St. Mary youth program, water district programs in jeopardy

State cuts could jeopardize two programs in St. Mary Parish, officials told the parish council last week. One program lends to protecting coastal erosion and the other to the welfare of at-risk children.

The 16th Judicial District Children and Youth Planning Board has suspended all further activity and function, due to the lack of funding from one stakeholder who belongs to the group.

State law required in 2008 that all parish governments in each judicial district of the state create and establish a children and youth planning board to provide for the preparation of a comprehensive plan for the development, implementation and operation of services for children and youth.

Originally, the board received funding through the state’s 2008 appropriation bill, which was administered by the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, but that ended in 2009.

The board then requested contributions from various stakeholders throughout the judicial district, including parish governments, the district attorney, the district judges, parish school boards and some city and town governments.

St. Martin Parish has expressed interest in pulling itself from the program, according to a letter written to St. Mary Parish Council by Sherry Frye, the board’s director.

Some of goals of the board included mentoring at-risk children. Plans were on the books for a summer work program for youth on probation.

The 16th Judicial District is comprised of St. Martin, Iberia and St. Mary parishes.

In another matter, the director of the St. Mary Salt and Water Conservation District believes her program is in jeopardy. Sophie Kilchrist told the council that said she will lose $10,000 of her $50,000 state-funded budget and that she is exploring other funding sources.

“We pair up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get the funding for big projects, but the state allocation of funds for this office are earmarked for education and outreach – that’s one of our main goals, to teach youth about the environment,” Kilchrist said. “We can’t do this anymore, if we don’t have the funding.”

The district is also responsible for soil and water conservation programs within the parish.

“We deliver a wide variety of programs and services in response to the agricultural, environmental, and recreational needs of private landowners and operators,” she said. “However, our mission is to help maintain a better environment for future generations and to encourage the wise use of our top soil and water through programs and education.”

During the past three years, the St. Mary Soil and Water Conservation District worked with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to implement programs to re-establish more than 34,000 linear feet of shoreline vegetation, along with other projects to reduce soil erosion and improve water quality in the parish, said Henry “Bo” LaGrange, St. Mary Parish chief administrative officer.

Kilchrist said one of her outreach programs planted 1,700 Cypress, Green Ash, Mulberry and Tupelo Trees on Belle Isle, which is located about 19 miles southeast of Franklin, two weeks ago.

“Also, every year we have a re-vegetation program for the marsh, where we go into the Gulf tributaries and plant bulrush, which helps to prevent the erosion of our coast line,” she said.

In other matters at that meeting, they allocated $1,500 to the Town of Baldwin for its Little League programs, $1,000 to St. Mary Landmarks, and $10,000 to the Patterson Volunteer Fire Department for the purchase of communication equipment.