YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER LAROSE, LA thelafourchegazette.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
House wants to divert fee money to help pay for TOPS
SERVING: MATHEWS • GHEENS • LOCKPORT • VALENTINE • LAROSE CUT OFF • GALLIANO • GOLDEN MEADOW • LEEVILLE • GRAND ISLE
Proposed pump station scraped for fear of drinking water contamination
Official opening …
MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press
Thibodaux residents not happy with parish government’s decision
Information is as of press time Tuesday morning.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — To come up with another $100 million to help pay for the TOPS college tuition program next year, House leaders decided to divert money that people pay for some services away from the agencies providing those services. Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration and state senators are raising concerns about the legality of the idea, their ability to use the dollars if they’re diverted and the wisdom of an across-the-board cut that falls heavily on transportation, public safety and health agencies. “This is just another way to move money around, one that we think is substantively and procedurally flawed,” the governor’s chief budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, told the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday. See House Page 6-A
MEETINGS WEDNESDAY, MAY 18 VFW POST 8538 & AUX. 7:00 p.m. VFW Ave. - Larose (Behind LCO) THURSDAY, MAY 19
THE CENTER Special Education District #1 12-noon 5510 W. Ave. D/W. 55th St. Cut Off RECREATION DIST. #1 7:00 p.m. Lockport Town Hall 710 Church St.
VETERANS MEMORIAL DISTRICT, WARD 10 5:00 p.m. Behind the Monument Hwy. 3235 - Galliano
BAYOU FELLOWSHIP #484 7:00 p.m. E. 93rd St. - Galliano
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Arrests.............................9-A
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Legal Advertisement....10-A
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Memorials.......................9-A
News In Brief..................3-A
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Surfin’ the Net...............10-A
VOLUME 50 NUMBER 36
Buster Avera Contributing Writer
Photo by Babs
The official opening of the Galliano satellite permit office was held Tuesday morning with a ribbon cutting ceremony featuring Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle, Councilmen Daniel Lorraine and Aaron ‘Bo’ Melvin, and members of the Chamber. The Galliano Permit Office is located in the South Lafourche Library Building, 16241 E. Main, Suite B-10, and is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The office can be reached at (985) 632-4666.
Barrios to serve as GM-Fourchon Rodeo’s first female admiral
Fourchon, LA – Golden Meadow-Fourchon Tarpon Rodeo officials have announced Ashley Barrios as their 2016 Rodeo Admiral. Barrios will serve as Admiral for the 68th Annual Golden Meadow-Fourchon Tarpon Rodeo which will take place June 30 through July 2, at Moran’s Marina in Fourchon. Barrios, a State Farm Insurance agent in Cut Off, will be the first ever female admiral in the 68-year history of the rodeo. She is a resident of Larose, is married to James Seward, and is the daughter of Susan and Don Barrios of Mathews. She has a son Riley who attends Holy Rosary Catholic School in Larose. Barrios is very involved in Lafourche Parish
as she currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Lafourche Chamber of Commerce, CASA of Lafourche and Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana. She also sponsors and volunteers for several school projects and sporting events throughAshley Barrios out the parish. Barrios has spent her entire career with State Farm (26 years total), the last 10 of which were in Lafourche Parish. See Admiral Page 4-A
A proposed pump station at Dugas Canal, which would discharge drainage water into Bayou Lafourche near Thibodaux, possibly affecting the drinking water of thousands of people, will not be built, says Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle. The long-awaited $4.5 million Dugas Canal Pump Station project, an effort to alleviate the flooding of residents and businesses in a nearly 3,000 acre area, which includes Nicholls State University, Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Bayou Country Club, Peltier Park and other nearby neighborhoods, has for all intents and purposes been scrapped by Cantrelle. The region that the project was proposed to improve was first identified as a flood-prone area after Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. Residents continue to be affected by poor drainage. Residents have pleaded with parish government to go forward with the fully-funded and permitted project. Despite these pleadings and the apparent blessings of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, (and a permit from the U S Army Corps of Engineers), Cantrelle says the pump station is not the answer. Decaying matter on the bottom of Bayou Lafourche will be turned up, he and other officials say, polluting drinking water for people from Raceland to Fourchon. Terrebonne Parish could also be adversely affected as it gets some of its water from Bayou Lafourche near Shriever. “I have three or four engineers working on this project—to solve the problem without putting water into Bayou Lafourche,” he said at last week’s Council public meeting. See Council Page 4-A
Shell sponsors BTNEP in joint local restoration endeavor
Last week, Dean Blanchard, Deputy Director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP), announced BTNEP will partner with Shell to complete a series of projects to help restore some of Louisiana’s coastal marsh and ridge ecosystems. These restoration projects will focus on chenier ridges and adjacent marshes which are unique wetland features that provide habitat for birds, fish, and other wetland animals. Ridges stand several feet above mean sea level and are planted with a variety of woody and herbaceous plants. Surrounding these features are low-lying productive marshes. Ridges provide important habitat and sources of food for many species of Neotropical migratory songbirds including some that are on the threatened and endangered species list. Chenier ridges and maritime forests also act as speed bumps in slowing down storm surge during tropical events. “Restoring ridges and adjacent marshes are a great way to provide valuable habitat and storm protection. This type of restoration always requires multiple partners to be successful,” said Dean
Blanchard, BTNEP Deputy Director. “The use of volunteers from around the country to help vegetate these restored ridges
is an important tool to raise awareness about our issues here in the estuary.” See Shell Page 4-A
Shell Volunteers working with BTNEP on barrier island restoration project.