Parish council’s final meeting sets stage for 2016

There was a changing of the guard Wednesday at the St. Mary Parish Council meeting as the incoming and outgoing members shared stories and congratulated each other on their service to the community.
Outgoing Parish President Paul Naquin Jr. said it was an honor to serve the parish and that the community will continue to be well-served by incoming president David Hanagriff.
“I want to thank the community for giving me the chance to serve,” Naquin said. “I enjoyed every minute. If it wasn’t for this council, a lot of projects wouldn’t have gotten done. St Mary Parish is a safer parish than it’s ever been because of you. Not because of me. And because of the citizens of St. Mary Parish. I want to thank the citizens for giving me the opportunity to serve for the last 35 years. It has been a privilege and I’m looking forward to working with the new council.”
Councilman Albert Foulcard also wrapped up a long career in local public service. He has served on the former St. Mary Parish Police Jury and subsequently the St. Mary Parish Council.
He said it has been his honor and pleasure to serve the citizens of the parish over those decades he has been in office.
There were two guests on hand at the meeting, which had been rescheduled due to the holidays. The first had a message for the council regarding parish-wide efforts to improve the aesthetic quality of the area. Rodney Grogan, Project Director of Keep St. Mary Parish Beautiful, said the group was very successful in picking up what careless people have unfortunately left behind.
“We picked up a total of 4.5 tons of trash,” Grogan said. “We’ve had a lot of volunteers to agree to come on board. I’m proud to say we’ve had 271 volunteers agree to participate. Our efforts have not been in vain.”
The second guest who spoke before the council at the last meeting of 2015 was a representative of a company that wants to help the parish address environmental concerns in the region. Joseph Lazaro of Bayou Backer Erosion Control told council members he has a plan to help prevent future coastal erosion in the parish and replenish areas that are already eroding.
Lazaro’s invention is a plastic material that is embedded in the sediment a few feet off shore in areas where erosion is occurring and reduces wave activity. The reduction in wave activity, according to Lazaro, will reduce future erosion and allow plant life to take hold. Lazaro said his plan is also fiscally viable in comparison to other coastal erosion prevention options.
“Basically what it is, is a long strip of plastic that intercepts the wave and damp the wave action,” Lazaro said. “We did a test study at LSU and it showed a reduction in wave energy of 65 percent at hurricane strength. I’ve already spoken to your levee board and they don’t have any objection. I’m asking you to identify places in your wetlands where this could work. We can do this for less than $500,000 per mile. It’s cheap and simple and will last for years. Other options are very expensive costing millions of dollars.”
In other business, Fire Protection Dist. 2 will be getting some new equipment soon after a measure was passed that will allocate $20,000 for the cause.
St. Mary Parish President-elect David Hanagriff requested the funds to go toward a new fire rescue truck and the council unanimously agreed the money for the new equipment was justified.
Also, Hanagriff moved for Recreation District No. 7 to receive new equipment to entertain local children in the near future. The council unanimously approved a measure to allocate $12,000 from several wards’ sales tax funds to purchase new playground equipment.
Other items on the agenda included the adoption of the 2015 combined budgets of revenues and expenditures for the parish.
The council also passed several resolutions.
The first concerned the construction of a sidewalk along Lake Palourde Road in Amelia. The second was in regards to the construction of another sidewalk in west St. Mary Parish.
The third will allow for preservation efforts at the historic Kemper House near Patterson; and the last resolution renewed the contract for the firm that handles food and beverage service at the Atchafalaya Golf Course.