By Associated Press - Saturday, May 24, 2014

GRETNA, La. (AP) - Jefferson Parish’s oldest Carnival parading organization and its only remaining West Bank krewe face revocation of their parade permits for failing to field enough riders or floats when they paraded earlier this year.

The New Orleans Advocate reported (https://bit.ly/1jVCVoj) the krewes of Zeus and Adonis will lose their spots on the 2015 parade calendar if the revocation notices are upheld on appeal.

They would be the first krewes to lose permits under an ordinance enacted in 2009.

Parish community affairs director Sean Burke said the rules are designed to ensure krewes meet minimum standards.

Both krewes can appeal loss of their permits through the parish’s administrative hearing process and possibly in court, Burke said.

Adonis co-captain Mary Dufresne said her krewe plans to appeal.

Parish officials said the group had about 150 riders this year; the ordinance requires 200.

Dufresne said several problems prevented Adonis from meeting that goal, including failure of a busload of riders to reach the staging area before the parade rolled. She said that even if those riders had been counted, the krewe might still have fallen short.

Zeus, which parades in Metairie in East Jefferson, is accused of two violations. The krewe had only two marching bands in its 2014 parade, three short of the minimum set by the ordinance. The krewe can be fined $500 for each band it was short.

The krewe also is accused of having too few floats. Jefferson requires at least 10, not including floats for the captain, grand marshal or royalty. Zeus’ initial parade plans called for 12 floats, but it rolled with 11, including floats for the king and grand marshal.

Representatives of the krewe argued the king’s float, which carried 10 riders, should have counted toward its total, even though the ordinance prohibits that, Burke said.

Zeus officials could not be reached for comment on their plans for a possible appeal.

In 2009, 14 krewes were authorized to parade in Jefferson Parish, but the number has dwindled since then.

Of the four West Bank krewes, three - Alla, Choctaw and Cleopatra - have moved to the Uptown route in New Orleans. Jefferson’s east bank parades have largely stayed put, though the Krewe of Rhea dropped out of the schedule in 2011 after financial hardships.

The revocation of permits for Zeus and Adonis would leave nine Carnival parades in Jefferson, all of them on the east bank. The total includes Thor and Atlas, two established krewes that canceled parades in 2014, and Guardians of Atlantis, which was supposed to roll for the first time in 2014 but dropped out last summer.

A new organization, the Krewe of Athena, has applied to parade for the first time on the east bank next year. Burke said another group is trying to gather support for a 2016 parade.

While revocation of a permit doesn’t bar an organization from applying again in the future, keeping its Jefferson Parish permit in place could be crucial for Adonis, which also needs a permit from New Orleans for the Algiers portion of its route. With New Orleans permits difficult to get, being denied a permit for even a year could mean the krewe would lose its ability to parade in Algiers, she said.

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Information from: The New Orleans Advocate, https://www.neworleansadvocate.com

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