Phillip Harris, left, Anthony Decuir and Tony Decuir of Decuir Masonry are at work Wednesday restoring the fountain at Lawrence Park. They also performed the restoration on the nearby gazebo at the park.
The Review/Bill Decker
St. Mary AARP Chapter 4435 held its monthly meeting and meal on Sept. 11 at the St. Mary Senior Citizens Center, home of St. Mary AARP, in Morgan City. There were 153 AARP members in attendance.
Sen. Bret Allain, (R-Franklin), was sponsor and guest speaker of the meeting along with his son, Robert Allain, who hopes to replace his father in the Louisiana Senate for District 21.
Bret Allain told members he has reached his third and final term limit. He listed what he considers his important accomplishments including: Bayou Chene flood protection project ($80 million), Atchafalaya River Bridge Painting repair ($25 million), Long Allen bridge repair and paint ($25 million), vans for St. Mary Council on Aging ($500,000), Chez Hope maintenance and repair of building ($270,000), ARC ($250,000), and Port Emergency Operation Center ($14 million).
Robert Allain spoke about his goals and reminders members that early voting is Sept. 30 to Oct. 7. Election Day is Oct. 14.
AARP members received gifts from the senator and Ramona Trosclair won a 65-inch color television donated by the senator.
AARP President Bryce Merrill thanked Sterling Fryou for entertaining members with karaoke during social hour. Members were able to dance while being serenaded with music.
In business news, Merrill updated members with upcoming activities, which include:
—Hot dogs, chili, chips and a bottle of water will be sold each Wednesday at bingo for $5.
—Ongoing search for a leader for exercise classes and the New Year’s Eve dance.
—A fall market will take place Oct. 21, booth rental is $25 which includes three tables. Deadline to register is Wednesday, Oct. 18.
—Trips are: Hollywood Casino, Oct. 27 for $35 and participants will get $20 for slot play upon arrival; Branson, Missouri, Nov. 9-15; and Christmas in the Oaks, Dec. 7. Contact Kathy Roundtree at 985-637-3893 or 985-446-9616. Additionally, there will be two trips to Baltimore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, April 28-May 3, 2024 and Nov. 3-8, 2024. For more information contact Vickie Armstrong at 985-856-9210.
Members attending were treated to chicken and sausage jambalaya, green beans, rolls, cookies and water. Following bingo, members celebrating birthdays and anniversaries were recognized.
St. Mary AARP’s next monthly meeting and meal will be Oct. 2 at the center located at 4014 Chennault St. Doors open at 4 p.m. and bingo begins at 5:30 p.m.
The AARP office is open Mondays, Wedn-esdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to noon. Get more information about AARP or its activities by calling 985-384-2277.
DEAR ABBY: I have been married to a man I’ll call “Ed” for 15 years. We are seniors, but he is 17 years older than I am. I have three children from a previous marriage who are grown and on their own. I think my husband is gay but never came out of the closet. He watches gay porn and once confessed to me he had a fantasy about another man. For the last 10 years, he has refused to have sex and is always making excuses (“I’m old,” “I’m tired,” “Tomorrow”).
Abby, I crave love and intimacy. Ed is cold, distant and a loner. He refuses to travel or do anything for fun. He’s well-off financially, never had kids and is a good provider. However, that is all he does. I want to leave him, but I feel guilty because of his age and because he has been a responsible provider over the years. I love him as a person, but not as a husband.
Please advise.
DEPRESSED AND STUCK IN PENNSYLVANIA
DEAR D & S: There is more to marriage than sex. There is supposed to be communication, affection, mutual respect, understanding and compassion for each other. From what you have written, you have none of those.
Address this with Ed before you freeze to death. Ask him if marriage counseling would help him to better understand your needs.
If he refuses, and all you get out of this marriage is access to his money, make an appointment with an attorney to discuss what your rights may be in the “equitable distribution” state of Pennsylvania after a 15-year marriage. After that, you will have a better idea of what to do.
DEAR ABBY: When I was in middle school, my mother made many poor decisions that culminated in her incarceration and a rather unpleasant boyfriend. Now that I have kids of my own, I feel I have more perspective on my mother’s choices — and it’s not a flattering picture.
After she was released, she still didn’t show up for any significant milestones in my or my siblings’ lives. Hearing about the poor decisions she continues to make gets me so upset that a phone call leaves me reeling for a couple days, if not weeks. I have reached the point where I can no longer maintain a relationship with her, so I have gone radio silent.
She has been reaching out for months, apologizing to me and begging for contact. When I get those messages, my heart drops. I know how painful it is when someone walks away, especially a family member. But I can’t listen to her anymore.
How can I express this to her? I want to handle this with grace, but I just want to cry.
SILENT DAUGHTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA
DEAR DAUGHTER: The “graceful” (and kinder) way to deal with your mother would be to end the radio silence and tell her the truth. Explain that she has missed all the significant milestones in your life, and you are unable to deal with the mess she has made of hers. This is why you prefer she no longer call or try to make contact.
You can’t fix her, and she can’t change the past. Your mental health is important, and it is all right to move on.
