5 tax proposals pass easily
October 22, 2013TEDA board seeks ‘positive’ solution with parish
October 22, 2013
Books to branches and brush on duck blinds.
That’s what’s on the agenda as Lafourche Parish library headquarters staff and managers at Bayou Teche and Mandalay National Wildlife refuges get back in the swing of things following the three-week federal government shutdown.
“I received a text message very early Thursday morning from a park service worker letting me know they would be here to open our building for our regular hours,” said Laura Sanders, director of the Lafourche Parish Public Library system. “We are very happy to be back in our building.”
Sanders and her 17-member staff were forced to relocate from the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center to the Thibodaux main branch library following the Oct. 1 federal government shutdown. The director estimated it would take several weeks to catch up on work, mainly processing and distributing more than 2,400 books and 500 DVDs workers were unable to process during their temporary relocation.
“It took two full days just to move everything here,” Sanders said. “I have a great staff, and they have been diligently working to get things done. I have some outstanding professionals here at the library.”
The director said she fielded several calls from patrons who called to complain of the inconvenience of not being able to utilize the headquarters’ services.
“Some wanted to know who to call to complain,” she said. “I let them know this was nothing to do with the park service. The park service staff has gone above and beyond to let us know what is going on. They have been very gracious and hospitable to us during the shutdown.”
As hundreds of boxes of books are unpacked, Sanders is concerned about what may happen down the road with the federal government’s budget.
“This is a short-term fix,” she said. “Funding has only been approved until January 15. If there is no long-term budget, this could happen again.”
Congress voted to authorize funding for the federal government and extend the nation’s debt limit late on Wednesday. Louisiana’s delegation was split on the bill, which did not strip funding from the Affordable Care Act as originally desired by House Republicans.
Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and House Reps. Cedric Richardson, D-New Orleans, and Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, affirmed the bill. Republican Sen. David Vitter and House Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, John Fleming, R-Minden, and Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, opposed it.
In St. Mary and Terrebonne parishes, closed signs were taken down and regulation brochures were placed back in kiosks at Bayou Teche and Mandalay National Wildlife refuges, which had both been completely closed to hunting, fishing, boating, hiking activities and boat launch access during the 16-day shutdown.
“Everything is fully open,” said Paul Yakupzack, refuge manager at Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge. “We had complaints from a few people about the closure, mostly from people who wanted to bow hunt for deer. It was a bummer. A lot of people don’t have anywhere to hunt, and the closure put a few people out of business,” metaphorically speaking.
“We are glad to be back and hope we don’t have to go through that again anytime soon.”
Yakupzack said he is behind on getting duck blinds ready for the refuge’s lottery duck hunts, but barring any bad weather, the blinds should be ready for the youth lottery hunts Nov. 2-3.
Pat Reed, Lafourche Parish Library system acquisitions manager, checks in books. No books were distributed to library branches during the shutdown.
