Parish council considers 'Project Connect' request

An organization devoted to improving the health of area youth and educating them about the value of healthy decision-making practices submitted a pre-application to the St. Mary Parish Council at their meeting Wednesday for $25,000 in funds.
According to information provided to the council, “Project Connect” is an initiative dedicated to decreasing the percentage of St. Mary Parish teens with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and teen pregnancies. The information cited statistics from the Louisiana Office of Public Health that in 2015, Louisiana ranked first in the nation for adolescents with STIs and seventh in the country for teen pregnancy.
The information continued to state, “In 2014, the teen birth rate in St. Mary Parish was (46.7 per 1,000) even higher than the state rate (35.8 per 1,000) and almost twice as high as the national rate (24.2 per 1,000). We rank 20th out of 64 parishes in the state for teen birth rates. For all ages, St. Mary Parish ranked 20th out of the 64 parishes for the rate of chlamydia and 27th for gonorrhea.”
The effort is being spearheaded by Dr. Gail Hamilton and received the unanimous support of the council on Wednesday. Especially vocal about the project were Councilman J Ina and Councilman Rev. Craig Mathews. Mathews said something had to be done to motivate area youths to change their behavior.
“This is absolutely alarming to me as a public official, an advocate for children and families and as a father,” Mathews said. “We have an enormous problem here in this parish. I applaud Dr. Hamilton in bringing people together to talk about this problem. But we sit here having conducted all these meetings and beginning the process of coming up with an action plan, but we still have no plan. What we have before us tonight is consideration of funding the efforts of the St. Mary Parish Project Connect Initiative so that we may continue what we began.”
The council indicated the request will be brought up at a future meeting during budget considerations.
The council and the audience in attendance also heard a message from St. Mary Parish President David Hanagriff regarding the upcoming Dec. 10 election. Hanagriff voiced his strong support for a measure on the ballot that he said would be a mistake for voters to turn down.
Hanagriff said, while it was easy and common for voters to enter the voting booth, see a mill on the ballot and automatically vote “no” he hoped residents would educate themselves about the measure before they enter the polling place on Dec. 10. The millage on the ballot will renew funding for a gravity drainage district and will also aid in flood protection.
“People have a tendency to vote ‘no’ especially if they don’t know what it is,” Hanagriff said. “This is very important. The drainage district cleans the ditches and they clean the canals. But they also operate and maintain the pump stations. Without those pump stations, we’d be in jeopardy. I encourage everyone to let people know what this is and what it’s about rather than just seeing a tax election and vote ‘no.’ Hopefully, they will pass.”
In other business, the council declared this week as “Civil Air Patrol Week.” The declaration comes as the organization celebrates its’ 75th year of providing a wide array of services and assistance to the parish and across the United States. The Civil Air Patrol wing in St. Mary Parish has participated, most recently, in a search and rescue capacity several times in the past year.