***
To receive a collection of Abby’s most memorable — and most frequently requested — poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 to: Dear Abby — Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447.
Kemper Williams Park
Patterson
Sept. 23
Class Blue
First place, Hewitt Gautreaux, Pierre Part and Danny Navarre, Carlyss, 5-1, 31.9; second place, Al Graham, Berwick and Al Dodson, Morgan City, 4-2, 21.9; and third place, Glenn Caillouet, Raceland and Wanda Lantz, Marrero, 3-2, 28.6.
Class Black
First, Julius Lovell, Bayou L’Ourse and Burnie Williams, Morgan City, 5-1, 35.7; second, Tiffany Thomas, Port Allen and Jimmy Percle, Morgan City, 4-2, 21.7; and third, Roosevelt Morse, Shreveport and Neil Whitney, Waggaman, 3-2, 15.2.
After regulation, first place teams in each bracket met for the tournament championship and the big money pot. The second place teams faced off for third and fourth places
First, (tournament champions), Lovell and Williams; second, Gautreaux and Navarre; third, Thomas and Percle; and fourth, Graham and Dodson.
The Artists Guild Unlimited Art Show and Sale wrapped up Saturday with a reception for the prize-winners at the Everett Street Gallery in Morgan City. The show attracted 258 entries from 70 artists. The prize-winners here are listed from left to right in each photo. Other winners will be posted in coming days.
The two men running to be St. Mary Parish’s president continued to hit on their key themes Thursday.
One advocates for making the presidency a full-time position. The other says it’s time for a new generation with new ideas.
Former state Rep. Sam Jones and Timothy “Tim” LeBlanc, both of Franklin, appeared at a St. Mary Chamber forum at the new Wellness Center in that city.
They’re running to succeed incumbent President David Hanagriff, who is term-limited. The primary is Oct. 14. Early voting begins Saturday and continues through Oct. 7, excluding Sunday.
LeBlanc, who holds a Young Memorial electronics degree and has worked in the energy industry for 23 years, pointed again to what he sees as the parish’s biggest problem: population loss.
Census figures say St. Mary lost about 5,200 people, nearly 10% of its population, between 2010 and 2020. In the last four decades, the population here has decreased by nearly a quarter.
LeBlanc pointed to figures that say St. Mary’s population increases during weekdays, but he said many people leave after work to return to their homes elsewhere.
“Just about every employer in St. Mary Parish needs employees,” LeBlanc said. “The challenge for St. Mary Parish is to attract people to live and work in St. Mary Parish, not work in St. Mary Parish and live somewhere else.”
That requires working with the parish’s municipalities and with prospective employers, LeBlanc said. And he believes government should provide, and not block, opportunity and access to opportunity.
Jones, a six-term Franklin mayor and three-term state representative, has worked in the administrations of Govs. Kathleen Blanco and John Bel Edwards.
Edwards set an example when Korean tire manufacturer Kumho announced plans to build a distribution center in Franklin, Jones said. He said he urged Edwards to go to South Korea to woo the company.
The decision to build in St. Mary will result in 150 jobs with the prospect for 700 jobs if the company decides to take advantage of nearby carbon black plants to build a tire factory here.
“You know how you get a to come?” Jones asked, then said Edwards showed how.
Jones returned again and again to his belief that the part-time parish president post should be full-time. He pledged to work at the job full-time.
Even at that, Jones said, he’ll probably need two to three years to straighten out what he called a “catastrophe” in parish government. The parish has borrowed as much as it can borrow, saddling the government with debt repayment that could otherwise be used for infrastructure work, he said.
“The Parish Council is dysfunctional,” Jones said. “We need function.”
LeBlanc said his private-sector job has given him experience handling multimillion-dollar budgets.
Both candidates urged caution when consolidating special purpose districts.
Neither spoke kindly about the controversial lawsuits seeking to make oil and gas companies pay for work linked to coastal loss.
LeBlanc said he wouldn’t favor such suits unless they are justified or result from negligence. Jones said some suits are “ridiculous” but said they may be warranted when people have sustained damage.
Jones talked about his experience in government and said this election will be the last time he asks for votes. He feels called to deal with problems he sees in parish government.
“When you look around and see who’s talking about it and who’s not talking about it ...,” Jones said. “So you sit down and say you can throw in the towel or you can help. I’m here to help.”
LeBlanc asked rhetorically whether life in Louisiana has improved during Jones’ more than 40 years of government experience.
“It’s time to stop making decisions based on political agendas and start doing what’s good for St. Mary Parish ...,” LeBlanc said.
“It’s time for a new generation to take the reins and to bring new ideas.”
A couple of rulings in the St. Mary school desegregation case by U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhayes of the Western District of Louisiana this summer may have demonstrated that jurists, like teachers, take off points for tardiness.
Now in its sixth decade, the St. Mary desegregation case continues to wind its way through U.S. District Court.
The goal since the case was reopened in 2012 is to resolve the case with a designation that St. Mary Parish schools have achieved “unitary status.” That status would mean the School Board would be free, in fact and theory, from direct federal oversight for the first time since 1965.
The court handled two motions, one by the state of Louisiana and the other from the School Board, in a single order in July.
