Carnival parades to lengthen in ’08

Houma’s carnival parades are beginning to rival those in New Orleans, so the city needs to increase the maximum number of floats permitted in each parade from 30 to 35, members of the Terrebonne Parish Council said at Wednesday night’s council meeting.

Also at the meeting, the council honored Houma blues musician Tab Benoit for his role as a de facto ambassador for Terrebonne Parish, and for his work with coastal restoration.

Councilmembers passed a resolution to offer an ordinance at the regular council meeting June 27 expanding the float limit to 35.

In the ordinance, the council will limit the number of “piggyback,” or double, floats to10 a parade. Piggybacks are floats that are attached behind another float.

The council originally wanted to increase the maximum to 40 floats a parade, but 40 is excessive, said Councilman Clayton Voisin.

Terrebonne Parish Parade Coordinator, and Chairman of the Mardi Gras Safety Committee, Gary Beeson said, “The parades are growing fast. They can’t get too big, or they’ll last all night long.

“We have to keep a lid on it,” he said. “Thirty-five is what we feel is safe. If the parish keeps growing, we may have to go higher.”

Beeson said that adding five floats would increase up to 30 minutes the time for a parade to pass.

Councilwoman Teri Cavalier, who is a school counselor, asked Beeson to place the added floats at the end of each parade, so that school bands could march closer to the front, and leave for home earlier.

“With children out that late, you have problems,” Cavalier said. “There are a lot of parents picking kids up.”

Beeson said krewes need to place out-of-town bands toward the front to allow them more time to travel home.

Three council members spoke in favor of the expansion. Councilwoman Kim Elfert said, “I love parades. You could put 60 floats in, I’m for it.”

Councilwoman Christa Duplantis told Beeson, “Whatever you want to do, do it.” Regardless of how many floats roll in a parade, “when the last float comes, people want more,” she said.

Councilman Peter Rhodes expressed concern about the extra cost incurred by the sheriff’s office and the Houma Police to provide protection for the added number of floats. However, he said that if law enforcement has no problems with longer parades, he is in favor of the ordinance.

The only councilmember to speak out against the proposed ordinance was Alvin Tillman, who objected that allowing krewes to piggyback 10 floats a parade means that krewes could roll, in reality, 45 floats a parade, if the ordinance passes.

Beeson said that Houma followed the lead of New Orleans when the city decided to count a piggyback, and its lead float, as one float. Krewes in Houma have only used piggybacking for the last three or four years, he said. Two krewes in Houma currently use the double-floats.

Beeson said that the only reason some paraders ride on piggyback floats is to stay together with friends.

He said that the limit of 10 double-floats a parade was chosen arbitrarily. Otherwise, a krewe would be able legally to attach piggybacks to all its floats.

“We had to come up with a number,” he said. “We put 10 in to have a cap.”

Tillman said, ” I won’t support it, then. You’re playing with words.”

Finally, Rhodes said that “it may be advantageous” to install a representative from “the community” on the Mardi Gras Safety Committee. The committee consists of the Terrebonne Parish parade coordinator, the sheriff, the Houma Police chief, the Houma Fire Department chief, and representatives from the krewes.

In other business, Benoit stood before the council as Councilwoman Kim Elfert read a proclamation declaring that he “has received national and international recognition.” The proclamation listed the musician’s recent major accomplishments.

Benoit received a 2007 Grammy Award nomination, along with Louisiana Leroux, in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for the album “Brothers in the Blues.” (The category was won by Ike Turner for the album “Risin’ with the Blues.”)

Benoit recently won Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year at the 2007 Blues Music Awards, presented by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tenn.

Benoit is also the president of Voice of the Wetlands, the coastal preservation group he co-founded in 2003.

“How did I get into the blues?” Benoit asked, speaking to the council. “When the parish is washing away, I have the blues. We’re on borrowed time.

“When I listened to Ray Charles as a kid, it was moving me,” he said. “It’s still working inside of me. I should use it for the positive.”

He joked, “I write more blues songs about Louisiana losing its marsh than about losing my woman.”

When he was at the Blues Music Awards, Benoit said he put in a plug for Terrebonne Parish.

“I’ve had the opportunity to talk to governors and congressman,” Benoit said. “They don’t know anything about wetlands loss.”

Duplantis told him, “You’re approachable. It’s an honor you’re representing Terrebonne Parish like you do.”

Voisin said, “You’re just the ambassador Terrebonne needs.”

Benoit said, “No other state has to deal with what we’re dealing with.”

The musician is featured prominently in the 2006 IMAX film “Hurricane on the Bayou,” about post-Katrina south Louisiana. Benoit urged the public to see the film, which is currently playing at the IMAX Theatre in New Orleans.

“Much of it was filmed in Terrebonne Parish,” he said. “You forget how beautiful a swamp is.”

Benoit, 39, was born in Baton Rouge, but grew up in Houma. He graduated from Vandebilt High School in Houma in 1985.