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FRANKLIN — For the second time this spring, the St. Mary Parish Council is being asked to step into turmoil at a parish water district.
The dispute is over new rates adopted by the Water and Sewer Commission No. 1 board, which would increase water and sewer revenue by 76% through a combination of higher residential charges and a separate, higher rate tier for commercial water customers.

The council discussed but didn’t take action at its June 14 meeting on a proposal to remove three members from the five-member board, which serves Amelia and Siracusaville. The other two members resigned.

Councilman Mark Duhon put discussion and possible removal of board members Carlo Gagliano Jr. Carla Gagliano and Kenneth P. Mire on the agenda, but moved to table the issue after the June 14 discussion.

Board members Leroy Trim and Oscar Toups submitted their resignations two days after an eventful public board meeting June 7, when the increases were approved.

“I don’t want to be part of an inflationary cycle that’s going to hurt the country,” Duhon said Monday. “I don’t want to raise any rates on nothing.

“The parish works for the people. Somebody has to have some humanity somewhere.”

Resident Andrew Gros Jr. told the Parish Council that as a result of the new rates, his water bill would go from $12.10 to $44 a month, while his sewer charge would rise to $55.

“We know we’ve got to go up on water,” Gros said. “We know we’ve got to go up on sewer.”

But Gros objected to the size of the increase.

District Operations Manager Brian Tabor defended the new rate structure and stuck up for the board members.

The rate Gros referred to is the commercial rate, he said.

Information from the district indicates that the new rates were determined after consulting with the Louisiana Rural Water Association and Pan American Engineers.

The residential water rate went from $12.10 to $16.50 per month for the first 2,000 gallons and $5.45 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

The residential sewer charge rose from $14.90 for 3,000 gallons and $1.96 for each additional 1,000 gallons to $18 for 2,000 gallons and $3.45 per 1,000 after that.

The combined water and sewer charge for 5,300 gallons, which Tabor said would include most customers, would be $63.86 – more than for customers in Berwick and Morgan City, but less than in Baldwin, Donaldsonville and Patterson, according to the district’s figures.

Separate commercial and residential rates are not uncommon, Tabor said. The district’s customers include large operations including the Bollinger and Conrad shipyards, and “the response I got from businesses ... was not of great alarm,” he said.

The district has lost other commercial customers, including PHI Inc., over the last decade, Tabor said. Property tax income is down from a peak of about $1.2 million a year to $585,000.

Meanwhile, the general inflation rate has been high and the cost of chemicals such as chlorine and alum is going up.

Answering a question from Councilman Rodney Olander of Franklin about potential cost-cutting moves, Tabor said the board doesn’t have much flexibility. As an example, he cited the cost of compliance with the terms of its discharge permit, which
require a $100,000 expenditure this year, will cost $200,000 next year.

Councilwoman Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink said the leak rate, the percentage of water lost in transmission, for the district is 18%, three times the rate of the Centerville district in which she lives.

Tabor congratulated Centerville on its low leak rate but said the Amelia district’s rate is in line with that of other systems.

Rink also wondered whether the district could save money by continuing to buy water from Morgan City as it has during a $1.4 million upgrade of the district’s water plant. Board President Carlo Gagliano said that wouldn’t make sense because the district is spending the money for its own upgrade.

The nature of the June 7 public meeting was also part of the discussion at the Parish Council meeting. Gros said that he was cut off after speaking 3 minutes at the district meeting.

Rink and resident Bonnie Duhon pointed to documents on district letterhead that described rates higher than those Tabor described. Tabor dismissed them as drafts.

A missing audio tape of the June 7 district meeting did nothing to smooth things over. Mark Duhon asked where the tape is.

Tabor said that the recorder wasn’t set up correctly after the meeting was moved to the Amelia Volunteer Fire Department station to accommodate a large crowd.Duhon was also accused of being disruptive during the June 7, which he denied, and of pressuring Toups and Trim to resign.

