YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER LAROSE, LA thelafourchegazette.com
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Detectives investigating weekend shooting in Lockport
A reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons involved in a shooting in the Lockport area over the weekend. At around 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 14, deputies received a report of a shooting on East Lafourche Street in Lockport. Through investigation, they learned a male subject in his 20s had been shot in the left hip, and he had been airlifted to University Medical Center in New Orleans for treatment. His injuries were not life-threatening. As detectives continue their investigation, anyone with information on this incident is asked to submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers Bayou Region by phone at 1-800743-7433 or online at www.crimestoppersbr.org. Tips can also be submitted using the P3 Tips app on your mobile device. Tipsters could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000 in cash if the information leads to an arrest.
MEETINGS WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18 VFW POST 8538 & AUX. 7:00 p.m. VFW Avenue - Larose (Behind LCO) THURSDAY, JAN. 19
LAFOURCHE RECREATION DISTRICT #1 7:00 p.m. Lockport Town Hall 710 Church St. - Lockport SPECIAL ED. DIST. #1 12:00 noon 5510 W. 55th St. - Cut Off
VETERANS MEMORIAL DISTRICT, WARD 10 5:00 p.m. 16937 Hwy. 3235 - Galliano BAYOU FELLOWSHIP 7:00 p.m. E. 93rd St. - Galliano
INSIDE
Arrests.............................7-A
Calendar of Events.........2-A Classifieds.......................6-A Legal Advertisement......8-A
Lottery.............................2-A
Memorials........................6-A
Obituaries.......................6-A
Surfin’ the Net.................7-A
SERVING: MATHEWS • GHEENS • LOCKPORT • VALENTINE • LAROSE CUT OFF • GALLIANO • GOLDEN MEADOW • LEEVILLE • GRAND ISLE
VOLUME 51 NUMBER 19
Edwards plans special session to close deficit topping $300M By MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press
$24M upgrades to West Larose Lift Bridge ongoing
Staff Photo
The West Larose Lift Bridge is ungoing a $24 million upgrade, a necessary endeavor to keep the bridge structurally sound.
By DAVID J. MITCHELL The Advocate
LAROSE, La. (AP) — In the fall of 1961, Gov. Jimmie Davis and his back-up vocal group, the Plainsmen, sang “You Are My Sunshine,” and “Peace in the Valley” to open the $1.5 million West Larose Vertical Lift Bridge on La. 1 in Lafourche Parish. The people of Larose and nearby Cut Off so welcomed the bridge’s arrival in October 1961, that after the ribbon-cutting on the bridge’s deck, the towns held a parade from the bridge to a nearby high school stadium, news accounts from the day said. High school bands led the way, and Davis and his wife rode along in an open-top convertible. Davis and others sang and gave speeches to mark the day, according to accounts in the Lafourche Comet and Lafourche Weekly Press. For more than half a century, the lift bridge’s middle traffic span has been raised 73 feet in the air, stopping road traffic, when boat traffic must pass through on the east-west Intracoastal Waterway. Now the once shiny new bridge located in the heart of south Louisiana’s coastal oil patch is in the middle of a major $24.2 million rehabilita-
tion, state highway officials said. Begun in the summer of 2015, the repair job has led to numerous closures to car and truck traffic and more extended closures of weeks to months-long are coming this year as crews turn to rehabilitation of the mechanical and electronic equipment that raise and lower the bridge deck, highway officials said. During that time, the bridge will have to remain open to water traffic and closed to cars and trucks, causing backups and forcing them to reroute to a nearby high-rise bridge on La. 308. “You have to shut it down. Now all this work, it obviously takes a good bit of time, so that’s why in the specifications, the contractor was required to do this not during hurricane season. So that’s why they’re getting this stuff started right now,” Christopher Rogers, a state Department of Transportation and Development project engineer, said in an interview last month. While some local officials say the work is needed on this link in the La. 1 corridor that is so important to the nation’s oil and gas production and critical for hurricane evacuation, residents and other officials aren’t as excited as their predecessors were that October day 55 years ago. See Bridge Page 7-A
Lafourche Parish reveals new tourism brand
One parish along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast kicked off the new year by rebranding itself. The Bayou Lafourche Area Convention & Visitors Bureau announced that the region’s new tourism identity is “Louisiana’s Cajun Bayou.” But this isn’t a new identity so much as it’s the parish embracing what it’s always been. “Visitors to our parish immediately recognize what makes us special, and much of that has to do with our Cajun culture and our distinct geography,” says Timothy P. Bush, president and CEO of the Bayou Lafourche Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Everything we do and have here is defined by the Bayou – our food, our festivals, our outdoor recreation and, most significantly, our culture.” The new creative campaign will center on popular
local lingo that relates to Bayou Lafourche. Visitors can go anywhere in the parish and hear the phrases “up the Bayou” – which takes them to the parish seat of Thibodaux – and “down the Bayou,” which leads to fishing and other outdoor adventures in such towns as Golden Meadow and Leeville and all the way south to Port Fourchon. Those traveling by car or motor coach follow Louisiana Highway 1 or Louisiana Highway 308, which run parallel to each other, from one end of the Bayou – and the parish – to the other. Along the way they explore museums and historic sites, eat great seafood and Cajun delicacies, and participate in swamp tours and a full range of other outdoor activities. See Tourism Page 3-A
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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday he intends to call a special legislative session to rebalance the state budget after Louisiana’s midyear deficit was projected to reach $313 million. The state income forecasting panel, known as the Revenue Estimating Conference, downgraded Louisiana tax collection estimates to account for unemployment that is dragging income, business and sales taxes below expectations. The Democratic governor said the action “clearly indicates the need for a special session,” expected sometime next month, to make cuts and consider using Louisiana’s “rainy day” fund to close the gap in the $27 billion state operating budget. The session is expected to fall in mid-February, between Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras. Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras showed resistance to the idea, suggesting the budget could be rebalanced without the full Legislature returning to Baton Rouge. “It’s not inevitable that we have a special session. We could accomplish the cuts without one,” said Barras, RNew Iberia. But he said if the governor calls the session as expected, “we will be there.” Edwards said constitutional limits on the governor and the joint legislative budget committee’s ability to slash spending would make cuts fall too heavily on public colleges and health services for the poor, elderly and disabled. A special session, he said, would allow lawmakers to cut more broadly across programs and agencies. See Session Page 5-A
Detectives recall warrant, release man who confessed to murder
Investigators have recalled a warrant for the arrest of a Golden Meadow man for Second Degree Murder after Cameron Sands no evidence was (Released) discovered against him in the death of 64-year-old Wayne Matherne. Cameron Sands (age 25), who was arrested last November 6, was released from jail Friday. However, murder charges remain for Dayton Duet (age 20) in the case. The investigation into Matherne’s death began on Friday, November 4, 2016, when a meal-delivery worker arrived at Matherne’s residence and found him to be unresponsive. See Sands Page 3-A
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