By Richard Meek
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Motorists along U.S Highway 61 may soon find going through Garyville a bit slower.
The St. John the Baptist Parish Council, at the urging of Councilman Ranney Wilson, is petitioning the state to reduce the speed limit from 65 miles per hour to 55 miles per hour along Airline Highway from the St. John/St. James Parish line to W. 10th Street in Reserve.
The request came just days after a Gramercy man was ejected from his vehicle and killed in a two-vehicle crash on Airline Highway near the intersection of Louisiana Highway 54 in Garyville.
“It’s a hazard,” Wilson said during the council meeting Tuesday night. “I have complaints about this on a daily basis. I do it every morning myself.”
Councilman Lucien Gauff III questioned the reasoning, saying, “We don’t have anything to do with the speed limit. I’m asking why would we want to do this?”
To which Wilson replied, “You don’t live in Garyville, and we have to try to get out of Garyville every morning.
“The speed limit is 65, where in the past any highway was only 55 at the highest many years ago. We are waiting for the light to change. You take your life in your hands. It’s too fast.”
Councilman Larry Snyder endorsed Wilson’s idea, saying the higher speed limit poses a danger because of growth in the area.
“They have restaurants in that area. They have casinos,” Snyder said. “It needs to be slowed down a little bit.”
The motion passed with Gauff abstaining.
In other council news, St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom said the parish has entered into an agreement with Illinois Central Railroad that calls for the company to make upgrades in certain areas and to close the crossings at Daffodil Street and South Little Hope Street.
In exchange for the parish closing that crossing and releasing and closing several easements, IC will build at its expense a connecting road between Daffodil and Marquez streets, build a cul de sac where Daffodil crosses the tracks, realign and straighten Museum Street at Main Street, install new drainage pipes on Church and Front streets, install new ties at several locations and cooperate with the parish’s efforts to obtain active warning lights and gates for the Garyville crossings.
“This gives us a lot of improvements along our rail systems,” Gauff said. “The crossings (will be) upgraded. They worked with us to help us.”