Gagliano defended his fellow board members. He said the board was able to get work estimated to cost $280,000 on a lift station upgrade for $20,000. The only
black mark on a recent Louisiana Department of Health water report is that the district’s pre-increase rates weren’t high enough to make the system sustainable.

“This board has worked diligently and hard,” Gagliano said.

In April, all five members of the Water District No. 5 board in west St. Mary resigned.

The task of overseeing the district’s operations fell to Jean Paul Bourg just as he was being promoted from parish public works director to chief administrative officer.

Also June 14, the Parish Council passed a resolution praising the Berwick High baseball team for its Non-Selection Division III state championship.

“You just can’t say enough about the talent and the leadership that goes into this,” said Councilman Patrick Hebert of Berwick.

“Hold on to this,” Parish President David Hanagriff told the players. “Remember this. You’re only young once.”

September 2, 1933 — June 19, 2023

Beatrice “Betty” Castalano Guarisco, a native and lifelong resident of Morgan City, was called to her heavenly home on Monday, June 19, 2023 at the age of 89. Betty was a wife to the love of her life, Peter Francis Guarisco Sr., for 46 years. She was a devoted mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother who adored her family. While raising her six children, Betty earned her Bachelor’s Degree in History. Betty enjoyed her Bridge Club, her Church, her work at the local Archives, and her long tenure on the St. Mary Parish School Board, where she also served as President.

Those left to cherish Betty’s beautiful memory are her five sons, Michael Paul Guarisco (Susan), Christopher Peter Guarisco (Lynne), Steven Anthony Guarisco (Vickie), Paul Francis Guarisco (Melissa), and Peter Francis Guarisco Jr. (Gerre); her daughter, Elizabeth Guarisco Tousinau (Craig); 13 grandchildren, Matthew, Joseph (Katelyn), Mark (Sarah), Andrew, Melissa (Tyler), Nicholas (Rachel), Elizabeth (Eric), Adam, Sarah, Rachel, Benjamin Sr. (Vivian), Emily (Ross), and Caroline; and six great-grandchildren, Dalton, Hannah, Samuel, Reese, Audrey, and Benjamin Jr. She is also survived by her two sisters, Madeline Castalano Guarisco and Alice Castalano Stansbury; one sister-in-law, Ann Castalano; and one brother-in-law, Anthony P. Guarisco Jr.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Peter Francis Guarisco Sr.; her parents, Samuel and Josephine Castalano; and her brother, Christopher Castalano.

The family requests that a time of visitation and remembrance be observed on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Hargrave Funeral Home with the rosary being prayed at 7:00 p.m. Visitation will resume on Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. at Holy Cross Catholic Church with a Holy Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. Following mass, Betty will be laid to rest in the Morgan City Mausoleum.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

A series of changes to Louisiana’s tax system was passed by lawmakers in the 2023 regular session, though some measures are still awaiting the governor’s approval.

The governor signed into law several bills involving sales and income taxes but has not acted on other bills that could have a significant impact on taxpayers and revenue.

The biggest change comes from Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Rep. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, to phase out the state’s corporate income tax, levied on businesses’ net worth or accumulated wealth.

SB 1, sent to Edwards on June 7, would reduce the franchise tax by 25% per year if combined corporate income and franchise taxes exceed $600 million.

The bill was tied to the approval of Senate Bill 6, also by Allain, to reduce sales tax and project facilities rebates through the state’s Quality Jobs program by half of any reduction of the franchise tax rate.

Allain has said the expected $140 million in savings through SB 6, combined with changes to the corporate income tax three years ago that limited net operating losses, will more than cover the roughly $300 million generated by the franchise tax each year. Edwards has not signaled if or when he might sign the bill.

House Bill 562, by Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, to extend Louisiana’s film tax credits is also pending before the governor.

Other major legislation, House Bill 558 by New Iberia Rep. Beau Beaullieu, will transfer responsibility over local sales tax collections from the Department of Revenue to the Uniform Local Sales Tax Board, which will begin work in January to create a centralized system for all of the state’s 54 taxing jurisdictions.

The bill, motivated in part by a lawsuit filed with the help of the Pelican Center to challenge the sales tax system, was signed by Edwards on June 14.

