FRANKLIN — The St. Mary Parish population is growing old, daily. 

St. Mary Council on Aging Director Beverly Domengeaux informed the St. Mary Parish Council that 18 percent of her clients are over 65 and that the number is growing.

Domengeaux appeared at Wednesday’s  Parish Council meeting, offering a thank you to the council for its help in maintaining senior citizen programs, parishwide. She said in 2018, the agency delivered 38,000 home meals and provided 9,250 meals from its agency sites.

The Council on Aging also conducted 3,993 homemaker service assistance appointments, transported 4,181 seniors and provided 1,670 seniors with respite care assistance. 

“We thank you for supporting us. We also want to inform you that we’re doing our part as well. Last year we raised $149,000 to assist our operations,” Domengeaux said. 

“And we’re taking care of the whole of St. Mary Parish, not just one particular area.”

Domengeaux said the Parish Council should brainstorm about how to address the fact that a lot of people are living longer.

In other business, the council learned bears have been seen lately, along streets in Franklin. Though this isn’t a first, Councilman Jay Ina said bear sightings seem to be increasing. 

The Louisiana black bear is the state mammal for Louisiana, and it is one of 16 subspecies of the American black bear, according to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. It is illegal to shoot and kill a bear. 

The bears seem to migrate in St. Mary and Iberia parishes. 

 Chief Executive Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said the parish has a bear conflict officer, Catherine Siracusa, whose job is to handle reports and complaints. She is also the liaison with state wildlife biologists.

“For most of this year, bears have been a problem in Patterson. Now, they seem to be moving farther west,” LaGrange said.

He said city leaders in Patterson worked out a deal in their solid waste contract, to obtain bear resistant trash cans, that is, cans that the bears cannot open.

“We’re not there yet in Franklin and in other areas. However, when we renew our contracts, we will have an opportunity to address the situation,” he said. 

Willie Rack, of Ninth Street in Franklin, said his wife had gone out to the car recently and  heard a racket. 

“I went to the door and this bear was at the trash can, looking at my wife with an expression like, ‘What are you doing here,’ ” he said. 

“A neighbor got 2 feet from the trash can and the bear opened the trash can,” Rack said. 

The Wildlife and Fisheries reports  there has never been a recorded case of a black bear attacking a human in Louisiana. 

In the improbable event that a bear does charge or attack, people are encouraged not to run away or “play dead” but instead to fight back and exhibit dominance.