CARNIVAL MAPS, PARADE SCHEDULE 2A 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, F e b r u a ry 12, 2025
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Slidell senior lives out FFA motto
BY MARGARET ALBERT
Contributing writer
At 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 30, the barns of the St. Tammany Parish Fair Grounds were humming with the confident, calm energy and excitement of agricultural students readying their show animals for competition in the 2025 Louisiana Southeast District Junior Livestock Show. At 8 a.m., high school students filed into the show ring, each leading a Southdown lamb for the Sheep Showmanship competition. Among the con- Galloway testants was Northshore High School senior Hudson Galloway, a contender who entered the show ring with his 11/2-year-old lamb, Magnolia, and waited for the judging instructions. But Galloway was no ordinary contestant; prior to the festivities, the Slidell resident was chosen to reign with the show’s queen, Hammond high school senior Eliza Foster. The king and queen were chosen based on their individual achievements in livestock activities,
STAFF PHOTOS BY SOPHIA GERMER
People gather for a news conference on Feb. 4 in front of the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse near Madisonville during an NFL Green tree planting.
PROTECTIVE PLANTING NFL, volunteers plant trees to help protect historic Madisonville lighthouse
BY WILLIE SWETT
Staff writer
Dozens of volunteers planted bald cypress trees around the nearly 200-year-old Tchefuncte River Lighthouse for a wetlands restoration project on Feb. 4 — the latest restoration event organized by Louisiana environmental groups in partnership with the NFL ahead of the Super Bowl held in New Orleans on Feb. 9. A day after ex-Navy SEALs and others helped install an oyster reef in Leeville, volunteers from corporations such as Entergy and Dow Chemical and local nonprofits planted 600 cypress trees near the 1837 lighthouse, which sits on the edge of a tiny peninsula west of Madisonville near where the Tchefuncte empties into Lake Pontchartrain. The area is “very, very vulnerable to hurricanes,” said Madisonville Mayor Jean
ä See FFA, page 2A
2 members join Library Board Both potential appointees added in surprise vote
BY WILLIE SWETT
Staff writer
In a surprise move, the St. Tammany Parish Council has voted unanimously to add two new members to the parish’s Library Board of Control, a recently overhauled body that for more than two years has been at the center of controversy over access to library materials with sexually explicit and LGBTQ+ themes. Ahead of the Feb. 6 council meeting, it appeared the council would have to choose between appointing lawyer Charles Branton, endorsed by the parish’s Republican Party, and retired schoolteacher Dinah Thanars, nominated by a Democratic council member, to fill a lone vacancy, which opened in
and prevent erosion, Pelloat said. “That land area is our first defense here in Madisonville.” The area around the lighthouse was once home to cypress trees, said Kristi Trail, director of the Pontchartrain Conservancy, which helped organize the event in partnership with NFL Green, the league’s sustainability initiative. But the high levels of salt that came into the lake from the Gulf of Mexico through Volunteers from Entergy and Dow help plant tree seedlings the Mississippi River Gulf near the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse. Outlet caused many trees to die, she said. Since the outlet was shut Pelloat. During Hurricane surges and coastal erosion. Ida, the water likely rose be- The lighthouse would be lost down in 2009, salinity levels tween 8 to 12 feet in that area, to the water, Pelloat said, if have lowered, she said. Afhe estimated, damaging the not for the parish’s restora- ter testing, the conservancy lighthouse’s steps. tion project, which includes determined the soil was once In October, St. Tammany building a sea wall to protect again suitable for cypress Parish began a $1.6 million it from storm surges. trees. restoration project to protect There used to be a lot more The new cypress trees just the lighthouse, one of the old- planted will help protect ä See PLANTING, page 2A est in Louisiana, from storm the land from stormwater
Poseidon will roll again with new units, bands BY SARA PAGONES Contributing writer
The Krewe of Poseidon will mark its 10th anniversary when it rolls down the Slidell parade route on Feb. 15, a milestone that might make it tempting for the group to rest on its laurels. But looking back instead of forward isn’t the way Poseidon does
ä See LIBRARY, page 2A
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things. Captain Ronny Kastner stresses the need to keep the parade fresh, with new units, bands and other features to surprise paradegoers and keep them coming back for more. A decade in, that’s still the philosophy for the 750-member krewe that has seen its membership grow consistently and has the distinction of being the larg-
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est on the northshore. “Is the parade fun for everyone? Artistry, pageantry, revelry — we try to touch on all of that,” Kastner said. “Some only focus on what’s fun for the rider.” This year, Poseidon will have 26 floats, including for the first time, two floats that the krewe owns: two double tandems for
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ä See POSEIDON, page 2A
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its maids and another for the grand marshal. Tandem floats are something of a rarity on the northshore, Kastner said. The parade normally features 10 or so bands, and this year will feature the large band Alcorn State University from Mississippi for the first time.
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