COVINGTON • FOLSOM • LACOMBE • MADISONVILLE • MANDEVILLE • SLIDELL
ST. TAMMANY
N O L A.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, J a n u a ry 29, 2025
1an
Borchert becomes Slidell’s 23rd mayor
Bill Borchert speaks after he was sworn in as mayor of Slidell during a ceremony at Slidell Municipal Auditorium on Jan. 20.
BY KIM CHATELAIN Contributing writer
Bill Borchert, who has been on the Slidell City Council for 16 years, was sworn in as mayor Jan. 20, saying he will push to complete the Tammany Trace into Heritage Park, revitalize youth sports and improve drainage. Borchert assumes the reins of St. Tammany’s most populous city from Greg Cromer, who is leaving with 18 months left in his term to take a job with Gov. Jeff Landry’s administra-
STAFF PHOTO BY SCOTT THRELKELD
“I want to thank Mayor (Greg) Cromer for his years of service and dedication to our community and wish him the best of luck in his new role.”
the city’s 23rd mayor. But the length of his term remains uncertain. The city’s charter allows for the atlarge City Council member who was the top vote getter in the most recent election to take over the mayor’s job until a special election can be held. BILL BORCHERT, That is expected to happen this fall. Slidell mayor In March 2022, Borchert finished first in a three-candidate race for the two at-large seats on the council, tion. By taking the oath of office admin- amassing 2,208 votes, or 40% of the istered by Louisiana Supreme Court ä See MAYOR, page 3A Justice Will Crain, Borchert becomes
SNOW DAYS
PHOTO BY MATTHEW DOBBINS
The umbrellas in Slidell’s Umbrella Alley weren’t catching rain on Jan. 21. A record snowfall provided a perfect white backdrop for the brightly colored section of First Street.
Record snowfall turns Tammany into rare winter wonderland BY ANDREW CANULETTE and WILLIE SWETT Staff writers
After what meteorologists billed as a 100-year storm dumped as much as 8 inches of snow in St. Tammany Parish on Jan. 21, residents still were talking about the weather phenomenon three days later, as they pulled tarps off their plants, unwrapped exposed pipes and surveyed the wet mess left behind as the final pockets of powder finally melted. Despite the clean-up that was PHOTO BY BOBBY GILBOY ahead for some residents, most had nothing but rave reviews of ‘Win one for the Gipper,’ might have been a line from one the magnificent snow that made of Ronald Reagan’s movies, long before he was the 40th much of the Gulf Coast (from President of the United States of America. On Jan. 21, the Texas through the panhandle of statue of Reagan at the Covington Trailhead more or less Florida) look more like a scene from Lake Ontario’s shores in said ‘Winter has hit the Gipper.’
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the dead of winter. It was after all, an extremely odd site — snowdrifts nearly a foot high in Slidell, the Mandeville lakefront a frosty forest of towering oaks swaddled in grey mist, the statue of President Ronald Reagan at the Covington Trailhead looking like a Head and Shoulders shampoo ad, with a couple inches of snow resting on his bronze shoulders. And as far as any weather experts could tell, it was a record snowfall for all of St. Tammany — at least in recently recorded history, said Hannah Lisney, of the National Weather Service’s office in Slidell. The entire parish was blanketed in white after the Jan. 21 snow (officially called Winter Storm Enzo by meteorologists,) with 5 inches recorded in Covington
and more than 7 inches recorded in Slidell. To compare, Lisney said some 5 inches were recorded in Folsom in 2017. Before that, in 2008, Mandeville had 2.5 inches. There were also two inches of snow recorded in Slidell in both 1988 and 1993. But none of the recorded snowfalls compare to the 7-plus inches recorded in some parts of the parish on Jan. 21. Lisney said the NWS didn’t have data on snow levels in St. Tammany for either the 1963 or 1895 snowfalls that blanketed New Orleans with what some historians said was a comparable amount to what the northshore saw last week. It certainly was a beautiful site, the communities glistening
ä See SNOW, page 2A
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