The North Shore Beach Comber
December 2000
President John Lopez, 1St Vice President Tommy Raymond
2nd Vice President Dick Pearsall, Secretary Dennis Strecker
North Shore Beach Association, P.O. Box 1187 Slidell, LA 70459

NSBA Board of Directors 2000 – 2001

NSBA Board of Directors 2000 – 2001

President, John Lopez John is a coastal geologist at the University of New Orleans. He and Sharon live at 387 Carr Dr with their dog "Urrca" and cat "Pearl". 847-1889 jlopez@gs.verio.net

1st Vice President, Tommy Tommy has his own contracting business and lives at 264 Clara.

2nd Vice President, Richard "Dick" Pearsall Dick was the 2nd Vice President for the outgoing Board of Directors and is the number one pot stirrer. Dick and Carol live at 303 Carr. They are residential appraisers.

Secretary, Dennis Strecker Dennis is a mechanical engineer with the Corps of Engineers. Dennis, Cindy and their two children live at 283 Car Dr.

Treasurer, Keith Depass Keith, Beth and their two boys lived at 319 Carr and then last year bought the house at 367 Carr. Keith and Beth are both attorneys.

 

A History of North Shore Beach Subdivision and critical developments

 

1953 St Tammany Police Jury agrees to build road for North Shore Beach subdivision in exchange for public beach donated by the Faciane family

1954 Onesime Faciane donates beach property to the "public" including 8.4 acres and 1015’ of frontage

Oct. 1954 North Shore Beach Subdivision Plat filed

February 21, 1955 North Shore Beach Subdivision Covenants recorded

Late 50’s early 60’s "The Roof" is open at the Public beach. The Roof serves food on the beach and has dancing on its flat roof overlooking Lake Pontchartrain. While open, it was an extremely popular place.

March 15, 1960 Incorporation of North Shore Beach Association

January 1967 Revised Covenants recorded for North Shore Beach Subdivision

June 1967 Amendment to revised covenants recorded with automatic 20-year renewal clause for North Shore Beach Subdivision

Jan 1968 Police Jury approved re-numbering of lots to street addresses

Oct. 28, 1968 Property used for present community center donated by Onesime Faciane to NSBA for Fire Station and Community center

Summer 1970 Fire station built for $5000 by North Shore Beach Association Volunteers. President Stan Weiss drove the pilings.

February 1970 Carr Dr. "redone" (resurfaced?)

1974 incorporation of North Shore Beach Volunteer Fire Department

March 1976 North Shore Beach Volunteer Fire Dept. purchase a 1927 Ahrens "Fox Pumper" Fire truck for $1,100 from the City of New Orleans. Newer fire trucks were purchased in subsequent years.

1976 Article in Slidell Daily Times announcing new, 2-way bridge at Carr Dr. (at Hwy. 11) and that the old bridge would "be torn down shortly" Ha Ha

Late 1977 or 1978 North Shore Beach re-zoned from R-rural to A-4 residential

July 1982 Police Jury approved $45,000 for crossing gates at RR

Approx. 1983 Finger canal mouth into Lake Pontchartrain dredged

1986 Sewerage put in for North Shore beach Subdivision

Sept. 1988 to Dec. 1989 Bingo raised a net of $77,878. for construction of Community Center. The Bingos continued to raise more money for the next year. Bingos were run by the Volunteer Fire Department.

Summer 1989 Community Center and Volunteer Fire Department Building was built with Bingo money.

8/21/92 President of North Shore Volunteer fire Dept. recommended installing "dry fire hydrants"

Fall 1993 Bulkhead built along beach and back filled along beach at Community Center

Summer of 1995 Carr Dr. re-surfaced by Parish

 

  

Retrospective

From a review of the old minutes, we have reconstructed the list of Past NSBA presidents as best we could. We have also listed a little information about the Volunteer Fire Dept. If you have additional information, please contact a Board member.

