Baja St. Martin

Just recently, those of us residents on Hwy. 997 have been given access to a letter sent by FAS to Chester Cedars and Heath Babineaux on May 15, 2014, which would have been after the St. Martin Parish Zoning board said their recommendation to the council would be no to FAS’s request for a rezoning of the Belle River levee and before the council met on June 3 and also said no to FAS.
This letter was from R. Charles Ellis, attorney for FAS, and while I certainly won’t go into detail from the 11 page letter, there are several things mentioned that I just can’t pass by without comment.
Generally speaking, the letter was yet another effort by FAS to convince the parish council that a rezoning wouldn’t be necessary. What was a bit odd, I thought, for a business letter was a paragraph on the first page in small print wherein the writer gave a brief history of how Mr. Fred Settoon was the founder of the company, how he raised his family in Belle River, how he transferred his interest in FAS to his daughter Christie who has been married to Greg Gravois, owner of FAS Environmental for many years, how the Gravois family lives within a “stone’s throw” from the FAS operations and how the Gravois family doesn’t want anyone to take any risks they wouldn’t take themselves.
Well, let me tell you, there are a few truths stretched in this paragraph. First off, Fred Settoon may live in what is locally called Belle River but it’s not in St. Martin Parish, it’s in Assumption. Not even Superman could throw a stone from the Gravois estate in Assumption Parish across the entire Belle River to the FAS shipyard. I don’t think you could even shoot something that far! The Gravois family (along with other Settoon family members) lives way, way back from Hwy. 70 – not Hwy 997. Some tanker trucks do pass the Settoon/Gravois compound when they’re coming through Pierre Part (right past the school, by the way) but so far away I doubt the Gravois’s could even see the trucks, let alone hear them.
The letter goes on to say that the Gravois family never expected any member of the community to take any “risk” that they don’t take themselves. To that remark I would say then let the Gravois family put their transfer site on their own property. They have plenty. Let the 50 trucks every day pass next to their house so they have trouble getting out of their driveway, where their pets and kids would be in danger, where their property value would be diminished, where their peace and quiet would be destroyed!
The letter also says FAS and its owners plan on being responsible and valuable members of the community if they’re allowed to put their transfer station on the levee. The problem is they aren’t members of this community, never have been. And while I suppose it’s theoretically possible, I sure haven’t heard any of the family members say they’re going to move over to Hwy. 997 so they can be nice and close to their trucks like they want us to be.
OK, enough of that! Some of my commodity recipients could not get to the Stephensville fire station today because the Four-mile Bayou road was being paved. I believe the road was passable, but it had rained and several people called to say they didn’t want to drive on it right then. One lady came in her truck and picked up boxes for her neighbors.
As always it was good to see Grover. Several of the commodity people are partially disabled/and /or widowed and enjoy some company so it’s always fun to sit and chat and tell a few stories. Maybe a few jokes! (Nice ones of course!)

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