Galliano library to eventually house South Lafourche courts, judge says

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s North Hospital project complete
October 20, 2006
Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s North Hospital project complete
October 20, 2006

Lafourche Parish plans use the vacant room at the South Lafourche Courthouse Annex in Galliano to house a Head Start Program.


Judges in Lafourche Parish had to make a tough decision, whether to stay or close office, after numerous agencies that were once housed at the 40-year-old Annex moved out. Court will no longer be held in South Lafourche because of a number of issues that made the Annex obsolete.


Convenience factors yielded the decision to hold all legal proceeding in Thibodaux, where most lawyers are located, one official said. The Annex once provided a convenient alternative location to hold hearings for residents in South Lafourche. In recent years, less business has been completed at the Annex and lawyers are located an hour away deal with conflicting schedules.

“People are more mobile today then they were thirty years ago when the courtroom was first established. Having to come to Thibodaux for court may not be the hardship for residents of South Lafourche that it was a long time ago,” said Head Judge Jerome J. Barbera III of Lafourche Parish.


Barbera said the decision of whether to continue holding court at this facility was influenced by the relocation of other agencies. A new health unit is located in South Lafourche for better accommodation, he said. The clerk of court and registrar and various agencies are still located in the building but have plans to move to a new location.


“All the facilities currently there are eventually planning on moving to the new library facility at the old Galliano Wal-Mart on Hwy. 308, across the Bayou from where the Annex is now. A third of that building is reserved for parish offices, like clerk of court, CVM, assessor’s office and offices of parish officials,” said Brennan Matherne of Lafourche Parish Office.

The Lafourche has plans for the vacant room left at the Annex.

“Eventually we are going to locate a head start program at that facility. There will have to be some renovation, needed to convert it into a facility but it won’t be anything major,” said Matherne.

No specific date is set to kick off the Head Start Program. Slow building at the new library has set back the time when agencies will move, and Matherne suspects it will be at least two years until that time.

The Annex would not need any major overhaul, however, for the courthouse to remain, security would need to be updated, according to the judge.

“There is no security in the building at all,” said Barbera. “The law does not require that there be security for the building but if you can have it it is certainly the best thing to do for the public and the people who work there. Everybody should be comfortable with their safety when they go to court to conduct their business.”

So far, public complaints have been non-existent concerning the cessation of court proceeding, and Barbera does not predict any major negative impact since services at the site were not being utilized.