Led by Councilman Shelley Tastet, community members band together to clean-up St. Rose
They’ve knocked down old houses, destroyed rusted out trailers, picked up trash and cleared high weeds simply because they want their community to be beautiful again like it was years before.
Ernestine Coleman, president of the St. Rose Taking Action Reclaiming Territory Civic Association, says the group’s goal is to clean-up the area in an effort to instill pride in the children living in the community. The group began cleaning up abandoned properties last month.
“God has helped us in our efforts,” she said.
But the group responsible for the beautification of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th streets also got some much-needed help from a hard-working councilman.
“Shelley Tastet worked hard to help us get these houses torn down and he didn’t complain once,” Coleman said. “He took time out and used his own equipment.”
Tastet didn’t think twice when he was called out to help.
“I was approached by Parish President V. J. St. Pierre to see what I could do to help the residents clear these blighted houses from the community,” he said. “I was asked to tear down seven houses.”
Tastet, who brought in heavy equipment, says more houses still need to come down.
“There are about 15 to 20 more that I know of that should be torn down,” he said. “I tore down the seven houses and the community and parish assisted with clearing the debris.”
Coleman says that her desire is to see the children get a park in the spruced-up area.
“This lot is covered in weeds and high grass,” she said, while pointing to the dilapidated property. “We’re hoping the parish will send someone out to cut this land and we can look into using it to create a park for the community.
“We really believe Shelley was God-sent,” she said. “We plan on meeting again this month to continue working on ways to improve the community.”
Coleman doesn’t even have to ask for volunteers anymore. Most neighbors come on their own.
Tastet, who retired from an excavator service company, was surprised when he saw how many people came out to support the cause.
“Four streets got together to do this,” he said. “And I think Ms. Coleman is doing an outstanding job of leading the way for community improvement.”
Code enforcement and clearing blighted properties has been an issue for the parish’s Planning and Zoning Department.
“We hired a new code enforcement officer,” Kim Marousek, director of the department, said. “But then one of our other officers moved to the Public Works Department.”
Marousek says the department is still looking at ways they can contact property owners to get them to take care of their property.
“Some of the houses we tore down were owned by relatives of people who passed away,” Coleman said. “People leave and the property stays in the family but no one keeps it up.”
Coleman says she’s lived in St. Rose all of her life and has seen plenty of changes over time.
“The children that come up need to care about their surroundings again,” she said. “We were taught to take care of whatever we had and this is a lesson we want the older citizens to remember and the younger generation to learn.”
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