THE ZACHA Y
ADVOCATE& T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
Leila Pitchford AROUND ZACHARY
Get your pink out, Zachary The Zachary Chamber of Commerce Leadership North Group is holding a Bust Out Cancer campaign. Among the awareness campaigns are two Pink Out days. The schools will use Oct. 18 as their day. Mayor David McDavid has designated Oct. 24 at the date for the entire city. Proceeds will go to Woman’s Hospital. Awareness event: The Zachary Chamber of Commerce Leadership North group is holding a breast cancer awareness benefit event. Plate lunches with pastalaya, salad and dessert will be sold for $10 at the City Annex parking lot, 4650 Main St., Zachary, from 11 a.m. until, Oct. 24. All proceeds go to the Foundation for Women’s Bust Breast Cancer.
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W e d n e s d ay, O c t O b e r 16, 2024
11th YEAR, NO. 1
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Council hears speeding complaints
BY OLIVIA MCCLURE
Contributing writer
Concerns about motorists who disobey speed limits and blow through stop signs — and what can be done to discourage these bad driving habits — were points of discussion at the Zachary City Council’s Oct. 8 meeting. Scott Reitzell, who lives on English Turn, told the council he has seen the problem in his own neighborhood and around the city near rental properties he owns. “I’ve had a lot complaints from
my tenants about speeding,” he said. “Myself, I’ve noticed it just here in the last couple of weeks now that I’m more aware due to what they’ve had to say.” He added that “stop signs apparently are just suggestions as well,” saying he has seen many drivers fail to heed the signs. Often, those same drivers appear to be distracted by using their cellphones, he said. Reitzell asked city leaders to do something to address the situation. He suggested lowering residential speed limits from 25 miles
per hour to 15 and directing police officers to do more speed enforcement. “I know previous administrations have said, ‘We don’t want to be Krotz Springs. We don’t want to be Golden Meadow,’ ” he said, referring to past mayors’ desires to avoid Zachary being labeled a speed trap. “But I’ll be honest with you, nobody speeds through Krotz Springs or Golden Meadow. If that’s the case, maybe that’s what we need to do because, unfortunately, it’s just a matter of time before something really bad
happens.” He acknowledged that he has seen officers pulling over speeders on some of Zachary’s main thoroughfares. But he is more concerned about speeding in neighborhoods, where streets often are poorly lit, unmarked and narrow. He’s worried about the safety of children, pedestrians, cyclists and delivery people. “It’s more important in residential areas,” he said. “I’m talking Robert Street, Nelson, Chestnut, Knight Drive, Fennwood Drive, Sandy Creek, Settlement, Wind-
ZACHARY FRIDAY NIGHT
Community news report
Metro Council meetings The East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council announced a series of public meetings to discuss proposed amendments to the East Baton Rouge Parish Plan of Government, which will appear on the ballot in the Nov. 5 election. All meetings are scheduled from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. One meeting is Oct. 22 at Zachary Branch Library, 1900 Church St.; another Oct. 24, at Baker Branch Library, 3501 Groom Road. Oct. 22 is a change from the original schedule.
Prayer luncheon set Zachary Mayor David McDavid invites all community members to join the Mayor’s Community Prayer Luncheon on Oct. 25 at the Family Life Center of First Baptist Church Zachary, 4200 Main St. A complimentary fried fish lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The luncheon will feature guest speaker Col. Paul Pride, a retired superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The theme for the luncheon is “Faith and Service.”
Vendor Jazz of All Trades provides Kawaii bags and accessories by Jasmine Isaac.
Little School Fall Fest The Zachary United Methodist Little School Fall Fest is from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19. Trunk-or-treating, games, food, face painting, silent auctions, crafts, booths and inflatables will be on hand. The school is seeking vendors and crafters to participate. A spot is $50. No tent or tables provided. For information contact (225) 654-7695 or littleschool@zacharyumc.org.
Novemberfest set St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church’s Novemberfest will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 2, and will feature games, inflat-
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PHOTOS BY SONYA GOSS
Best friends Thea Landry, 10, and Evie Southall, 10, have fun at the Downtown Live at the Gazebo.
Downtown Live at the Gazebo in Zachary featured Sugar Shaker on Oct. 11. In addition to residents on hand for the music and dancing, vendors sold many things including jewelry, handbags and food.
