Baja St. Martin

Since I’m not sure if this column will be in the before- or after-Christmas paper, I’ll wish you all both. A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays during and after.
My holidays this year are unusually busy and while I’m loving everything that is or will be going on and wouldn’t miss any of the activity for anything in the world, I confess I might be just a wee bit looking forward to the lull after Christmas.
I have just returned from a trip to Pensacola then on to Orlando, Fla., where myself, daughter and son-in-law and two dear friends attended my granddaughter’s graduation from the University of Central Florida. UCF, I’m told, is the second largest university in the country and even with the various college ceremonies divided up between two days, the one we attended was for 1500 or so graduates.
It was a nice ceremony with the usual shouts to graduates from the stands. The commencement speaker was great. Funny, moving and brief!
One of the evening events was to eat dinner at Planet Hollywood where my granddaughter works part-time as a host. The noise, movement, décor were stunning! Service was amazing, food was okay. Anyway, by the time I arrived back home I had driven/ridden for 26 hours and I am still not quite recovered.
A few of us who live on La. Highway 997 met with Wilma Subra of Subra Environmental, the other day and she gave us a summary of the final FAS application for the transfer site. This version is the “corrected” one and Ms. Subra pointed out statements we should be cognizant of and included her comments verbally and written. It was a good meeting with some startling (to us) revelations and changes. The implications of the wording were scary. It was not hard to visualize how one thing would surely lead to another. More injection wells, more parking space, contaminated run off, and much, much more.
Nothing public is happening yet but there will be a notice in the Teche News of the pending public comment hearing. We are estimating that to be sometime in February and hopefully here in Belle River.
I think the hard part for us is reading the words but knowing the reality. We’ve lived in the vicinity of this company for years and we know things that will never be publicized nor known beyond the immediate neighborhood. We are also sadly aware of just what enough money can accomplish, right and wrong. Mostly, we are so grateful for the support of the parish which is backing us in our efforts to stop this transfer facility from being built on our levee. Every time one of the tanker trucks already in use passes – as one just did – all I can think of is having 50 of them pass every day. And that’s just one way! Absolutely horrifying!
I did just hear that the governor of New York is banning fracking in that state and urging other states to follow suit. Several people were interviewed about this statement and some said they were against fracking and were glad of the decision. Others admitted they would become millionaires if their property was the site of fracking. I can well imagine both opinions here!
Oh, forgot to tell you that the Belle River recreation building now has proper gutters fore and aft so when I have time, I will now be able to do some landscaping without having all the plants get washed away by rain. Next comes a bit of work inside and then maybe we’ll be ready to rent the place out for parties, et al.

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