– St. Martinville Police Chief Ricky Martin updated the St. Martinville City Council on plans for the city Christmas parade at Monday’s council meeting, including plans for traffic closures and security for the parade.
Martin gave a presentation outlining the assessment he prepared for the parade route and security, a necessary step before any event in the city is approved by the city council.
Martin said the city plans to use 20 officers for security along the parade route. The parade is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14, and run from St. Martinville Senior High along Main Street to Dernier Street.
Floats and 18 wheelers will continue straight along Main Street while other vehicles and groups will turn onto Dernier Street, Martin said.
Council member Jonas Fontenette asked the chief to be sure to keep the parade moving in order to prevent delays along the way.
Martin also gave his assessment for the Christmas festival that is planned for after the parade by the St. Martinville Senior High Alumni group. He presented plans for two potential festival spots — the city festival grounds, if the work being done there is completed in time, or at Magnolia Park if the festival grounds are not available.
Martin also discussed pay for officers, with plans to ask for payment 10 days in advance in order to match the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office policy. The St. Martinville Police Department officers on duty will be supplemented by Sheriff’s deputies and other municipal and sheriff’s department officers, as needed, for parades and other events in the city.
Council
Martin told the council that plans for Mardi Gras parades will be more involved as a much larger security force will be needed for the planned 2027 Mardi Gras parade, meaning the city will have to arrange things further in advance because of competing parades around the state that are planned around the same time.
No outside vendors will be allowed to set up during the Christmas parade, Mayor Jason Willis said in response to a question from Fontenette.
Fire response City councilman Mike Fuselier asked the police chief about emergency responses after an electrical transformer caught fire in the city and burned for more than two hours with no response from fire personnel.
Martin explained that calls to 911 are sent to the police department, and then if it involves a fire, to the nearest fire department. In this case, volunteer firemen were notified of the fire but none apparently responded.
The police department did respond to the call quickly, the chief said, and kept an eye on the situation.
Martin said that the parish has full-time professional firefighters but the city has only volunteer members.
In this case, because it was an electrical transformer, volunteer firefighters do not usually respond to fight those fires. A fire truck from Cade and another unit from outside the area arrived at the scene about two hours after the fire was reported, Fuselier said, but none from the city.
Fuselier said that if a house had caught fire because of the transformer fire, it could have burned down in the time it took for a firefighter response.
Martin said that if a house had been on fire, the local volunteer firefighters would have responded. The electric company usually responds to handle transformer fires, he said.
Ordinances introduced The council voted to add a fine of not less than $100 for breaking is new grass clippings ordinance on public rights of way, in order to keep people from blowing grass clippings, trash or other debris onto streets and sidewalks.
The council also voted to abandon Solitude Street, in order to allow building on property off Cemetery Road.
The council also approved awarding a bid to the lowest bidder for Main Street sidewalk work, contingent on City Attorney Allan Durand confirming that the council is required to award the bid to the lowest bidder in this case.
The council also will take up a proposal by Councilwoman Janise Anthony at its next meeting to begin council meetings at 5:30 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. The council must introduce an ordinance changing the start time of the meeting since council meeting times are addressed in an ordinance.
