News, Sports and Entertainment for St. Martin Parish, La.

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Baja St. Martin

Linda Cooke

It was interesting to read in the May 26 issue of the Teche News about the students who have to be moved to different schools to satisfy the desegregation rules of a judge. Over here in Assumption Parish, student movement is an issue also, but this one is caused by school choice. One of the parish schools was rated a D and parents who qualify are able to send their kids to another school, in this case Pierre Part Primary which is a B school.
The issue which may be solved at a school board meeting tonight is whether the parish should pay for them to be bused to the school of their choice or whether the parents should pay. Apparently, the state once said it was up to the parish to pay the transportation and sometime later that changed to become an option. At this meeting, the superintendent will make his recommendation on what to do.
Some of the students involved live close to a bus route and it has already been mentioned that it seems sensible to just make a few adjustments to the route in order to pick these kids up. Others said that wasn’t right and that the buses should stick to their planned routes. It will be interesting to see what results from the meeting.
And Henri Bienvenu’s comments in his Pense Donc column about the proposed minimum wage hike were interesting. I guess I really hadn’t thought about the correctness of paying unskilled labor $15 an hour. It does seem a lot especially reading that soldiers make much less than that.
I know this is sort of an old fogy thing, but I can remember when I got my first job working in a department store on weekends and holidays when I was in high school. I had to get my parents to sign a work permit because I was only 15 and my pay was 75 cents an hour! With my money and a store discount I bought most of the clothes I took away to college with me plus presents for family.
It’s quiet over here in Baja St. Martin. Crawfishing continues and the price remains at 75 cents a pound I hear. A couple of fishermen said the crawfish were dying but I think that was in just some places. One man said he’d heard the price was going to be raised up to $1.
The boat landing is seldom crowded unless there’s a sport fishing tournament. The spillway water level is still a bit high. Belle River is also a little high, but the crawfish on this side seems to have almost ceased. It’s got to be really hot in the swamps.
I spent several days recently trimming two trees whose branches were almost on the ground, making it pretty hard to mow grass. One was a chaste lilac and it has multiple trunks, a few of which had grown down to the ground. A golden rain tree had one pretty good sized branch protruding way out and it was no problem except when it rained – then the branch touched the grass. I have an electric chain saw, a small one, which did the job but it was some hot, messy work. Done now and I can mow thoroughly without getting knocked off the machine.
I haven’t said anything about this before lest the situation changes, but my dear friend Grover Angelle is getting married the end of next month! June 24th I believe? I know people are kidding him about “taking the plunge” at his age (mid to late 80s) but Grover said he was lonesome and his future bride sounds like a nice lady. I may not be able to make the wedding but all of us over here wish Grover the very best. He’s become pretty special to us in Baja St. Martin.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lindacooke1939@gmail.com.

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