LAPLACE “ St. John Parish attorneys handling the fight to get the Reserve-Edgard Ferry back in action have granted the Archdiocese of New Orleans some extra time to respond to legal action pertaining to an agreement between the parish and St. John the Baptist Church.
Kerry Brown, a LaPlace attorney and member of the St. John Council legal team, said the Archdiocese was given a 15-day extension Tuesday to respond to a declaratory judgment stating that the Edgard church might be in violation of an agreement it has had with the parish since 1967.
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Brown explained the dispute comes down to usage of a servitude by Entergy for placement of a utility pole needed to power the ferry’s Edgard landing site. He said the church is blocking Entergy from moving its pole from the levee to the other side of River Road.
“I was hoping to get this settled as quickly as possible,” said Brown. “It’s such an important matter that has been put off far too long.”
Meanwhile, officials with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development say even if the legal matter is resolved in a timely manner there still may be a delay in getting the ferry back on the water.
Roy Quezaire, legislative liaison for LADOTD said the department is dealing with a shortage of personnel with the required Coast Guard licensing needed to operate the ferry. He explained that DOTD has had a difficult time keeping employees because there are similar jobs in the private sector that are better paying.
“We are aggressively pursuing and trying to get people who are interested in operating the ferries,” said Quezaire. “It has been a struggle for us for a number of years.”
Quezaire also mentioned that the boat that was removed from the ferry site in Edgard is in need of minor repairs. He said those repairs could be done within a week at best.
“That is the smallest hill we must climb,” said Quezaire. “The biggest challenge is in the employment shortfall. We are very serious about restoring the services, but we must make sure the “i’s” are dotted and the “t’s” are crossed.”
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SEND IT AWAY wrote on Dec 31, 2008 8:24 AM:
bridge crossing the river.
If st charles and st james accept the bridges; why do the Neanderthals in st john feel they need an antiquated and dangerous drain on the taxpayers to please a hand full of hard heads? "
JUST MAYBE wrote on Dec 31, 2008 8:18 AM:
YGTBFC wrote on Dec 27, 2008 10:19 AM:
and wasteful people who foolishly want to restore the ferry.
Does st charles need a ferry?
Does st james need a ferry?
How st john people be so stupid?
It is really embarrassing.
It gives you an idea of how embarrassed the people of N O must feel every time
'empty noggin nagin' opens his mouth. "
LET THEM LEAD wrote on Dec 25, 2008 11:41 PM:
but handcuff them to the rail!!!! "
YGTBFK wrote on Dec 25, 2008 11:35 PM:
"Thirty years ago this week, the ferryboat George Prince, packed with construction and chemical plant workers, pushed off from a Destrehan dock into the Mississippi River and blundered into the path of the Norwegian tanker ship Frosta.
It was just after 6 a.m. on Oct. 20, 1976. Ferry pilot Egidio "Gene" Auletta gunned the ferry's engines into the current. As the 120-foot ferry turned toward the Luling dock, Auletta seemed oblivious to frantic horn blasts and radio calls from the 665-foot-long tanker that towered over the ferry's port side.
A few minutes later, when the ferry was only 800 feet from its destination, the Frosta ran over the George Prince like a bathtub toy, flipping it and spilling cars and people into the water. Of the 95 people who boarded the ferry on that clear, chilly morning, 77 died, including Auletta and the four members of his crew.
Today, less than a mile from the site of the tragedy, the massive Hale Boggs Bridge straddles the river, enabling people to travel between the east and west banks of St. Charles Parish in moments. But there is nothing to mark the spot of the worst ferry disaster in U.S. history.
"People seem to have forgotten about it," said Royd Anderson, a Hahnville High School teacher who wrote and produced a 22-minute documentary about the disaster.
Anderson, 35, produced the film as the final project for his master's degree in communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
"When I started working on this two years ago, I had no idea I'd be working in St. Charles Parish," he said.
The only monument to the victims sits 15 miles away near the St. John the Baptist Parish Courthouse in Edgard. It was placed there in 1979 after St. Charles Parish officials refused an offer to place it on the grounds of their courthouse in Hahnville.
Anderson and some of the victims' families said a memorial in St. Charles Parish is long overdue.
One idea is to place it at the public playground built under the bridge, whose foundations were rising out of the river when the accident occurred.
"There should be a memorial here and it should be on the east bank," said Thomas Pritchett, whose brother, Kevin, died in the accident at 16.
Pritchett said he was running late that morning and missed the deadly voyage by a few minutes.
Charles Chatelain was early. The River Ridge man took the ferry every work day in his commute from River Ridge to the small Texaco refinery in Paradis. His 1975 Ford was the second vehicle to drive onto the ferry, a position that let him park just forward of the pilot house on the vessel's starboard side.
