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Letter* to rne> canui
July 21,1977 TT
Dear Editor,
In response to your stinging editorial of July 3, we sould like to correct certain fallacies. Besides my family, there was a grand total of ONE other person from New Orleans at the meeting concerning the LOCATION of a marina.
Not only were all thirty chairs in the council room filled, but the available standing room was taken as well; | however, even if your figure of 25 was correct, the Bay residents were OVERWHELMINGLY in the majority. In addition to our neighbors, , there were Bay residents representing ; some of the most important institutions j and organizations in Bay St. Louis. ? j
?	During the 97 summers our family has lived in the Bay, we always thought that our interests and those of the Bay residents were the same. Not until your , article did we know that somehow we are ?different?. As children, our i biggest job was to build sandcastles, j run on the sandbars, and swim in front of our home. But when the American Legion pier was changed into a SOLID LAND MASS, things began to change.
The natural tidal flow of the Bay waters became blocked by this SOLID LAND' MASS and the water could no longer flow out at night and cleanse itself. Hence, the area between Stanislaus and the American Legion SOLID LAND MASS now is the third to worst polluted area on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A count of 2,000 fecal coloform per hundred milliliters indicates that swimming should be prohibited. Our area now has a count of 13,000 fecal coloform per hundred milliliters. According to a member of the State Board of Health, any little children who swim out in front in this area do so at the risk of having stomach infections, eye infections, and hepatitis which can be fatal. Do the Bay residents want this situation for their children anymore than we want it for ours?
'J
1
V
?\?-is ?
j Are we so ?different? from the Bayj'
! residents in choosing a LOCATION for j ! the marina near the Bay-Waveland line j which would not place the entire burden , of a bond issue on the residents of Bay j I St. Louis alone, or in choosing a place in j the business district where the Bay/ merchants would receive added trade, " or in choosing Bayou Caddy whore the^ land is undeveloped? Do the'Bay^j residents choose to have the dty spend ? almost two million dollars to develop , property that does not belong to the*; dty?
To think that people who come to the' coast for recreational purposes would be opposed to a marina doesn?t make sense. What we are for is the elimination of the raw sewerage which is still being dumped into the Bay, a solution to the SOLID LAND MASS-which is blocking the natural flow of the Bay water, and for preserving an existing residential neighborhood. Are we really so ?different? from the Bay residents?
Less '
Our lives have been intertwined with those of the Bay residents for five generations. These people have been and are our friends. It is our belief that we would both like to preserve the beauty and cleanliness of our Bay as well as enjoy a marina at a DIFFERENT LOCATION.
Mrs. St. Denis Villere
July 25,1977