SERVING THE PARISHES OF EAST FELICIANA AND WEST FELICIANA
The
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T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, au g u s t 28, 2024
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Permanent $800 raises OK’d for West Feliciana School Board employees BY JAMES MINTON Contributing writer
The West Feliciana Parish School Board voted Aug. 20 to give all 400 school employees a permanent $800 raise and also a break on health insurance premiums. Superintendent Hollis Milton proposed, and the board agreed, to give the raise in a lump-sum payment around Thanksgiving. Milton said the payment in one check, rather than in monthly increments, is a better way of letting employees know the board appreciates their dedication and service. The state Legislature, rather
Leila Pitchford AROUND THE FELICIANAS
Art show coming Friday in Jackson The East Feliciana Council on Aging will host a Senior Art Show at the Jackson site Friday, Aug. 30. Director of Arts Education Leea Russell, of the Louisiana Division of Arts, Office of Cultural Development with Lt. Gov. Billy Nunguesser’s office, will be the special guest.
OLLI Fall Coffee event set OLLI Fall Coffee, which will highlight new fall classes, as well as a horticulture speaker, Jessie Hoover, from the LSU AgCenter. Felicianas Chapter of OLLI will hold its fall coffee at 10 a.m. Sept. 16 in Fellowship Hall at First Baptist Church, 12404 La. 10, St. Francisville. Hoover will share fall gardening tips and talk about Louisiana Super Plants. Guests over the age of 50 are welcome. Registration for OLLI runs through Oct. 2. Classes begin Sept. 23 and end Nov. 2. Visit OLLI in the Felicianas on Facebook, ce.lsu.edu/olli or contact ollifelicianasmembership@ gmail.com for information.
Loyal to the Royal Day St. Francisville has declared Sept. 6 as “Loyal to the Royal Day,” and encourages residents and businesses to wear and display the royal blue and white to cheer on the West Feliciana High School Saints football team as they take on the Alexandria Senior High Trojans.
Angola Prison Rodeo tickets Tickets are available for the October Angola Prison Rodeo. Reserved seating is $20 per ticket. The event includes music by inmate bands, food, and prisonermade arts and crafts. Children’s activities include pony rides, carnival games and an antique carousel. Admission to the Louisiana Prison Museum and Cultural Center is free for ticket holders each Sunday. Purchase at angolarodeo. com/tickets.
4-H archery tournament East Feliciana Parish 4-H will hold its first Archery 3D Invitational on Sept. 14 at the Bob R. Jones Idlewild Research Station, 13248 Gross Road, Clinton. This event invites all current 4-H members, 4-H alumni, 4-H shooting sports coaches and parents to participate. The invitational will have both individual and team divisions. Team member score will also qualify as an individual competition. Cost is $25 for individual entries and $40 for team entries. Square invoice will be sent once regis-
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than giving school employees a permanent raise during the last legislative session, decided to give one-time payments of $2,000 to educators and $1,000 to support workers. Business Manager Misty Cook said the state has not yet sent the money to be distributed to employees. The local raise will be built into salary schedules, however. Board member Sarah Wilson Rogers asked the board to wait until the September meeting to consider the raise, saying she wanted to look over the budget for the current school year. “I’m fuzzy on a few things,” she
said. Milton said, however, that the budget won’t be any clearer next month. “I feel like we can do it,” he said. “In a $35 million budget, it’s not a gigantic wave.” Cook said the pay raise will cost approximately $418,000 in salaries and board-supported benefits, but she said a $450,000 budget increase she will present at an upcoming meeting will offset the salary increase. The budget revision will include a $200,000 increase in sales taxes over the amount budgeted, $100,000 more in interest income
and a $150,000 federal award for computer purchases. The School Board pays 51% of an employee’s health insurance premium, but the board accepted Milton’s proposal to also cover a 12.7% increase in premiums from the insurance carrier for the coming year. Cook said the increase will cost the board an additional $210,000 for the year, but she said the current budget included an expected increase of 15%. The school system pays about $3.2 million per year for employee health insurance. Had the board not agreed to ab-
sorb the increase, it would have negated the $800 pay increase for some employees, board members said. In other action, the board: n Approved an $87,184 price increase for the Julius Freyhan renovation project to cover the cost of replacing two beams supporting the second story that were found to have termite damage. The wooden beams will be replaced with steel beams in a delicate operation, said Lee Hammer, who is monitoring the work for the board. n Raised adult meal prices to $3.55 for breakfast and $5.50 for lunch.