Past presidents NSBA (Pre-87 1-year terms and post 87 2-year terms)

NSBA was founded in March 15, 1960

Stan

Weiss

1966-69

Louis

Segona

1970-71

William

Seeber

1974-75

Walter

Grant

1976-77

Fred

deVilleneuve

1978?

Barney

Fleming

1978?

Janie

Clelland

1982-83

Bernadette

Goddard

1983-84??

Will

Nolan

1985-86

Arthur

Quick

1987-90

C.J.

Gough

1990-91

Will

Nolan

1992-93

Jack

Wester

1994-95

Robert

Voogt

1996-97

Kerry

Weilbacher

1998-99

John

Lopez

2000-01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Shore Volunteer Fire Dept.

First President: Arthur Quick

Current President: Elmore Schwandt

Current Chief: Richard Pearsall

Past Chiefs: Brian Burch, Norman Francione, Bob Lasar

 

 

 

The Large Man Cometh – (noooo, I don’t mean "Big Al")

Following a long tradition North Shore Beach will have a special guest visit us during the Christmas holidays. Santa and his merry helpers will be cruising the bayou on Saturday December 23. Santa’s special assistant Joe Loyacono says Santa’s "party sled" will run up and down all the finger canals between 5 and 7 pm. Santa and his helpers have prepared a special gift especially made for North Shore Beach Residents (at least all the good ones). We will hold an open-house and extraordinarily short meeting at the Community Building starting at 5 pm. Drinks, snack, hot chocolate will be provided from 5-8 pm.

 

 Joe Loyacono has been helping Santa for more than 15 years. He got started shortly after moving here and spotting Santa in a pirogue duck hunting – just kidding - actually he was passing out gifts. Joe’s kids and grandkids are the Cajun Elves that have help make Santa’s gift for the community. I can remember my first year here getting a delightful crab trap ornament. Joe says he may retire this year and Santa may be looking for a new Special Assistant. Just let us know if you’re interested.

 

 

The North Shore Beach Church, Huhh?

You may have noticed the lot for sale at 181 Carr Dr. The lot is vacant, but there is a pretty little boat shed on the Faciane canal. The boat shed is typically designed neatly covered in blue siding. The curious thing is that the boat shed overlies the ground of North Shore Beach’s one and only church. According to Virginia Trembley (just two houses over) the church was a Baptist Mission Church founded in 1958 by the 1St Baptist Church of Slidell. The first couple years the North Shore Beach Baptist Mission church was run out of the pill-box home next door at 183 Carr Dr originally owned by Gallatus, which still stands today. In 1961 a church was built at 181 Carr Dr. on the canal side straddling the bank and the canal. The main lot at 181 was used as a schoolyard and never was built upon. Jeanie Burke and Yvonne Cook ran the Mission originally, but it was a Reverend Jack Andrews who oversaw the church construction on the canal. The Mission Church was mainly active from 1961 to the mid-80’s and had Sunday attendance of 25, mostly kids. Jeanie Burke and Yvonne Cook worked for over 20 years in the Mission Church. Every year a three-month summer bible school was run and open to all denominations. Jerry Seltzer joined the two and began bible school for adults. By the 1980’s larger Baptist churches were open in Slidell and attendance dropped off and the Mission was closed some time in the 80’s.

Frank O’Brien, 76, has had the property for sale and has just agreed to sell. He and his wife had plans to live and build on the lot after he had to tear down the old mission church. Unfortunately, she passed away and so the lot still has yet to be built on. Frank remembers the church fondly having grown up in the area. He recalls that the fishing was always good at the little church. People would always perch fish right at the church and catch’em even when no-where-else had fish. The fine, long-leaf pine lumber of the mission was used to build a barn in the country. The boat shed Frank built has a small steeple bought from Poole Lumber as a remembrance of North Shore Beach Mission church where for over 20 years our predecessor’s children were taught by a few dedicated individuals who taught the bible’s message in the summer heat.

Thanks to Mrs. Trembley and Mr. O’Brien for passing on this bit of history.

