Read through a bunch of this with interest. I see that a lot of people still care about Franklin, and thats great to know! Let me give you my thoughts, if anyone cares, after working here for 34 years and having covered a lot of whats happened in and around this city in that time. Someone mentioned the construction of US 90. That was the beginning. When the traffic was diverted away from the city, so were the people who ate at the diners and restaurants, stopped for gas, stayed in a motel, shopped a little. It happened all over. HOWEVER...all the east-end St. Mary cities were not bypassed...US 90 went right through them, Patterson, Berwick, Morgan City...so there was still convenient access to all the things mentioned above. Then came 1986, when the oil bust happened. Whole family names vanished from the phone book. By 2000 there were five thousand less people in the city. That condition was all over west St. Mary. Morgan City and the east end, again, fared better because the river is there, and what little oil work remained worked out of the river and airport. But there were many other declines. Understand that losing businesses means losing tax money...sales tax and property tax and occupational licenses. Losing population means less property tax, rental income, mortgage income for banks. City funds were reduced drastically. No money, no projects The east end fared better because its industrial/commercial, not mostly agricultural. That end still lost hard, but not as hard as the west end. So from 1986 to about 2005 things were pretty lousy financially. Were there officials who didnt bother, or didnt care? Yes. But there were many more, in my experience, who wanted to do what was needed, what the public needed, but there was no money. Parish government, which had always been divided east-west and always was contentious, got worse. Power shifted almost exclusively to the east end, because thats where the money was. Understand that commercial and industrial property is taxed based on the parish millage rate; agricultural land is taxed on a flat price per acre that is far, far less than the millage.That means more money for the east, less for the west. The school board, in the late 1980s, went on a school closing spree. Glencoe, Thomas Gibbs, G.W. Hamilton, Charenton, Crowell. But only a couple on the east end. Later they came back, closed Baldwin, Mary Hines. Neighborhoods of homes left behind by people who lost their jobs in 1986 were sitting vacant. Essentially, nearly 30 years went by with no hope at all. Crime skyrocketed with the drug trade and gangs moved in in the 90s. Social programs expanded tremendously to meet the needs of a down-and-out community. Now, things have improved greatly in the last five or ten years. But understand, you cant undo 30 years of neglect overnight. Here again the east end has made far greater strides than the west. Look at what cities there have compared to what the west end has. That balance of power has never equalized itself. Consider yourselves lucky: If it were not for the courthouse, Franklin would be in WAY worse shape than it is now. People complain about the newspaper. Let me tell you that in 1985 a salesperson could leave the office on foot at 8 and come back at noon with ten full page ads. Remember how many grocery stores, ladies and mens wear, sporting goods, etc. we had? Gone. The big box department and grocery stores dont advertise, they do inserts, which are ridiculously cheap. Theres nobody left to sell to. Thats why your newspaper is so small now. News doesnt set the page count, advertising does, and all our retail is gone. The pool is hopeless. Its too far gone. The only option is to dig it up and replace it. I wish it could be done. It may be one day. But did you know that when Mayor Harris stepped into that office in city hall his first day, he was immediately hit with threats from EPA, state Health and Hospitals and federal health authorities threatening fines of $5,000 a day if the water plant and sewer plant werent brought up to code. Thats the government: they demand you do things but dont give you the money to do it. Millions and millions have been spent to come in compliance. I know what youre thinking: Franklin water still sucks. Thats because the plants have been completely rehabilitated, but theres 80-year-old lines, some older, in the ground. Youre talking tens, maybe hundreds of millions to dig up and replace all those lines. Again, 30 years of being broke cant be fixed in five years or even ten. But were getting better. New industry on the Charenton Canal and more to come. The city has paved miles and miles of street (way more than the parish has done in west St. Mary). Everybody says, Go get a grant for this or that. What people dont understand is there isnt a grant for everything. Grants have very specific criteria on what they can be used for. Theres very, very few recreation grants, for instance. Its not a priority. You can holler grants all you want, but until you realize how they work, you cant see that the things we want grants for arent on the list of priorities from the fed and state governments giving out those grants. Im not taking up for anybody. Just telling you what Ive seen over the last 34 years of being at all these crummy meetings we have to cover. But there is hope. Its just going to take time and patience. You still have to hold your elected officials accountable, no doubt about it. But also realize when their hands or tied, or they just dont have the funds, or theyre being influenced by draconian federal and state regulations. Last city election we in the media were stunned, and amused too, at some of these newcomers promising theyd do this and theyd do that, but never explained how theyll pay for it. Same with citizens: They ought to do this, they ought to do that...but wheres the money for it? We see the budgets, we know whats there. Human beings tend to have short memories. Pave the street and put culverts in the ditches in front of their houses and theyre happy for a little while, but then they move on and forget what it was like before. Stop a neighborhood from flooding with a million bucks worth of pumps, drainage improvements and infrastructure and a year later theyve forgotten it and complain about parks. Put a multi-million dollar flood control structure on the Franklin canal, dont have a hurricane for a few years, out of sight out of mind. Long as water comes out the tap when you turn the faucet and the toilet flushes, its all good, so why dont they do something about this or that or some other thing? So then we come to taxes. Nobody wants taxes, were taxed enough, right? Right. But again...where does the money come from? Taxes. Taxes and utility fees and what grants they can obtain are a municipalitys paycheck. Less people means less water sales, meaning less income. Declining property values means less property taxes, again, less income. So like the rest of us, local government has to either tax us or pay for it a little at a time, or take out a bond issue and pay it back over time. The Parish says 5,000 people work in St. Mary but live somewhere else. Maybe thats true, though I doubt it, but if it is, did they ask those people why they dont live in west St. Mary? The parish says its housing. Horse-hockey. Theres hundreds of properties available in west St. Mary. They may not all be in desirable areas. People dont move to west St. Mary much because they dont want to live in west St. Mary. It has too little to offer. So its a Catch-22. If you build it they will come...but they have to come for you to be able to afford to build it. Its getting better, but its going to take time and patience. Its a complicated situation, for sure. And Im sure therell be some with counterpoints to what Ive put down here, but thats what Ive seen happen here in the last 34 years. There is light at the end of the tunnel...but its still a very long tunnel.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:14:30 +0000
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