Stop & Shop the Choctaw Trail to feataure 25-mile garage sale
BY MELINDA RAWLS HOWELL
Contributing writer
The Stop & Shop the Choctaw Trail has grown in the number of participants and, for the first time this year, into a twoday event set from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sept. 6-7. Set in the gently rolling hills of the Felicianas along LA. 10, the trail of garage sales follows a route which long ago was used for trade by the Choctaw tribe of Native Americans. The “25-mile-garage sale” began last year and is sponsored by the Jackson Tourism Enhancement Committee, Town of Jackson. It grew from the “townwide garage sale that began seven years ago,” according to event coordinator Ginger Goudeau. Expanding even more in its second year, the Stop & Shop the Choctaw Trail garage sales and vendors will be in and around the town of Clinton in East Feliciana, which also has its Community Market Day on Saturday. Then going west the sales will continue on the La. 10 route, with a few participants accessed by detours on La. 19 and LA. 68. Going farther west will be Jackson’s numerous offerings followed by the shopping opportunities continuing along La. 10 and into the town of St. Francisville. In Jackson, which serves as the hub according to JTEC President Smitty Schmidt, tables, tents and booths will be set up this year inside and outside the Lions’ Civic Center. Approximately 25 vendors are expected there with over 45 booths down the hill and inside the Jackson Vintage Village flea market. Any private garage sales at homes along or near the Stop & Shop the Choctaw Trail’s route can get an official Stop & Shop sign by contacting coordinator Goudeau. When going along the
PHOTOS BY MELINDA RAWLS HOWELL
Looking over plans for the 2024 Stop & Shop the Choctaw Trail set for Sept. 6-7 are Ginger Goudeau, event coordinator; and Smitty Schmidt, president of the sponsoring organization, the Jackson Tourism Enhancement Committee. scenic trail, she said, “keep an eye open for marauding garage sales along the road and on side streets.” There will be several in Jackson on College Street in addition to those set up along the highway in between the towns, Goudeau added. Food trucks will be set up in Jackson in the downtown/ historic district on La. 10 near Old Centenary Inn. Restrooms are located in the Jackson town plaza near the gazebo. Seven “hospitality spots” will be located as shoppers drive along their way and will offer free water, restrooms and some
air-conditioning, Goudeau says. The spots begin in Clinton at The Green Door on La. 10 in town. Other spots will be at Em & Lizzie’s on La. 19 in Slaughter, at the Louisiana Veterans Home near Jackson, the Vintage Village in Jackson, Blue Frog Antiques in Jackson, Poppin’ Up Plants on La 10 in West Feliciana, and Findings in St. Francisville. Most of these sights will also have sidewalk sales, garage sales and some adjacent tents set up. For more information contact Goudeau at (225) 933-4911 or ging130@yahoo.com.
Missing 81-year-old found, but dies in hospital BY JAMES MINTON Contributing writer
A St. Francisville man who was the object of a widespread missing-person search earlier this month died Wednesday after being hospitalized for more than a week. William “Butch” Kerr, 81, was reported missing from his residence on Aug. 11 after having been seen a day earlier, St. Francisville Police Chief Randy Metz said. Kerr was featured in a Louisiana State Police “Silver Alert” as several agencies began looking for him. Metz said officers learned that Kerr’s cellphone had last established contact with an AT&T tower in neighboring Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Police, sheriff’s deputies, family and friends of Kerr began searching that area. Metz said more information was obtained Aug. 12 from the phone company through a search warrant to help narrow
the search area, and an area resident correctly identified a location on private property he thought should be checked. The police chief said Kerr had entered Mississippi from the Pinckneyville Road, which runs north off La. 68 between Angola and U.S. 61 in West Feliciana Parish. From there, Kerr apparently traveled on several rural Wilkinson County roads whose condition became progressively worse, and he was found where his vehicle became mired at a low-water crossing on a private road. Kerr was transported to a Centreville, Mississippi, hospital suffering from extreme dehydration and other medical issues, the police chief said. He was later airlifted to a Baton Rouge hospital. “I am very humbled at the amount of support from our law enforcement partners in Wilkinson County, and from friends and family who helped with the search,” Metz said in a statement.
Signs like this will be up Sept. 6-7 along the 25-plus miles of garage sales and hospitality spots in the Felicianas near and along La. 10 for the community garage sale.
EAST FELICIANA
Building once used as a voting precinct to be sold BY JAMES MINTON Contributing writer
The East Feliciana Parish Police Jury voted Aug. 19 to sell the site of a former voting precinct building to the highest bidder. The half-acre at 8550 La. 955 East near Ethel was appraised at $20,000, but local surveyor Jeff Moody offered to buy the land for $38,501, Parish Manager David Amrhein said. The owner of land near the site had asked for a chance to bid on it, but Moody’s bid topped three other offers, Amrhein said. Jury President Louis Kent said voting precinct had been moved to a nearby fire
station years ago and the building is in disrepair, including a collapsed roof. In other action during the brief meeting, the jury voted to allow employees to trade their Oct. 14 Columbus Day holiday for Tuesday, Nov. 5, which is Election Day. Jurors also went behind closed doors with District Attorney Sam D’Aquillla to discuss a recent lawsuit against the jury and employee John Rouchon, who was driving a parish-owned coroner’s vehicle that collided with another vehicle in Zachary earlier this year. The jury took no action upon returning to an open session.