Litter office, trailer park changes tabled

St. Mary Parish’s plan to add a litter office and director is on hold, for now.

The parish council split last Wednesday night on the idea of spending nearly $23,000 for the “litter reduction” plan requested by St. Mary Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange. He asked that a “Keep St. Mary Parish Beautiful” program be created through an intergovernmental agreement with the cities of Morgan City, Patterson and Franklin and towns of Berwick and Baldwin.

The total cost of the program is $60,000, LaGrange said. St. Mary Parish government would pay 38 percent of the cost.

A full-time director of the program would be responsible for educating people about litter prevention, beautification and community improvement and waste reduction, he said.

The program was the brainchild of LaGrange and Morgan City Mayor Tim Matte, and is loosely based on the volunteer “Keep Morgan City Beautiful” effort. The group works on various litter campaigns year-round.

“Where do we begin?” asked Councilman Chuck Walters. “Sixty-thousand for somebody to tell us to pick up garbage so we can go tell somebody to pick up their garbage?”

Walters, who represents the Amelia area, proposed hiring more nuisance abatement staff to clean the parish.

LaGrange fired back, noting the cost of the program is $60,000, not the director’s salary. “Also, this is litter reduction, not nuisance abatement,” he said.

Walters said it was the responsibility of St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office trusties to pick up garbage. He suggested using $450,000 obtained by state Sen. Butch Gautreaux to purchase grass-cutting equipment and teaming with the sheriff’s office to clean up the parish.

Gautreaux and state Rep. Jack Smith obtained the money to bolster the parish’s effort to keep U.S. Highway 90 clean through St. Mary Parish.

LaGrange explained the proposed litter office would serve all St. Mary Parish, not just the U.S. 90 corridor.

Walters’ argument received support from councilmen Craig Matthews and Albert Foulcard. “The last thing this parish needs is another director,” Matthews said.

Councilman Logan Fromenthal supported the measure, saying, “I’ve spoken to people throughout the year who have expressed how dirty St. Mary Parish is. That’s why it doesn’t go anywhere. Now we have an opportunity to do something about this, and it’s beyond me why we don’t do it.”

The issue was unanimously tabled.

Also tabled was a proposal from the parish’s Planning and Zoning Commission suggesting, among other things, shrubbery and a 10-foot fence enclose St. Mary trailer parks.

“The last thing I want to do is tell someone who wants to build a trailer park in my area, ‘You have to put a fence and shrubbery around the whole thing,'” Walters said. “Just the money to do that would be excessive.”

“I think we’re getting way out of hand, especially when we’re trying to get people in here. This is just not setting a good example,” he added.

Former councilman Pete Soprano, who was in the audience at last Wednesday’s meeting, also weighed in on the measure. “I think you need to bring the ratty trailer parks up to par, then we can grow this parish like Houma is growing,” he said.

Among the proposed changes to St. Mary trailer parks were:

• Increasing minimum lot spaces from a half-acre to an acre;

• Increasing lot widths from 100 feet to a minimum of 150 feet, and depth from 200 feet to a minimum of 250 feet;

• Increasing the front yard from 40 feet to a minimum of 50 feet; the rear yard from 25 to a minimum of 50 feet; and the side yard from 10 to a minimum of 20 feet.

In other business, the St. Mary Parish Council:

• Lifted the moratorium on the construction and location of bunkhouses in the parish, allowing new operating permits for persons wishing to construct and locate a bunkhouse anywhere within the unincorporated areas of the parish.

• Passed a resolution endorsing Bollinger Marine Fabricators’ expansion in the Amelia area, so the firm can get tax relief inside a state enterprise zone.

• Learned Cox Cable will raise expanded basic cable by $3, and its digital premium services from $1 to $2, depending upon the package chosen by the customer. Cox Cable services homes from Bayou Vista to Jeanerette.

• Learned the town of Berwick and the city of Patterson submitted invoices for pre-trial detainees. Berwick billed St. Mary $5,124 for housing 32 parish pre-trial detainees during November 2007. That same time period, Patterson held 55 parish pre-trial detainees for a total of $9,674. In December, Patterson housed 40 parish pre-trial detainees, billing the parish $8,834.

• Adopted ordinances rezoning Cajun Land USA property in Amelia from heavy industrial to general commercial. The company is planning to build a 200-room hotel and a video poker truck stop, in addition to a trailer park along Lake Palourde Bypass Road.