 

"Wildlife Agents" Barbee and White bust gill-netters

Driving toward home on Carr Dr. October 27, I noticed unusual looking boats in the Lake. After pulling into the driveway I immediately went to our pier where I found Sharon White. About an hour earlier a commercial looking skiff with three men on board began dropping a very large net over the side a mere 100 feet from the end of our pier. Just to the west we could see Jennifer Barbee on the end of her pier where they seemed to be even closer. The two "don’t-mess-with-my-lake" women had wasted no time. Between them they had already called Wildlife and Fisheries (locally and in Baton Rouge), the St. Tammany Sheriff’s office and Channel 4. As I walked down the pier a dull gray powerboat came flying in from the east toward the commercial skiff. BUSTED. The boat was a gill-netter and he was illegally gillnetting. Let me clarify. Gill netting is banned most of the time. There is a short season (Oct 16 to Jan 15) for gill netting of mullet by "strike-netting" which simply means the net must be attended while out. The gill nets for example can never be left out over night. The season was open at that time and they were attending their net, but they were within the Lake Pontchartrain Sanctuary that extends 1-¼ miles from our shoreline. They were illegal and probably realized this since the sanctuary has existed for a long time. Thanks to "Agents" Barbe and White the fisherman was caught "slimy handed". The Wildlife and Fisheries agent was tied to the side of the gill-netters.

What was remarkable was that amount of fish that were caught. The net was out probably less than two hours and covered about 600’ of shore with the net doubled back (1200’ of net), but when they pulled it in it was full of fish. From what I could see it was all mullet….A LOT of mullet. As we all watched the net and fish kept piling up in the skiff; so there was hardly room for the three fishermen. The free board on the boat went from 2 feet to 6 inches. If the lake had been the least bit rough they would have been at risk of sinking. The Wildlife and Fisheries agent estimated they caught 1200 pounds, but was sending the boat back to dock to weigh the catch…. and then tabulate the fine.

Unfortunately an article in the Times Picayune on November 26 said a number of illegal gill netters had been caught illegally fishing in the sanctuary and that the fines were actually less than the profit the fisherman made. Carlton Dufrechou with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation said they will look to have some new regulations next year to adequately protect the lake sanctuary from this illegal activity. The Lake Pontchartrain Sanctuary extends 1 ¼ miles along the south shore from the Orleans Parish - Jefferson Parish line eastward. It continues along the Haynes blvd area all the way across the Hwy 11 bridge, and the on the north shore all the way to Goose point. In the sanctuary there is no netting of fish within 1 ¼ mile of shore, including both recreational and commercial. This includes gill nets, trawling, wing netting, skimmers, or purse seines. Why? The area of the sanctuary corresponds to the area where grass beds tend to grow in Lake Pontchartrain. The grass beds are an "essential fish habitat" which means that many fish species are dependent on the habitat during some time in their life. The sanctuary is just another reason we are so lucky to live in North Shore Beach. On one side we have this incredibly healthy lake protected by a sanctuary. On the other side is a wonderful estuary, which is becoming a national refuge.

 

Gator of the Lake

On April 30 Carolyn called and whispered over the phone "John, there’s an alligator in the Lake, and it’s swimming in your direction". Carolyn lives next door in the plantation she calls "Angel of the Lake" and is our immediate neighbor. Sharon and I immediately went out on the pier and sure enough spotted a 5’-6 ‘ alligator about 200’ off the shore. Alligators are just another one of the interesting wildlife we choose to live with. They are extremely important to the wetland system. Their principle meals are nutria. We all know nutria are plentiful here, too plentiful. Too many nutria will eat out whole sections of marsh grass and can cause permanent loss of wetlands. Also Nutria will occasionally eat the grass in your yards. Alligators are basically the only predator for nutria (aside from the automobile). If you see alligators in the canals or waterways, keep a safe distance. If you see an alligator in your yard, especially a larger one, you should call the sheriff. Most importantly never feed alligators or try to fish for alligators. They will associate people and food and then become a problem. In the meantime enjoy them from a safe distance. In the meantime, Carolyn is reconsidering naming their magnificent plantation home "gator of the Lake".