What was going on 100 years ago this week? CLICK HERE for a link to the St. Tammany Farmer Issue of November 26, 1921. The link is provided by the Library of Congress and its Chronicling America service.
Click on the sample images below to see larger versions.
In 1927 controversy was swirling about the need to build a bridge over Lake Pontchartrain between New Orleans and the Northshore. Several locations for the endpoints were proposed, and state and local politicians had definite opinions of where best to place the bridge, how to finance it, and how to protect that investment from future competition.
And so it was in St. Tammany Parish. A proposed toll bridge built by private interests wanted to be protected against any future "free" bridges built by the state (within 30 miles), and that generated considerable debate.
Built in 1928, the Watson-Williams bridge did just that, and people were outraged that the new bridge would only serve the east end of the parish and prevent any other bridges from being built to serve the Mandeville area. Complicating the matter was the demand for free bridges to be built at the Chef Menteur/Rigolets crossing near Fort Pike.
This editorial in the January 1, 1927, edition of the St. Tammany Farmer explains the situation, and it mentions some interesting facts.
The editorial furor continued, with another analysis published just 29 days later.
Here is the text of that editorial above:
ST. TAMMANY WILL FIGHT TO THE END
Even it ferries and hydroplanes must be the final resort, St. Tammany will fight to the last for direct communication with New Orleans either at Goose Point, or Mandeville.
New Orleans must finally join in this fight to aid in her own development. It will not only be necessary to her own expansion in meeting suburban demands; it will be jointly important in Gulf Coast development and in the popularization of the route from Mobile into Louisiana.
But It is of immediate importance that no change be made in our plans for free bridges at the Chef and Rigolets, lost in a partisan legislature but emphatically endorsed by the people at the polls. Some interests have been persistent in efforts to divert developments from St. Tammany parish—to prevent free bridges and force developments in another direction. We have letters in evidence of this which we may at some time publish.
Beware of your enemy when they come bearing gifts. It may not be expected that we should receive unquestioned, proposals from those who have opposed us. We now have an administration pledged to our free bridge plans.
The Highway Commission is capable and informed and may be trusted to carry out the law and conform to its provisions for free bridges connecting up the highways as originally intended and for which federal aid was given. We know that if this is done we will be entirely within the law and beyond the reach of petty legal interference.
We do not know what complications may arise from deviations. The aerial route suggested is something for the future and entirely apart from our immediate operations. Nobody would be opposed to free ferries if nothing else were involved, and they were not used as propaganda against the necessity of building bridges.
We do not Iook with favor upon any proposition that increases the distance between Slidell and the free bridges. St. Tammany has contributed to the building of this highway and deserves to share in the benefits to be derived.
Under the caption, "'Where Confusion- Division," an editorial in Wednesday's edition of The Times-Picayune ably discusses this matter. We publish it in full below:
Since the announcement in mid-January that the Highway Commission's engineering force actually had begun surveys and borings for the Chef-Rigolets bridges, it has been proposed that the community launch an agitation for immediate free ferries at those crossings.
Free Ferries
The project was initiated, in the public prints at least by a gentleman who wrote himself opposed to free bridges even while he demanded tree ferries. The latter idea has its appeal, of course. The imposition of tollage upon public highways, whether for bridges or ferries, goes against the grain and wins tolerance only as a temporary, and temporarily unavoidable nuisance. But have those supporters of the Chef-Rigolets free bridge cause who welcomed the free terry scheme offhand ever taken time to study its bearings upon the first and vastly more important project—and to wonder why free ferries are demanded just as the bridge surveys are begun-wand by the evolved opponents of free bridges?
The contract covering the Chef-Rigolets ferries and awarded by the former Highway Commission has yet more than a year to run, expiring in March, 1928. It is, we assume, a binding document enforcible in the courts. To grant the sudden demand for immediate free ferries, the present commission would have to make terms with the contractor, purchase ferry equipment and organize the operating force.
