Melville residents rally against ferry closure
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Dozens of Melville residents visited the steps of the State Capitol on Tuesday to ask the governor to stop the impending closure of the Melville ferry.
That ferry has shuttled people and automobiles between Melville and Pointe Coupee Parish for decades.
Melvillians asserted their First Amendment right to gather in peaceful protest.
Shirley Goudeau's family has lived and operated a farm between Melville and Pointe Coupee Parish for more than a century. Her cattle reside on the east side of the Atchafalaya River and she lives on the west side. She depends on the ferry to feed the livestock.
"I'll have to travel 28 miles. 14 miles one way and coming back 14 miles another way everyday to feed them," Goudeau said.
For decades the Melville ferry has linked the Goudeau farm. "I cried and I prayed. Because we been crossing that ferry since my daddy. And my daddy used to tell me they used to have a pay ferry and they paid to go back and forth," she said.
Phyllis Sicard also remembers riding the ferry as a child. It is something she now shares with her own child. "Sometimes me and my daughter like to cross the ferry just to go riding. It's been there since I was a little girl. I had family members that worked on it as the captain."
The streamlining commission originally recommended closing the Melville, White Castle and Duty ferries. Melville is the only one that got the axe.
"So I guess I have to move my cows or sell them. Because that's too much for me to go back and forth," said Goudeau.
The protesters wanted to talk to the governor, but were told he was at an event elsewhere in the state.
It appears that Melville after 70 years of service is about to sail on its final voyage New Years Eve. Closing the ferry means a projected savings to the state of around $720,000 a year. The streamline commission concluded each vehicle costs more than $50 a trip to transport.
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