Trunk-or-Treat Local businesses and organizations will participate in the fourth annual Trunk-or-Treat from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Oct. 27 on Lee Street. Setup starts at 1 p.m. and must be finished by 2:40 p.m. A giant inflatable maze, carnival games, 360 photo booth, food trucks and cotton candy will be available. Special needs children have early entry at 2:45 p.m.
Lane CEO Meese to retire
Lendie McAlister, owner of Heavenly Cotton Candy, is a regular vendor.
Bob Jullens dances with his wife, Susan Jullens, to the song ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ performed by the Sugar Shaker party band.
Larry Meese, chief executive officer of Lane Regional Medical Center for the past eight years, has announced he will retire Oct. 31. “A national search for my replacement is underway, and I am confident our Board of Commissioners will find a great candidate to lead Lane in future growth opportunities an exceptional service,” Meese Meese said. “It has been an absolute honor for me to work at the hospital and support all the people that make Lane such a successful family,” he said. “I thank each and every staff member, physician and board member for their hard work and dedication to Lane, the communities we serve and our patients. I am proud of their individual and organizational achievements.” During his tenure at Lane, Meese has been responsible for charting a course of growth and expansion for the organization and investing in the communities it serves by: n Spearheading Lane’s $90M expansion project focused entirely on patient care, including all new patient rooms, surgical floor, and patient registration areas upon its completion n Adding new service lines: medical oncology, pediatrics, audiology, gastroenterology, outpatient therapy, dermatology, weight loss surgery, allery/asthma/immunology,
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It’s crunch time for Zachary fall sports The humidity is starting to go down and some of the leaves are starting to change. These are early signs that the fall sports season is creeping toward, and for some sports in the heat of, “crunch time.”
Football
team is getting better every game and has an 8-7 record… and we haven’t even started district play. The ZHS volleyballers will have their district home opener on Oct. 16 against Baton Rouge High. After consecutive road games against Dutchtown (nondistrict on Oct. 17) and St. Josephs (Oct. Warren 21), they pick up two more home games against Central (Oct. 23) and Brusly Brady (Oct. 25) before closing out the regular ZACHARY season with three road games. SPORTS
The Zachary High football team finished its 4-5A pre-district schedule with a 3-1 record that earned a seventh overall ranking statewide in 5A. The Broncos have road games against Liberty at Olympia on Oct. 18 and Central on Nov. 1 with a home game against Woodlawn Oct. 25 sandwiched in between. The team closes with a home game against the Catholic Bears. In the local Baton Rouge area rankings, punter Rafael Costa leads with a 44 yard average on seven punts. Caleb Gonzales has the third most passing yards with 797 yards on 57-97-1 with six touchdowns.
Volleyball The ZHS volleyball team has a power ranking of 33, which would put it on the outside looking in for the playoffs. Don’t count them out just yet. At the time of writing this young
Swimming The ZHS swimming team finished the regular season Oct. 12, and the CCSL on Nov. 1 at Crawfish Aquatics lingers not too far on the horizon. At the CCSL cluster meet on Sept. 23, both the Zachary boys and girls teams finished second overall. In addition to 22 individual best times, three new state qualifying swim times were recorded by Joseph Johnson and Jamarus Samuel. First-place finishers were Maddy Snyder (500 free), Evelyn Deroche (100 fly), girls 400 free relay team (Snyder, Ava Ordonio, Chloe Wedblad and Deroche) and the boys 400 free relay team (Matthew Hughes, Warren Griffin, Samuel and Johnson).
Time is short to qualify for the State Championship at Spar Aquatics in Sulphur Nov. 22-23.
Cross-country The ZHS cross-country team is in preparation for hosting the Bronco XC Stampede Oct. 19 at the Port Hudson State Historic Site. After the high schoolers run in the morning, area middle schoolers will compete in the Northwestern Middle School Battlefield XC Run. On Sept. 30, both the boys and girls teams showed their stuff sweeping the team titles at the Nicholls State University Cross Country Invitational 5K in Thibodaux. Nala Mitchel led the girls with a fourth place finish. Top 10 finishers for the boys were Connor Conachen, fourth; Blair Smith, 10th and overall winner sophomore Max Gennaro. East Baton Rouge Championships and the Division 1 Regional meet will be Nov. 2 and Nov. 8 at Highland Road Park. The state meet will be at Northwestern in Natchitoches on Nov. 18. Warren Brady covers sports for The Plainsman. He can be contacted at zachary@theadvocate.com.