The money for all this would have to come, we fear, from highway Fund No. 2, from which the bridge construction must be financed. Any attempt to set up free ferries at the Chef and Rigolets out of the general highway fund would inevitably and naturally provoke demands that the commission finance free ferries throughout the state, embroiling us with our neighbors and arousing distrust and hostility akin to that created by the false charges, last summer, that New Orleans was trying to raid the general highway fund for the bridges.
In brief, and whether that was the motive behind the "immediate tree ferry" proposal or not, its adoption as a community slogan would stir up confusion and strife and place further obstacles in the way of the commIssion's announced plan to press forward as rapidly as possible to the construction of the bridges which will end once for all the temporary imposition of ferry tolls.
Against any effort to divide the supporters of the bridges and by dividing to block or defeat Governor Simpson's program for their early construction, Orleanians should be constantly watchful.
Now has come the supplementary proposal of the mayor's advisory bridge committee for a change of the Rigolets bridge location in order that it may serve a "short cut" to the Mississippi coast. If it be settled and accepted that the proposed "short cut" is not to interfere with nor delay completion of the present highway route to Slidell, this recommendation consists with the suggestions of the federal engineers who inspected and approved the present route, and with the announced plan of the Highway Commission.
The commission already has arranged with the war department for an aerial survey of the "short cut," and is planning to fix the location of the Rigolets bridge with that project in mind.
But care must be taken to prevent this supplementary "short cut" plan, admirable in its proper time and order, from becoming entangled or twisted into a scheme for abandoning the present route to Slidell entirely and substituting therefor a brand new highway which would lengthen materially the journey to Slidell and thus defeat one of the prime purposes of the existing and officially adopted route.
Let it be remembered that the federal engineers, who first broached the "short cut" idea, expressly declared in their support that "it will not take the place of the connection between Slidell and the Rigolets, as this link is necessary to provide connection with the Louisiana system at Slidell."
Whether or not the new suggestions are intended to divide the Chef-Rigolets bridge supporters against themselves and raise up new obstructions and delays, let us all try to keep the vital bridge objective clearly in mind and maintain a solid front in its support, instead of shooting off at tangents, losing unity and direction and thereby helping the anti-free bridge forces and interests to defeat the movement for those urgently needed spans just as the final victory of the free bridge campaign is in sight.
End of editorial comment
The people of the west end of St. Tammany Parish wanted their bridge and they wanted it now. Twenty-nine years later, they got it.
See also:
Planning to build the Causeway Started Early
In the latest report on the restoration and preservation of the old Folsom library building behind the Giddy Up coffee house, Frank Richerand said that work is nearing completion and a grand opening event is being planned for early December.
The small building served as Folsom's community library for many years and had fallen into ruins, but Richerand and a number longtime Folsom residents (as well as a few newcomers) have been working to save the building and turn it into some sort of museum or reading room.
The town now has a much larger library building, opened in 1987, that took over the book lending services, but many oldtime Folsom residents remember visiting this library building, especially those who walked from the Folsom Elementary School to borrow books before the school had a library.
She spent almost every day at the Slidell Animal Shelter,
her "second home."She also ran the Chiri Critter Care
pet sitting service, "but
there were too many days shedding tears over man’s inhumanity to his own
species, much less animals," she wrote.
When she moved to Florida, she left as Kevin became an editor and publisher with his own newspaper, The Slidell Independent. "Your small town community newspaper is still the backbone for us to carry on setting all things right," she concluded.
I worked with Pat on some of the same news stories when I was a reporter for the Mandeville Banner and St. Tammany Farmer, and I knew her dedication to her craft as well as to the animal welfare of the dogs and cats (and other four legged creatures) of the Slidell area.
Mary Patricia “Pat” Berg Chiri, age 89, of Slidell, LA, passed away on Wednesday, August 25, 2021. In her obituary, it was noted that she was a native of Port Chester, NY, and resided in St. Cloud, FL, and Kissimmee, FL, before moving to Slidell in 1969. She retired to Englewood, FL, in 2007 before coming back to Slidell in 2020.
