Parish OK’s Port of WSM no-wake zone

Boats travelling in the West St. Mary Parish Port, Harbor and Terminal District Navigational Channel will have to be more mindful of what they leave behind them soon after the parish council adopted a new measure at their meeting Wednesday.
The measure established a no-wake zone in the body of water following a public hearing on the subject. A no-wake zone is defined as an area on a body of water where boats and other vessels are required to travel at or below idle speed or at a speed sufficient to prevent waves or a wake. Reasons to prevent wakes include, but are not limited to, safety to people and property and to prevent damage to nautical infrastructure.
According to an article published at the BoatU.S. magazine website, preventing wakes can have many benefits. The article states, “You can save a lot of money and also avoid being the recipient of rude gestures from other skippers by using a little common sense and courtesy. This means coming completely off plane when you enter a no-wake zone or any area where your wake could compromise the safety of other boats. All too often the skippers react to a no-wake sign by slowing the boat slightly and then plowing through with the boat’s bow up in the air and the stern dug down into the water. Instead of reducing the size of the boat’s wake, this token reduction in speed — not quite on plane — increases the size of the wake.”
Also Wednesday, in his annual address to the council and the audience in attendance, St. Mary Parish President David Hanagriff addressed the predicted weather event this week and said the parish is bracing for inclement weather.
“We don’t think it’s going to be as bad as forecasted, however, the parish is prepared just in case,” Hanagriff said. “We want to make sure everyone is safe.”
Other business included several subdivision approvals as well as several re-zoning measures. There were also five re-zoning ordinances introduced.
New business included the reception of financial statements from the 2014-2015 fiscal year from Hospital Service District No. 3.
The council also accepted the appointment of four community members to the state mandated and recently established 16th Judicial District Children and Youth Planning Board (CYPB). Serving the young people in the community in that capacity will be Lenny Armato whose expertise is in education, Judge Vincent Borne whose expertise is in criminal justice, Mary Alice Fuhrer and Jamie Huffman whose specialties are mental health.
Board members will serve a term of two years. According to the New Orleans CYPB website, the state mandated the establishment of the boards to “facilitate purposeful discussions regarding problems facing children and youth and facing service providers, identify resources available to children and youth, assess gaps in services and programming available to children and youth, develop a comprehensive plan for the development, implementation and operation of services for children and youth, make formal recommendations to the city {parish} council and collaborate with children and youth stakeholders.”