Nothing says scenic Louisiana waterway like trash collecting along the bank. But a grassroots coalition of residents in Teche country said “Enough!” and have begun in earnest a clean-up of Bayou Teche. A recently formed group, Clean Up La Jonction, has spearheaded two sallies onto the Teche to deal with trash, which in some cases chokes the waterway when it collects under bridges, making navigation by boat next to impossible. Last weekend, the group, joined by the Acadiana Resource Conservation and Development Council, both the St. Martin and St. Landry sheriff departments, as well as concerned residents, embarked on a second mission to save the Teche from trash. More clean-up weekends are in the works. Before long, Bayou Teche might just be restored to the scenic beauty it long enjoyed and definitely deserves.
PAS BON
Just what a state with the highest gun death rate in the country needs (you hear that, don’t you Sen. Elbert Guillory): college kids toting concealed weapons. The state’s House Criminal Justice Committee voted 9-6 for Republican state Rep. Ernest Wooton of Belle Chasse’s absurd bill last week. It’s now headed to the full House, where it is likely to face a firing squad. A former sheriff (mind-boggling), Wooton proposed the same bill last year and got it past the criminal justice committee in an 11-3 vote. It died on the House floor.
The nine nimrods voting for HB27 were: (of course) Reps. Wooton; Josephy Lopinto, R-Metairie; Damon Baldone, D-Houma; Gregory Ernst, R-New Orleans; Guillory (who was sworn in as senator a few days later), D-Opelousas; Chris Hazel, R-Pineville; Gary Smith, D-Norco; Bodi White, R-Central; and Ricky Templet, R-Gretna.
Wiser minds opposing the bill were Reps. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport; Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport; Mickey Guillory, D-Eunice; Frankie Howard, R-Many; Jonathan Perry, R-Abbeville; and John Schroder, R-Covington.
COUILLON
Debra O’Neill. Baton Rouge’s alcoholic beverage control director, has been suspended for two weeks without pay and will be reassigned after ’fessing up to absconding with two bottles of liquor confiscated in an investigation. According to The Advocate, O’Neill admitted to taking bottles of Belvedere Vodka and Moet Champagne, which were supposed to be destroyed when they were no longer needed for evidence. We suspect O’Neill thought the means justifies the end; the evidence was no doubt “destroyed.” In screwdrivers, bloody Marys, mimosas. But we can also sympathize with O’Neill: Waste not, want not, as our maw-maws used to say. This is Louisiana, damn it! Who throws out perfectly good liquor?
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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