After graduating from St. Cloud High School, she attended the University of Florida before working professionally as a news reporter for the Osceola Sentinel in Kissimmee, then writing for the Slidell Daily Times and the Slidell Sentry-News.
"Pat
had a lifelong love of animals and was the founder of the Animal
Assistance League of Slidell, besides gaining a following with her
weekly pet column in the Slidell newspapers," according to her obituary. She also owned and operated
her own small business, “Chiri Critter Care” for many years in the
Slidell area. The pet sitting service is now run by her granddaughter Vicky.
Additionally, Pat worked at the Slidell Airport and was a licensed pilot, and spent years as a Reserve Deputy for the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office.
She will be long remembered by many Slidell citizens for her many contributions to the community.
See also:
What was going on 100 years ago this week? CLICK HERE for a link to the St. Tammany Farmer Issue of November 19, 1921. The link is provided by the Library of Congress and its Chronicling America service.
Click on the sample images below to see larger versions.
The St. Tammany Cultural Arts Commission, on behalf of Parish President Mike Cooper, presented me with a Lifetime Achievement award tonight at Northshore Technical Community College in Lacombe. I was among ten individuals who were selected for awards in various categories, art, music, culinary expertise and writing.
I'd like to mention three groups of people who helped me throughout my career.
The first group are the hundreds of people I interviewed over the years. I thank them for sharing with me their stories: their hopes, their dreams and their concerns.
The second group are the thousands of people I have photographed over the years. I thank them for sharing with me - their smiles.
The third group are the artists, writers, photographers, and all the creative people of St. Tammany parish, many of whom are community leaders like Pat Clanton, Mark Johnson and Carol Jahncke. They inspired me and many others to be creative everyday.
The scenic beauty, the peacefulness and livability of St. Tammany attracts artists of every kind. Every day creative photographers scour the parish capturing hundreds of spectacular images, photographers like John Snell and Anthony Leone.
Actually, St. Tammany Parish has a long history of attracting artists and poets and writers, people who over the past 200 years have been drawn here, painting on canvas, writing in verse and sending letters back home telling about the great place they had found.
How do we know this? Because of the work and research of the historians of St. Tammany Parish, people like Steve Ellis, C. Howard Nichols, Bertha Neff, Paula Johnson, Tom Aicklen and my friend Don Sharp. They help us realize where we came from, how we got to where we are today, and perhaps how we move forward into the future.
And speaking of history...
If you haven't yet visited my blog over at TammanyFamily.com, I would like to invite you to do so. You will probably find something of interest, maybe even, a photograph of yourself."
End of speech
At that point I aimed the camera at the audience and took a picture.
Here are some additional photographs of people attending the arts awards event:
Lou Major Sr. and Lou Major Jr., who gave me my first newspaper jobs
Lane Carson, attorney and advocate for veterans
A.G. Crowe, who published dozens of my cartoon maps
Bob Sander, house designer with Poole Lumber Company
Wallace Poole, owner of Poole Lumber Company and community supporter
Warren Salles, owner of Star Theater
Vera Hardman, Natalie Hebert and Brenda Willis with the St. Tammany Farmer
Walker Percy, who read a few of my short stories
Mark Johnson, mayor of Covington and storyteller extraordinaire
Jack Akers, artist who painted Louisiana environmental scenes
Lyn Hill Taylor, artist who wrote the Art Colony column for the Covington Daily News
Bertha Neff, courthouse archivist
Don Sharp and Pat Clanton, who shared with me their friendship and photo album scrapbooks
Carol Jahncke, community promoter, writer and puppeteer
https://tammanyfamily.blogspot.com/2021/10/arts-awards-for-2021.html
The 25th annual Three Rivers Art Festival graced the streets of Covington once again, bringing outstanding artists in a wide variety of media to the area for one of the South's finest juried art shows and sales.
Here are some photographs of the this year's event and its offerings. Click on the images to make them larger.
