The Livingston-Tangipahoa Advocate 08-27-2025

Plans to build reservoir halted

Darlene Denstorff

Chamber plans 30th annual golf tourney

The Livingston Parish Chamber of Commerce is planning its 30 annual Golf Outing on Oct. 17 at Carter Plantation in Springfield.

Registration is underway for sponsors and teams. Visit https://business.livingstonparishchamber.org/events/ details/30th-annual-golf-outing-8609 for information.

Conference speakers set

Journalist Kiran Chawla and motivational speaker Jen Gomez are the main speakers for the Livingston Parish Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Leadership Conference and Expo. Registration is underway for the event, set for 10:45 a.m Sept. 18 at Abundant Life Outreach Center in Denham Springs.

The event brings together women from across the region for a day of connection, inspiration and growth with a variety of vendors showcasing products and services tailored to women. Speakers cover topics like personal development, wellness and leadership. For information, visit tinyurl. com/3tznu7ha.

Wedding gifts stolen, GPS scooter tracks thieves to Denham Springs trailer park

BY AIDAN MCCAHILL Staff writer

A newlywed couple’s joy quickly soured after discovering their wedding gifts and other belongings had been stolen from a Walker storage unit. Among the missing items was an electric scooter equipped with a GPS tracker—a detail that led investigators to a nearby trailer park and the arrest of a duo renting the storage unit next door.

According to a release from Walker Police, the couple had been storing their gifts at a facility on Walker South Road for about a month. When they discovered the property, including the electric scooter, missing on Aug. 2, officers and Livingston Parish Sheriff’s detectives traced the scooter’s GPS signal to a trailer park on Walker South Road in Denham Springs. Investigators questioned the resident at the location, but found no sign of the stolen items. Several days later, authorities learned that Torrie D. Lacey, 44, who lived next to where the scooter was last tracked, had rented a storage unit at the same facility the couple has used. On Aug. 12, Walker Police and LPSO detectives returned to the Walker South trailer park and began questioning Lacey They also found Jason Rex, 40, of Denham Springs, at Lacey’s residence. Rex told investigators he had successfully bid on an abandoned storage unit at the Walker South facility where he found a scooter and other property Authorities then executed a search warrant for Lacey’s residence, and Rex’s residence on

Proposal again faces stiff opposition

BY DAVID J MITCHELL Staff writer

Plans for a huge reservoir north of Baton Rouge to help keep the Amite River from flooding densely populated neighborhoods downstream have been sidelined by opposition from people who live in the countryside where it would be built.

Instead, the agency that revived the decades-old reservoir idea will focus on restoring curves in the Amite and keeping sediment out of the river, measures that could help scale down disasters like the widespread August 2016 flood, which damaged nearly 65,500 homes and thousands of businesses in East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes alone.

The agency the Amite River Basin Commission, hasn’t formally opposed the big reservoir in East Feliciana and St. Helena parishes.

But it has now agreed to add the East Feliciana Parish government’s latest objection to the idea in the commission’s new master plan, which includes the reservoir Paul Sawyer, executive director of the commission, said the action means the agency will be “laser focused” on other projects that it has money and support for, two elements he called “essential ingredients.” He said the reservoir idea has neither, even though research shows it would reduce flooding.

“What we have been saying even

BY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

before this became a household topic in East Feliciana and St. Helena is that we can’t do a project like this without the support and partnership of residents of East Feliciana and St. Helena,” Sawyer said “They have to be on board with this.”

The commission will proceed with $100 million in Amite projects funded through the Louisiana Watershed Initiative, the state-run, federally funded program prompted by the 2016 flood, as well as with a plan to restore parts of the Amite

Bojangles, a chain restaurant known for its fried chicken and biscuits, has opened a location in Livingston Parish.

The North Carolina-born chain was founded in 1977 and has grown to over 840 company and franchise-owned locations across the country with a majority concentrated in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee. At 28509 La. 43, just off Interstate 12, a new Bojangles location is taking on Albany in Livingston Parish. The company also has other restaurants in Duson, Monroe, West Monroe and Ruston. With 95 employees and 3,200 square

to reduce downstream flooding.

It already has a deal in the works to buy more than 200 acres in St. Helena for the river restoration and hopes to finalize it soon.

The idea is to rehabilitate former gravel mining pits to restore natural curves along the middle and upper Amite and to find ways to prevent sediment from washing into the river A straighter river with heavier sediment loads is believed to worsen flooding downstream.

Gaining political momentum after the historic floods of 1983 and

then again in 2016 — the idea of a big reservoir has long been floated for the rural, hilly area north of Baton Rouge The preferred location has been a section of the Amite River in East Feliciana and St. Helena just west of the community of Darlington, which gave the concept its name.

Repeated analyses by the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have shown that the rolling topography there can be used to store water, reducing flooding by several feet in more populated, low-lying areas downstream.

Building the storage area, however would also mean permanently flooding tens of thousands of acres or greatly reducing their use, displacing people and potentially affecting businesses that rely on the land and the river Chrissie O’Quin, the East Feliciana Police Jury vice president, delivered the parish government’s resolution of opposition to the reservoir to the Amite commission last month.

