THE ZACHA Y
ADVOCATE& T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, J a n u a ry 22, 2025
11 YEAR, NO. 15
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Contractors need permit before digging Zachary City Council sets new rules BY OLIVIA MCCLURE Contributing writer
Tired of contractors wrecking municipal utilities and not knowing who to bill for damages, Zachary officials are now requiring internet companies and others who need to dig into the ground to get permits and share their plans with the city before they can begin work.
The City Council approved an ordinance requiring permits and setting other rules regarding excavation at its Jan. 14 meeting. Mayor David McDavid and council members have previously discussed the issue of internet companies boring into city-owned sewer, water and gas lines when they lay fiber optic cable to expand services. “Since January 2023, we have
billed out a little over $84,000 in damages that the city fixed,” said Ty Stephens, emergency preparedness manager. “We’ve collected on some. We haven’t collected on others because they don’t have insurance and nobody wants to take ownership.” The internet providers typically hire subcontracted workers to install cable, he said. Sometimes, it’s not clear who is handling a project and causing damage. In other instances, city officials are able to
identify the subcontractors only to discover that they lack proper licenses and insurance coverage. The damage isn’t always immediately apparent, he said. It may not come to the city’s attention until residents encounter problems and call for help — and by then, the workers at fault are usually long gone. Stephens supported the ordinance, saying it will help the city keep tabs on where work is happening, whether the subcontrac-
tors have the proper qualifications and who to go after if damage occurs. He said he’s hopeful it will cut down on incidents — such as one recent episode in a new subdivision — that prove costly to the city and others. “A contractor hit a gas line somewhere around Christmas, turned the valve off, left it, didn’t call who they were supposed to call,” he said. “Now this gas line is full of water for this whole new development.”
Mayor, chief The Gerry Garidel story want council to up pay Perseverance, people and purpose
Leila Pitchford AROUND ZACHARY
Free throw competition set Jan 26 Boys and and girls ages 9-14 are invited to compete in the Knights of Columbus Free Throw Championship, Sunday, Jan. 26, at St. John the Baptist Church gym, 4727 McHugh Drive. Register at 1 p.m., shooting starts at 1:30 p.m. Kids compete within their own gender and age. Entrants may compete in only one local competition. Winners advance to the Baton Rouge Diocese round and from there the state round. Contact KC Community Director James Graves at (337) 534-2700 for information.
On Jan. 10, Zachary High assistant baseball and football coach Gerry Garidel was inducted into the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. For those who have competed in football or baseball at Zachary High School over the past 15-plus years you may think you know him, but you probably only scratched the surface. Warren Sit and listen Brady and he will tell you ZACHARY stories and you can SPORTS learn lessons from a 51-year career highlighted by perseverance, people and a Godgiven purpose. Coach Garidel will tell you that early on he did not know what he would do. “I never considered one day being a coach much less going to college when I was in high school.” Fifty-one years later he has coached baseball at multiple levels including every level of American Legion summer baseball, travel ball, five years as the head baseball coach at Northwestern Middle School and 11 years as an assistant baseball coach for the Broncos. Before arriving at Zachary,
BY OLIVIA MCCLURE Contributing writer
ä See BRADY, page 2G Gerry Garidel
PHOTO BY WARREN BRADY
Zachary Police Chief Darryl Lawrence wants the City Council to consider offering higher salaries to elected officials who, like himself, have a significant amount of jobrelated experience. The issue came up at the Jan. 14 council meeting. Lawrence has raised the topic before, and so has Mayor David McDavid. The current salary ordinance calls for a starting salary of $69,000 for the po- McDavid lice chief and $85,000 for the mayor. Lawrence and McDavid, who both made their careers at the Zachary Police Department, had worked their way up to higher salaries in their previous roles and took a pay cut when they entered their current offices Lawrence in 2023. McDavid was the city’s police chief for nearly a dozen years before becoming mayor. Lawrence served under him as assistant chief. “I’m asking that you all consider making that change … to make it more commensurate with experience as opposed to just locking it in at one particular salary,” Lawrence
ä See PAY, page 4G
It’s a mile wide, and a road runs through it Do drivers know they’re cutting through a crater? BY ROBIN MILLER
Staff writer
PROVIDED PHOTO
Kiara Carnes, nurse with Baby Lane Labor & Delivery Unit
Lane to hold free breastfeeding class
Lane is holding a free breastfeeding class from 10 a.m. to noon, Feb. 8, in the board conference room at Lane Regional Medical Center, 6300 Main St., Zachary. Registered nurse Kiara Carnes with Baby Lane Labor & Delivery Unit will the discuss the ABC’s of Breastfeeding, including: n Appeal of Breastfeeding and Why It’s Important n Best Breastfeeding Positions n Common Challenges with Breastfeeding n She will answer questions about breastfeeding, plus more To reserve a spot, call (225) 658-6612 or email jschmolke@ LaneRMC.org.
