Gate request on Cotten Road met with public opposition

A request made last month of the St. Mary Parish Council to put a gate across a public road met with opposition Wednesday from people who use the area for recreation.
In the council’s March 25 meeting, property owner Scott Greene asked if he could install a gate across Cotten Road to prevent trash dumping and other illegal activities that may be taking place in a wooded area between the roadway and the Intracoastal Canal. He said he is the owner of all of the property on both sides of the southern end of the road.
Cotten Road runs south from U.S. 90 and serves as the access to Kemper Williams Park, Wedell-Williams Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum and the Atchafalaya Golf Course at Idlewild before it reaches Green’s property.
Greene was told that legal counsel would research laws on placing a gate across a public road before the council could grant permission.
Wednesday, the council heard from three people opposed to putting up the gate — Craig Lasseigne, Rodney Lodrigue and Roberta Edgar.
Before they spoke, Council Chairman Kevin Voisin said the issue was still being researched by legal counsel and would be taken up at a later meeting.
Lodrigue said he would hold his comments until that time but added that legal research of his own on state law indicated that access to public roads cannot be denied.
Lasseigne told the council that he uses the road often with his family to access fishing spots on a barrow pit and the Intracoastal Coastal Canal where the road ends.
“I’m into fishing, I do take care and if I see somebody doing something wrong, I’d be glad to call you,” Lasseigne said. “I just don’t feel like you can take this privilege away from us.” He also offered to pick up any litter he encountered that had been left by others.
Edgar said she uses the roadway to walk her dogs daily as do others from the Patterson area.
“I would hate to see it closed,” she said.
Councilman Steve Bierhorst of Patterson who agreed with Greene last month that putting up the gate would help curb illegal activities taking place at night, said he has since “done my homework” and would not now be in favor of the gate.
In years past, Bierhorst said, he was opposed to closing the road because it is used to access recreation opportunities. But he also noted that once you get off of the street you’re on private property which includes the barrow pit and the Intracoastal banks.
“Think about if you owned the land,” he said. “It’s our job to sit up here and make a decision if we’re going to continue a public road over private property or not … and there’s some situations where we may want to close the road down because it serves no purpose to anybody but a private individual. Why is (our) taxpayers’ money being used to keep that road up?”
Voisin told Lasseigne, Lodrigue and Edgar that they would be notified when the issue next comes before the council.
In other business the council:
—Agreed to research how many local fire departments have not received their annual allocations from the parish budget due to failure to submit a written request for disbursement. A letter from Franklin Mayor Raymond Harris indicted that the city fire department had not received its share of the three-quarter percent sales tax collections since 2009.
—Introduced ordinances declaring certain real property adjacent to Franklin Recreation Center as surplus, and reducing the number of board members on Water and Sewer Commission 1 from seven to five.
—Adopted ordinances rezoning property owned by Marnie Vaughan at 103 Big Bear Lane, Franklin, from an existing neighborhood zone to general commercial; and granting specific use permits to Craig Walker for a pond installation at 10222 La. 182 W, Franklin, and to the Veeder estate for a 15-lot RV park in the vicinity of the Charenton levee. A public hearing on the proposed ordinances will be called at 5:45 p.m.
—Passed resolutions authorizing a change order on Middle Road culvert project by Byron E. Talbot Contractors adding $4,000 to the price tag and two weeks to the completion time; a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Department of Transportation and Development on the donation of reclaimed asphalt pavement from the La. 182 maintenance project; requesting that DOTD installs “No Right Turn on Red” signs on both sides of La. 318 at U.S. 90; giving preliminary approval on the refinancing of up to $2.5 million in sewer sales tax bonds; and proclamations declaring April as Fair Housing Month and Autism Awareness Month.
—Approved a request from Councilman Glen Hidalgo to transfer $10,000 from the Wards 5 and 8 three-tenths percent sales tax fund to Fire District 7 for improvements to the interior of the Saturn Street Fire Station in Bayou Vista.
—Reappointed Wilfred Fields to the Sewer District 5 Board of Commissioners.