By LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / January 18, 1999

EDGARD – The Class 2A champions and runners-up in high school football, West St. John and Riverside Academy, were each honored Wednesday by theSt. John the Baptist Parish Council.”You exemplified true team spirit,” Councilman Perry Bailey commented.

Parish President Arnold Labat added: “You represented St. John Parish in agentlemanly manner. You’re very well disciplined.”The Parish Council took the unusual step in recessing from the midst of their business to join the teams in the West Bank VFD firehouse behind the courthouse for a banquet and presentation of plaques for each school.

The plaques recognize the teams’ achievements, listing by name each player and coach.

West St. John coach Laury Dupont observed, “Two champions came onto thefield and two champions came off the field.”Riverside coach Mickey Roussel added: “St. John Parish is still one of thehotbeds of competion.”Bailey, back in the meeting on another topic, saw approved a preliminary study on the parish’s water supply, with an eye toward developing alternative sources.

Councilman Joel McTopy commented that with the parish’s “almost insurmountable problems now,” attention needs to be paid to those.

“Studies do not fix anything,” he said.

In another matter, Labat unsuccessfully angled for reconsideration of a previous council vote against proceeding with the Regala Park office project. However, with no motion made by the winning side of that vote,the matter died for the time being.

Labat later complained that the parish has the land, has the need for the project, has a $52,000 bid to carry out the project and has the funding through a grant. However, the grant is only available for a limited timeand the time is running out.

The project would construct a recreation department office building, including a meeting room, offices and storage space.

“They could break ground tomorrow,” Labat grumbled.

Those councilmen who voted Dec. 21 not to support the project wereDuaine Duffy, Bailey, Nickie Monica, McTopy and Steve Thornton. Those whovoted in favor were Dale Wolfe, Kevin Duhon and “Rock” Perrilloux. RanneyWilson was absent.

Finally, bids were opened for the Epsilon entrance road turning lanes and road apron project at Airline Highway in Garyville. Five bids were receivedand taken under advisement. The apparent low bidder was BarriereConstruction Company of New Orleans, with a bid of $199,490 for a three- lane project and $235,560 for a four-lane project.

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