Jeanerette residents demand right to ride horses in town

By Robert R. Jones III

The Jeanerette Board of Aldermen agreed to take up the issue of the legality of riding horses in the city limits at the next board meeting in June after angry Jeanerette residents demanded to have a city ordinance amended.

Currently, the city ordinance says horses can only be rode in town during parades due to safety concerns. However, residents say they have no place to ride in the country either, because farmers do not want them on their lands.

Discussion on the matter became heated between Mayor Arthur Verret and agitated members of the audience, who said they felt their concerns were ignored after they could not get the issue put on the agenda for the monthly regular meeting on Monday, May 12.

When given a chance to speak near the end of the meeting, Derrick Wells, representing a group of riders filling the meeting room, said horses were part of the community’s culture and heritage, and residents were left with nowhere to go and do what they love to, without breaking the law.

“We want an explanation of why we can’t ride horses,” he said. “We want an answer and we’ve never been given one.”

When Verret said the issue was not on the agenda, agitated members of the audience shouted they came to the mayor for an answer three times, but were never given an answer and wanted the ordinance amended.

Board Attorney Ray Allain then explained the action could only be taken at the next meeting after a member of the board of aldermen made a motion to change the ordinance.

“You have run us out of the city, and we can’t go in the country because we can’t ride on farmland,” Wells said. “All of us grew up on horses and we all have horses, and we are just looking for a safe place to ride once or twice a week.”

Other members of the audience said they would accept limitations on where they could ride and avoid high traffic areas such as Main Street, (La. 182).
The board then agreed to put the matter on the agenda at the next meeting.

In other business, the board agreed to change the name of Monnot Street to Rosa Parks at the request of neighbors in the area, all of whom signed a petition to have the change put into effect.

Parks started the civil rights movement in the U.S. by being arrested after she refused to give her seat on a city bus to a white passenger.

Speaking on the matter was Cleveland Jones of the Magnificent Men’s Civic and Social Club.

“We want to honor (Rosa Parks) by the change,” he said. “The area is right by the park in a black district, and we want the kids of the next generation to see the name and know what people have sacrificed for them.”