As the ferry moved across the river, Chatelain and the other passengers saw the Frosta bearing down on them.
As other passengers scattered, Chatelain dove into his truck, thinking it would be safe.
When the Frosta slammed into the other side of the ferry, Chatelain's truck was among the first to plunge into the dark water.
The collision shoved Chatelain out of his seat and into the truck's dashboard. As the truck sank, Chatelain said he struggled to get out, but could not. Suddenly, the water pressure popped out the truck's windshield, and the air trapped inside the cab propelled him into the water.
"It shot me out of there like a cannon," he said.
As he swam to the surface, he said he had to dodge cars and trucks that were falling on top of him. He was running out of air and began taking small "sips" of the river water made greasy with fuel.
He came up with a bellyful of water and his throat burning with diesel fuel from the ferry's tanks, and too close to the stern of the Frosta, which he feared would suck him into its propeller.
"I swam for what must have been 3 miles until I came upon what I thought was a barge. It turned out to be the hull of the ferry," he said.
He climbed onto the overturned ferry's hull, where he was rescued by another boat, which took him to the hospital.
"I was lying there half out of my mind, when the hospital administrator came in and said, 'Please, I've had to put guards around the hospital, because we've got 100 reporters out there who want to talk with you,' " he said.
He agreed to an interview on the condition that only one reporter would ask questions.
Chatelain, now 64, said he dreamed of the accident every night for two years and the aftermath was a contributing factor to his divorce in 1977.
Chatelain said he avoided talking about the event for decades. He said he broke his silence to help Anderson with his project and to ensure that his children and grandchildren know what happened.
"It's been long enough," he said. "It doesn't hurt much any more."
A dozen St. John residents died in the wreck. Nineteen of the victims, including all of the crew, were from St. Charles Parish and 18 were from Jefferson. Another 17 victims were from Hammond, Tickfaw and Ponchatoula in Tangipahoa Parish.
"When they pulled my truck out of the water it was crushed like a beer can," he said.
As the recovery operation began, the banks of the river were lined with relatives awaiting the fate of their loved ones.
Pritchett said he and his mother, Dolores, scuffled with a sheriff's deputy as they tried to get closer to the river bank. They were booked with public intimidation, but the charges were dropped.
Bodies were stacked in the Knights of Columbus hall in Norco and overflowed into the community's fire station.
"The whole community came out," said Clayton Faucheux, a former St. Charles Parish police juror. "We had as much help as we needed."
While the years have dulled the memory of the disaster for some, questions still remain as to why parish officials didn't want the monument.
News reports at the time attributed St. Charles' refusal to accept the monument to a variety of reasons, ranging from embarrassment by St. Charles officials about the disaster to politics.
However, Faucheux said it was just too painful.
"A lot of people died. It's just not something that we wanted to memorialize," he said. "
Resident wrote on Dec 24, 2008 3:32 AM:
STUPID wrote on Dec 19, 2008 11:48 AM:
HOPE wrote on Dec 17, 2008 12:04 AM:
restoring the unnecessary ferry as being too wasteful and too much trouble. "
YOU HAVE A LOT OF NERVE wrote on Dec 8, 2008 5:57 PM:
Who do you think you are?
Why should we have to pay huge amounts of money to operate a ferry so you can enjoy a ferry ride? I enjoy going to the saint's games; are you going to pay for my tickets?
You are just another: gimmee, gimmee;
why do you think we owe you LA purchase cards, food stamps, welfare, and free transportation too?
I buy my own food and pay for my own transportation; because I work for a living instead of waiting for others to gimmee, gimmee, gimmee, gimmee
Get off your "LAZY, IDIOT, A__ AND GET A JOB"; show some self-respect. "
FERRY TO THE CEMETARY wrote on Dec 7, 2008 10:05 PM:
A BETTER IDEA wrote on Dec 3, 2008 8:53 AM:
much safer
much less expensive
much more dependable
available to a wider spectrum of
patrons to a wider variety of locations;
and will benefit the non-driving public "
NOT THE STUPID FERRY AGAIN wrote on Dec 3, 2008 8:48 AM:
One could only hope the dead would be the knotheads that keep insisting the ferry is restarted at much needless expense to the taxpayers. "
NEWS FLASH wrote on Dec 2, 2008 11:37 PM:
STUPID STUPID STUPID wrote on Dec 2, 2008 6:42 PM:
The people pushing for the ferry are stupid.
Anyone who agrees to pay for this folly
is stupid.
Anyone who allows this idiocy is stupid.
STUPID st john should learn from a smarter st charles. "