Baja St. Martin

What’s happened to our promised cold front? I was so looking forward to having my doors and windows open again but it seems to be back to A/C time again. My baby sister called me Sunday last to say she was sitting on her deck with temperatures in the low 70s and it had been in the 40s at night. I was so envious. I guess we’ll have to wait. ‘
Belle River is full of water lilies again. They are floating south in great masses, piling against seawalls, swimming rafts, etc. Soon we’ll have to wait at the bridge while the plants are pushed through. It’s actually kind of pretty to see small clusters of lilies float serenely past, often with a white crane perched in the middle. When the clusters become masses, then it’s not so pretty.
For those who asked, yes, the next Food for Seniors will take place in the new meeting room and no, there won’t be a mob of people like the first time. Just us. I’m hoping that at the next board meeting, the rules for using the new meeting room will be set. It seems wise to charge a small fee for the use simply to offset the cost of air, heat, water, etc. Not a large fee, but a little something. Plus a fee for use might encourage more careful usage, not that that would ever be an issue.
The Belle River landing is pretty full these days. Hunting season I suppose. I see men loading guns into their boats. There have been two airboats returning most days when I’m getting ready to walk. I haven’t noticed what company they represent but I have noticed several T. Baker Smith vehicles parked.
Last week Dean Wilson, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper executive director, held a seminar in Pierre Part and it was really interesting. Jody Meche from Henderson also spoke. He is the vice president of the Crawfish Producers Association - West, I believe, and the tales he told of dealing with the Army Corps, DNR and others were pretty awful. A landman named Dan Collins told of his battles with the same agencies in which he found many instances of fraud, corruption, etc., in the issuance of permits. According to Collins, various companies were allowed to dredge, block, fill in waterways with no proper permitting. Permits were sometimes issued after the fact to avoid legal consequences.
It seemed obvious from what the three men related, that much of the “improvement” done in the Atchafalaya Basin was to benefit landowners not sport or commercial fishermen. A lot of money was spent making things better for just a few people at the taxpayers expense.
It would be encouraging to believe that crawfishermen over here could and/or would band together as the LCPA - West people do in order to stop some of these abuses but I can’t see that happening. There have been strikes called here some years back and they always failed because so many fishermen simply would not stop fishing. It’s hard to sacrifice for the greater good sometimes.
Kind of like what our government is doing right now. Who is benefitting from all this nonsense going on in Washington? I am so tired of these “emergency” scenarios our legislature comes up with. Once it was Y2K, then the dreaded Fiscal Cliff, now this “Shutdown” and defaulting.
I am so disgusted with them all – Republicans and Democrats – that I would never vote again except I know that would simply allow more of the same shenanigans. I’m sure it’s naïve, but I do believe that one vote can make a difference and I do believe that a person has no right to complain if they don’t vote. So I’ll complain and I’ll vote!

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lcooke9417@bellsouth.net.