left of the road.”
—Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson
For more Louisiana political news, visit www.LaPolitics.com or follow Jeremy Alford on Twitter @LaPoliticsNow.

As Morgan City’s riverfront wharf improvement gets ever closer to completion, a rising river might delay the finishing touches.

The Atchafalaya River is projected to crest near 7 feet May 27, according to the National Weather Service.

A crest at that level would cause Morgan City officials to close at least two floodgates, one at Railroad Avenue and Front Street and another on Freret Street, Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said. As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, the river was at 5.53 feet and projected to reach the 6-foot flood stage by Saturday morning. The forecast shows the river reaching 6.3 feet Sunday evening.

Morgan City’s wharf improvement project is in the final stages, but the finish could be delayed depending on what the river does, Grizzaffi said. Still, he hopes to open the wharf to the public by the Fourth of July.

The $2.05 million project entailed extending Morgan City’s riverfront wharf by about 200 feet and upgrading the exist-ing 800 feet of wharf. The riverfront wharf will go from Brashear Avenue to Railroad Avenue.

A $1.24 million state Department of Natural Resources grant, $370,000 in city funds, $290,000 in port money and a $150,000 donation from the H&B Young Foundation paid for the project.

On Tuesday, city workers were installing a water line that will allow boats that dock at the wharf to connect to the city’s water system. That work should finish this week, said Kawika Kaai, the city’s water, sewer and gas supervisor.

The wharf project has experienced a few delays already, mainly a nine-month delay when the city halted construction in late 2015 due to the unseasonably high water that winter.

If the May 27 projected crest remains the same, Berwick would probably have to close a floodgate at Pacific Street and possibly one at Canton Street, Mayor Louis Ratcliff said.

St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said the levee district is keeping a close eye on the river forecast, but, at this point, shouldn’t have to take any action with the current projected crest.

Just over a month out from the start of summer, the temperatures are starting to rise, too, with expected highs of 84 degrees Wednesday, 85 degrees Thursday and 87 degrees Friday.

The lows aren’t forecasted to get below 71 degrees during the next few days. A 40 percent chance of thunderstorms is projected to show up Saturday with a high of 86 degrees and low of 72 degrees.