Esma Orgeron
July 2, 2007
NSU business college dean elected to state CPA board
July 4, 2007The Terrebonne Parish Council passed an ordinance at its regular semi-monthly meeting Wednesday expanding the number of floats permitted in each Carnival parade in Terrebonne from 30 to 35.
The number of double, or piggyback, floats was capped at 10 a parade.
Council Chairman Alvin Tillman was the only councilmember who voted nay, saying that piggybacks could increase the total number of floats in a parade past the allowable limit.
Arguing in favor of the expansion, S.P. LaRussa, who is a member of the Krewe of Hercules, said that Jefferson Parish uses piggybacks to fit in up to 60 floats a parade, and the Krewes of Endymion and Bacchus in New Orleans alphabetize some of their floats to shoehorn in additional floats.
LaRussa said that three Houma krewes – Hercules, Mardi Gras and the Cajun – will have over 30 floats in 2008, and that three krewes will roll piggybacks. Hercules will have two double floats. A piggyback cannot be larger than its lead float.
Single floats in Houma parades cannot hold 50 to 60 riders, he said.
LaRussa stated several times that streets in Houma cannot accommodate large single floats when they need to turn from one roadway to another.
Addressing the council, he said that Carnival in Houma brings in $6-7 million a year to Terrebonne Parish.
“Houma’s going to boom,” LaRussa said. “People come to Terrebonne Parish because there’s a lot of activity. We have a family-oriented Mardi Gras.”
Also at the meeting, several Houma residents complained to the council about loud music coming from the 1921 on the Bayou Club near the Intracoastal Waterway.
Wynonna McElroy played a taped recording in the council chambers of music emanating from the club’s outdoor bands 800 feet away near midnight.
She said that when council members or Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter visit the club, the volume of the music is lowered.
Richard Labit, a seven-year-old Houma resident, told the council that the music is making sleeping and studying for school more difficult, and that his grades have suffered. He also complained about bottles littering the area near the club, and patrons parking the wrong way in the street.
“Rich people are more important than the safety of a child,” Labit said.
Houma resident Kim Gallicio presented a petition to the council asking the Terrebonne Parish government to give immediate relief to the neighborhood from the problems caused by the club. The council formally accepted the petition.
Houma Police Department Lt. Lonnie Lusco told the council that the police received 31 music loudness complaints from nearby residents for the four-month period March through June, but that in some of the instances the noise did not exceed the legally allowable 70-decibel level from 25 feet away.
Lusco said the Houma Police had issued 60 citations over a two-night period for vehicles parking the wrong way in the street around the club.
At its regular meeting May 9, Timothy Ellender, attorney for 1921 Club owner Jody Martin, said that employees of the club are working to clean bottles left in the area.
Terrebonne Parish Planning and Zoning Director Patrick Gordon, at the May 9 meeting, said that the 1921 Club meets all permit requirements, and that the grounds are well kept.
Terrebonne Parish has no ordinances against bands playing outside bars.
Tillman said that the club had had a problem with excessive dust clouding the area near the building, but that the club had resolved the problem by overlaying the area with a hard substance.
Both Tillman and Councilwoman Christa Duplantis said that the club could settle the noise problem by moving the bands inside the building.
