LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / September 27, 1999

DESTREHAN – John and Donna Bivona of Red Church Subdivision have simply had enough – enough of camouflaged hunters tramping through a neighborhood playground and the rattle of shotgun pellets on their roof.

Bivona addressed the St. Charles Parish Council Monday to urge the councilto pass a new law, banning any firearms in a parish-owned park.

In his own investigation, Bivona said he was amazed to discover no such law exists.

Bivona has lived in the neighborhood for several years and he’s observed that people, often teen-agers, begin dove-hunting around October each year.

“They’re creeping closer and closer to homes,” he added.

He continued that his own house and fence have been hit by buckshot and he is concerned not only about his own small children but other neighborhood children as well.

He tried to get the sheriff’s office to enforce the laws, but he said he was told pellet guns were allowed in the area. However, when he beganchecking into local laws, he found in the parish ordinances: “It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge any rifle, pistol or pellet gun within 2,000 feet of any residence or to discharge a shotgun within 800 feet of any residence within the parish except in the lawful defense of life or property.”He called the image of toddlers on playground equipment seeing camouflage-clad young men carrying rifles, pellet guns and shotguns through the playground “disturbing.”Checking further, Bivona said the parish does have an ordinance banning shotguns within 800 feet of the Bonnet Carre Spillway levee system, any firearm discharging ball-type ammunition within the Spillway itself, and within 1,500 feet of the Ama Pump Station (a once-frequent site of such vandalism) and the discharge of any firearm between River Road and Airline Highway, between Crespo Lane and the Jefferson Parish line.

“I think it’s ludicrous there’s no ordinance banning firearms from parish parks,” Bivona said, adding he’s trying to prevent an accident, not wait until an accident happens to react.

“It’s local people doing it,” he said later. “It’s disturbing.”Capt. Patrick Yoes of the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office commented of localhunting in the area, “It’s not uncommon, but it’s illegal to hunt on the railroad property. They’re definitely on private property and the railroaddoesn’t give permission.”

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