She said people don’t want to be forced to give up their land, particularly for a project they fear may bring unwelcome changes to a rural area.

“They enjoy that peaceful life up there,” she said.

Opponents have appeared at several meetings in recent months, including one at a church that drew

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Seighman and Hirst know they’re tired.

“Last time,” Hirt said, signaling the drum major to clap out the count.

Seighman takes this as his signal to put down his megaphone and ready his hands for applause.

“Our first home game isn’t until the third weekend in September, so it’s going to be a long time until they hear someone clapping and cheering for them,” he said

And when the band finishes this last sequence, Seighman does just that — claps and cheers with Hirt following suit. They’re not placating their students; they really mean it.

These kids had been dedicating their mornings to the practice field and their afternoons to the school’s band hall since July 21. The daily grind has paid off after eight days, because the band is a good place going into football season. Is it perfect? No, but what is?

“The point is they’re marching and playing better that when we started out eight days ago,” Seighman said. “And they’ll get better when school starts.”

He dismisses the band for lunch, following the kids to Walker High’s band hall, built in 2018 with design input from Seighman.

The facility is equipped with two instrument rooms that double as separate changing rooms for boys and girls before practice and on home game days.

Once school begins, after-school practice will be knocked down to twice a week, when Seighman and Hirst will add more sequences to their halftime show, readying it for both home football games and marching festivals

“We have only one halftime show for the year,” Hirst explained “It’s written in four parts. There was a time when we would write it in 60 charts, but we’ve scaled that back to 40. We started thinking about it, and we came to the conclusion that it’s better to do something well in 40 charts than to do 60 charts, where we’re having to learn the last part at the last minute.”

Charts are grids on which marching shows are mapped out according to music phrasing. They used to print them on 14-by-17-inch paper and staple them together Now they’re all contained within the directors’ iPads.

Confused? So were the freshmen on the first day of band camp.

“The freshmen had never marched and played at the same time, so that’s the first thing we start teaching them,” Seighman said. “We don’t bring them in early They show up with the rest of the band, and they start learning from the experienced players.

And on this final band camp day, separating inexperienced freshmen from seasoned upperclassmen is next to impossible. Everyone knows their place on the charts, and the transitions from one sequence to the next are smooth.

Behind the scenes

“Mr Seighman, I need to go to the softball meeting, so I don’t think I’ll have time for lunch,” a

student says after intercepting the band director at the band hall door

“I’ll be back after that.”

“That’s fine, you do what you have to do,” Seighman said.

But a thought hits him The student has been practicing in the sun since 7 a.m., and though she’s been hydrating for three hours, she really needs to replenish vitamins and minerals that she’s sweated out on the band field.

“Wait,” he said, turning back to the student. “Go and get it done, but be sure to eat your lunch when you come back.”

After 29 years of directing bands, six at Parkview Baptist School and 23 at Walker High, Seighman knows that high school life involves more than marching and music. Limiting practice time to twice a week allows students more time for other activities and work part-time jobs.

He also knows kids need to stay healthy while doing band stuff, which includes eating lunch and partaking of orange slices and Popsicles offered up by parent volunteers during marching breaks.

Hirst, meanwhile, holds the door open for lunchtime stragglers. He knows they’re tired, and truth be told, he and Seighman are, too.

What their students don’t realize is that getting back into the routine of band life during preseason is as much a challenge for the directors as it is for them

“We make it a point not to think about band during June and July,” Hirst said, laughing. “Then it starts all over again in August.”

Hirst has been Walker High’s assistant band director for 12 years, though Seighman doesn’t refer to

his cohort as an assistant.

“I think of us as co-directors,” he said. “We work together on this.”

Hirst replaced Seighman as Parkview Baptist’s band director after Seighman accepted the Walker High job in 2003. When Walker High added an assistant band director position, Seighman immediately encouraged Hirst to apply

The duo is simpatico. Both begin working on the marching music in the spring, where the process begins with the music.

“We both agree that the music has to be something we like, because we’re going to have to be listening to it a long time,” Seighman said.

This year, sunshine dominated Seighman’s thoughts, specifically Sheryl Crowe’s “Soak Up the Sun,” then the 5th Dimension’s “Let the Sunshine In.”

But even Seighman had to admit that life isn’t always sunshine, so he added a rainbow with Harold Arlen’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and a little bit of rain with the title song for the movie musical “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Then Steighman and Hirst stepped back and realized they had a theme: Weather And what could be more perfect in Louisiana?

In truth, weather is the band’s rival of sorts. No matter how much planning goes into a week, the weather can throw off everything with lightning, heavy rain, hurricane threats and 104-degree days.

“We had yard lines marked in the new band room for when we can’t go outside,” Seighman said. “We just have to improvise.”

The journey

Both Seighman and Hirst planned a career in music while

in college. Seighman graduated from Southwood High school in Shreveport, where, as he remembers it, he was “always in the band room.”

