By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – St. John the Baptist Parish officials are proposing a cooperative agreement among the parish, the American Red Cross and the Pontchartrain Levee District to provide swimming lessons and life saving skills to residents.

The parish council will vote on the agreement during Tuesday’s Council meeting in LaPlace. The program will cost the parish as much as $5,670.

Parish spokesperson Paige Falgoust said the agreement will allow the Red Cross to train up to 14 people as water instruction coordinators. Those coordinators will then conduct a round of free swimming lessons for as many as 210 children in the parish. She said each child will go through five 45-minute sessions on water safety, watershed awareness and basic American Red Cross lifesaving skills.

The lessons are part of the Red Cross and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation’s Ashley Kelly Swim Program. The program was created in response to the 2003 drowning death of Ashley Marie Kelly in Lake Pontchartrain. According to the program’s website, Ashley’s sister, Latoya, not knowing how to swim, helplessly witnessed her sister’s tragic death. Latoya made it her mission to educate New Orleanians on water safety by creating the program.

“The lessons are set up to make children aware of what to do should something happen to a child at a pool or other water source in the area,” Falgoust said.

In other action, the council will hear a presentation on the final audit of the parish’s 2011 budget from Phillip Rebowe, a CPA with Carr, Riggs & Ingram. The council will also vote on an ordinance to adopt the millage rates.

The council meets Tuesday at the Percy Hebert Building, 1801 W. Airline Highway, in LaPlace. A Finance Committee meeting is at 6:15 p.m. and the regular council meeting is at 6:30 p.m.