“The Legislature took important steps this session on tax reform by enacting a permanent phase out to the state’s punishing franchise tax and streamlining a convoluted sales tax collection system, both the subject of many years of debate across the state,” Dan Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute, told The Center Square.

“The Pelican Center for Justice has been proud to represent Halstead Bead in a legal challenge to the sales tax system. We are gratified that their fight in court has helped put the problem in sharp enough relief that the Legislature has made these important changes. “

Edwards also approved SB 8, by Sen. Jay Leneau, D-Alexandria, to eliminate interest on disputed taxes; SB 89, by Sen. Jeremy Stine, to provide an exclusion for individual income tax for capital gains generated by the sale of certain businesses; and SB 428, by Rep. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, dealing with income tax exclusions for certain businesses, estates, trusts and partnerships.

Senate Bill 5, by Allain, to provide alternatives in lieu of payment under protest for ad valorem taxes gained Edwards’ signature as well; as did HB 256, by Rep. Gregory Miller, R-Norco, to extend the deadline for local sales taxes when they fall on a holiday; and HB 171, by Beaullieu, to change the threshold at which online sellers are required to remit state and local sales taxes.

“There’s much more to be done, but the Legislature should be commended for continuing to pursue policies that will bring jobs and opportunity to our people and begin to write Louisiana’s comeback story,” Erspamer said.

Jean Lafitte was the most notorious — and successful — of the pirates operating from Louisiana in the early 1800s, but he wasn’t the only one.

A federal grand jury in New Orleans reported in July 1814: “Piracy and smuggling are ... long established and ... systematically pursued by many of the inhabitants of this state and, particularly, of this city and vicinity.”
When the War of 1812 ended, in fact, “the opportunities for capable and industrious buccaneers ... in the Gulf of Mexico underwent a sudden, remarkable expansion,” according to a study by historian John Smith Kendall.
Practically all of Spain’s colonies in South and Central America were in rebellion and the leaders of the uprisings found it useful to use so-called “privateers” — independent seamen licensed to make war on behalf of a particular country — to attack Spanish shipping. Pirates found the situation to their liking, whether or not they were formally working for a rebel government.

“The owners and masters of the [privateer ships] that had played havoc with the British merchant marine during the war  [of 1812]... set sail for such Spanish-American ports as were in the hands of insurgents,” Kendall writes.

Many people in the United States sympathized with the rebellious colonies.

As a result, the U.S. government did little to combat what turned from so-called privateering into outright and obvious piracy.

“As a whole, our people declined to believe the facts even when American vessels mysteriously vanished. ... Not till 1840 can it be said that the last pirate had been hunted down and exterminated in the Gulf of Mexico. Even after that date there
were sporadic incidents of more or less piratical character,” Kendall says.

He gives the example of a man named Desfarges, who was hanged as a pirate in 1819.

He had served under Lafitte at Barataria and Galveston and in August 1819 signed an agreement under which Desfarges became commander of El Bravo, a vessel owned by Lafitte and described as a “Mexican corsair.”

Lafitte instructed Desfarges to capture ships “from the West of the stream” (the Mississippi River) and to bring them exclusively to Lafitte’s lair at Galveston, where the spoils would be divided.

Unfortunately for himself, Desfarges didn’t listen to his instructions.

He looted a ship near the mouth of the Mississippi and several people were killed.

Desfarges was captured by an American warship and he and 16 members of his crew were taken to New Orleans.

Lafitte hurried to the city to do something about it. He planned to set a fire as a diversion at the Cabildo, where Desfarges and his men were being held, but Lafitte’s would-be rescuers got drunk and torched the wrong building.

Then the pirate king went to Washington, where he still had some influence after his gallantry in the Battle of New Orleans, and tried to wrangle pardons for the men.

He got one young crewman off, but the rest had to suffer the fate of pirates before and after them.

Desfarges and the rest of his men were sentenced to be hanged. Desfarges was the first to feel the noose.

The rest of his crew, despite some legal maneuvering, met the same fate before the year was out.

You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.