In one, attorneys for the state government had sought designation as amicus curiae, or a friend of the court.
“In other words,” Summerhayes wrote, “the State requests the ability to file responsive briefs and position statements with the Court, and to participate in formal and informal discovery, including site visits.
“The State grounds its request on its ‘interests in guarding against federal overreach and in maintaining federalism’s proper balance between state and federal powers [which] are already at play.’”
Summerhayes ruled that the state is allowed to file friend of the court briefs and to participate in oral arguments on “motions and matters arising in this case.” The state’s perspective could be helpful, the judge said.
But the ruling denied what the judge says the state seems to suggest: a role equivalent to the U.S. Justice Department, or even more far-reaching participation under rules allowing an “intervention of right.”
Those rules can allow intervention by people who may be affected by a court case but are not parties to the case itself.
Summerhayes ruled against that expanded role for the state, stating that federal authorities have been involved in the case since 1969. The intervention of right rules require timely action, and the state made its claim long after the case was certified as a class action lawsuit and after discovery was closed in
February 2022.
He also said that the School Board has been represented by attorneys experienced in desegregation cases.
The other motion dealt with who has access to the identities of people who come forward to offer with information about the case.
The parties had agreed to a protective order designed to allow the sharing of information among the attorneys. To obey laws prohibiting the release of identities or identifying information, the order limits information about certain people mostly to the attorneys in the case and to the court itself.
The protected information includes “the names of educators, class members, and community members who have reached out to counsel for the plaintiff class or the United States seeking assistance or providing information in connection with this Litigation,” according to Summerhayes’ summary of the motion.
The School Board later moved to allow the information to be shared with School Board members and top central office administrators. The attorneys argued that they can’t adequately represent the School Board against allegations without the help of the school personnel.
Summerhayes upheld a magistrate’s ruling denying the School Board’s motion, saying it was filed more than a year after the protective order was in place. He also argued that the School Board’s need for the expanded “eyes only” list was foreseeable when the order was negotiated.
Summerhayes wrote: “Now, at the close of discovery, the School Board essentially seeks to rewrite these provisions and expose the identities of School Board employees, teachers, and community members who provided information to the Plaintiffs and the United States with the expectation that the Protective
Order would shield their identities from supervisors and School Board administrators.”
The rulings represent two more steps on a road that began in August 1965, when the lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Black children who were sent to what was then St. Mary’s segregated school system.
Two months later, the federal court ruled that the School Board must present two reports each year, which the board filed until 1983.
Court documents indicate that the Western District appeared ready to grant unitary status, but the matter faded away for reasons that aren’t clear from the record.
Unitary status generally requires that school system must show that it has eliminated segregation in key areas, known as “Green factors” after the case in which they were articulated. Those factors are student assignment to schools, facilities, extracurricular activities, teacher and principal assignments, and, more recently, discipline policies and access to academic programs.
The desegregation lawsuit is captioned Claude Boudreaux et al vs. the St. Mary Parish School Board et al.
Nadine Mary Bernard Marcel, born May 18, 1956, died peacefully at her home in Bayou Vista, LA on Saturday, September 23, 2023.
Nadine is survived by her son, Brock Bertrand of Welsh, LA; her brothers, Jennings Jr. and wife, Gena Bernard, and Eric Bernard, Sr. of Bayou Vista; her sisters, Letty and husband, Frederick Steckler of Patterson, LA and Cynthia and husband, Kevin Sarver of Youngsville, LA; many loving grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.
Nadine was preceded by her husband, Kenny Anthony Marcel and her parents, Jennings M. Sr. and Bertha L. Bernard.
The family will host a private service at a later date.
Donations can be made to Heart of Hospice in Franklin, LA.
Annie Lee James Gant, 64, of Patterson, LA, passed away at 4a.m on September 12, 2023 at Victoria Gardens of Frisco, TX.
She leaves behind three daughters, one son, son-in-law, and one step-son: LeDena (Dray) Williams, Annique Gant, Yakira Gant, Anthony Gant, and Richard L. Gant Jr., 13 grandchildren, and four sisters (Geraldine James, Elizabeth Griffin, Carolyn James, and Bessie James).
Annie is preceded in death by her parents, Warren and Myrtle James Sr., her brother and sister (Warren James Jr. and Donna Gail James). She is survived by her husband Richard L. Gant Sr.; her sisters; her children, and her grandchildren.
To honor her wishes, the family will not be having a funeral service, and would like to thank everyone who has reached out to send their condolences.
A memorial service for Janette Billiot will be conducted at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, at the Magnolia First Baptist Church Worship Center in Magnolia, Texas.
We extend our love and sympathy to the family and friends of Janette Billiot. She was a beloved Magnolia’s First family member for over ten years, a part of the Berean Sunday School class, and a dear friend to the Pastoral Staff. We invite you to celebrate her life and service to Christ. Our church family will miss her greatly!
Franklin Banner-Tribune
P.O. Box 566, Franklin, LA 70538
Phone: 337-828-3706
Fax: 337-828-2874
Morgan City Review
1014 Front Street, Morgan City, LA 70380
Phone: 985-384-8370
Fax: 985-384-4255