ä See AROUND, page 3G
It measures a mile in diameter, and a highway runs through it. But the occasional drivers cutting through St. Helena Parish along La. 37 wouldn’t know they are passing through a meteorite’s crash site. No sign announces it. No history marker tells the story of how it fell to earth a few miles outside of Greensburg more than 10,000 years ago, though geologist Paul Heinrich now believes the crater may be even older. However, Lee Miller was more curious about the existence of the crater than its exact age. “I’ve heard that there may be a crater in the area where I live,” the Clinton resident said. “But is it true? And if it is, where is it?” It’s true. Miller could easily find the crater by driving a few miles into St. Helena Parish from his East Feliciana Parish home — that is, if he knows where to look. Where to look is the missing piece of the puzzle. Heinrich was a research associate with the Louisiana Geological Survey at LSU when he pinpointed the exact spot in 2023. He even provided a landmark as a guide. “A volunteer fire station stands along the road where the crater starts,” he said. Heinrich has since retired from his post at LSU, but he’s still learning about the crater, which is why he believes the crater may be older than originally believed. Again, there are no markers
You’ve got questions — we find answers What do you wonder about the people, places and culture of Louisiana? Curious Louisiana is a project that connects you with our newsroom’s reporting to find the answers to Louisiana-specific questions you may have wondered about for years. The feature focuses on a reader-submitted question each week to report on stories that matter to you the most. You share your questions about Louisiana — and our journalists track down answers. If you asked the question, we will connect with you and keep you updated along the way as we dig deeper into Louisiana’s oddities. To submit a question, go to theadvocate.com/curious louisiana. acknowledging this site, save for a few souvenir T-shirts spotted by Heinrich at a Greensburg store a few miles away. “The T-shirt was designed by a
local artist,” Heinrich said. “They were sold in a local drug store. I don’t know if they’re still selling them.” Maybe not, since Brushy Creek Crater isn’t exactly a tourist destination. That’s what it’s called now, named for a nearby waterway. Getting to the crater requires a few zigs and zags along country backroads, and once there, time seems to stand still in the silence of the grassy fields on either side of the road. This is what Brushy Creek Crater basically looks like — fencedin grassy pastures with a pond on the north side. With the exception of the highway, the crater occupies privately owned land. On its western rim stands the St. Helena Fire Department District #4 FireRescue Headquarters with a clear view of the highway’s slope into the crater. “When you’re driving, the road will cross the rim, go down to the edge of the bowl of the crater, then go back out,” Heinrich said. “But again, most people don’t know this.” The crater came to Heinrich’s attention when he and others in the Louisiana Geological Survey were doing geological mapping of the area. At one point, they spotted a circular shape in one of their thematic laser images. It didn’t show up as a definitive crater bowl such as, say, the Meteor Crater Natural Landmark near Flagstaff, Arizona. Still, Brushy Creek’s diameter is slightly larger than the Arizona
PROVIDED PHOTO BY PAUL HEINRICH
Paul Heinrich, retired associate researcher with the Louisiana Geological Survey at LSU, discovered citronelle formations in the fractures in the clayey, or clay-like, sands exposed in the ditch bordering La. 37. The highway cuts through the rim of Brushy Creek Crater near St. Helena Fire Department District #4 Fire-Rescue Headquarters. The formations are the result of an extraterrestrial impact. tourist attraction. “We thought it looked like an impact crater,” Heinrich said. “I just took it from there. I can’t correctly recall when that was what or what mapping project we were on, but it may have been a few years before 2008. There aren’t any volcanoes here, and there are no salt domes in this part of the state, so we knew that something strange was happening.” Heinrich, along with a team of LSU geologists, took a trip northward from LSU to St. Helena
ä See CRATER, page 1G