He was a drummer in the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s “Sound of Today” Marching Band, then spent two years playing drums in a touring Christian band after graduation.

“Then I knew I had to get a real job,” Seighman said. “I got a job as the choir director at Parkview. I didn’t tell anyone about being in the band at first, but then they brought in Wade Sutherland to put the band together, and I offered to help him.”

Meanwhile, Seighman had married, and he and his wife were living in Walker So, when the Walker High band director position came open, he applied and was hired. As for Hirst, he graduated from Sulphur High School in 1997, then LSU in 2002.

“I started out at Parkview and I was blessed,” Hirst said. “I was married, and we started having kids. And I said, ‘Hey Jeff, if you ever need an assistant, I’d like to apply for it.’”

Now the two directors join forces leading the 165 kids in this band. They’ll perform on the field and in the stands at five home games, then divide into two pep bands for away games. Come spring, they’ll break up into the concert band, symphonic band and wind ensemble

But that’s months away.

For now, Seighman and Hirst focus on the marching band — and cheering for their kids from the heart.

IMAGE PROVIDED BY AMITE RIVER BASIN COMMISSION

The so-called ‘bird’s foot’ reservoir proposal would have been built on the Amite River in northern St Helena and East Feliciana parishes and southern Mississippi near La. 432. Projected at more than $1 billion, the dam and reservoir would protect 13,000 downstream structures from inundation in a 100-year flood and reduce flooding for another 5,700. The proposal is one of three alternatives that the Amite River Basin Commission has proposed for an upstream dam, which has proven a controversial in the past.

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more than 300 people.

O’Quin said she doesn’t take the commission’s acknowledgment of the parish’s objection to a reservoir as an ironclad rejection of the idea. But she was pleased with the tenor at the commission’s meeting Wednesday and with what was said by its chairman, John Clark, an Iberville Parish representative.

“I just want to remind everybody that East Feliciana Parish is part of the Amite River Basin,” Clark said during the meeting, which was held in Livingston Parish. “They have a designated seat on our board, and they will always be represented here. Not to mention, East Feliciana Parish occupies a vast amount of river frontage along the Amite River compared to other parishes in the basin.”

Despite the official opposition in East Feliciana, one landowner has offered, as an alternative with willing sellers, a few thousand acres for a smaller reservoir

Sawyer said conversations with that landowner haven’t gone forward.

Tried, and tried again

The reservoir has remained an alluring if difficult to realize idea for some because of its potential for flood reduction and economic impact.

After the devastating 1983 flood, the Corps suggested building the Darlington Reservoir along with the Comite River Diversion Canal. The canal, situated between Zachary and Baker and designed to reroute flood water to the Mississippi River is now halfway built.

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11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 a.m. to midnight Friday and Satur

The spot features a boneless chicken menu with favorites like Bo’s Chicken Sandwich and Bo’s Tenders. It also has a “biscuit theater” where customers can spectate the inception of the 49step buttermilk biscuits made from scratch every 20 minutes.

“When you walk in the restaurant, notice to the right of the registers,” said franchise owner Benjamin Van Cleave. “There’s a very large window, and there’s a logo on the top that says, ‘49 steps made with love,’ and you can watch our biscuit-makers craft these biscuits throughout the day consistently.”

Cleave is one of the few franchisees opening with Bojangle’s new genesis prototype building, featuring a modern, ergonomic design minimizing steps between stations.

Bojangles’ architectural design and menu options vary by location. Some locations, particularly on the East Coast, won’t see a biscuit theater, he said. The new Albany location won’t have green beans, pinto beans or mashed potatoes, but it’ll have baked macaroni and cheese, something the core market doesn’t have.

After the 2016 flood, the Corps took another look at the idea but shifted from a permanent reservoir in Darlington to a so-called “dry dam” with a temporary storage area of 26,000 acres. That dam would have held back water only during floods but still would have forced buyouts of several thousand homeowners and required limits on using land for forestry and gravel mining.

In 2023, faced with local opposition, the Corps ditched the $1.3 billion dam, citing the number of poor and minority households that would be displaced and concerns about weak soils causing the structure to catastrophically fail

The Corps shifted to a $1 billion home elevation and flood-proofing program downriver, but that idea hasn’t been welcomed by local officials because it won’t stop flood water

Newly revamped a few years ago by the Legislature, the Amite River commission, which had faced years of criticism over the slow pace of the Comite Diversion, was tasked with creating a long-range plan. Finished this spring, it included a handful of reservoir concepts. Commission officials say they were mandated to look at the ideas despite long-standing opposition.

O’Quin, the East Feliciana police juror, recalled a recent conversation with someone who helped his parents fight the Darlington Reservoir in the ‘80s and ‘90s and has fought the more recent dam proposals.

“Are my children going to have to do this, too?” O’Quin said the man asked her “And my answer was, ‘Probably,’” she said.

While the Comite Diversion has progressed in fits and starts over the past four decades, Darlington remained mired in controversy over its cost-effectiveness, its impact and questions about weak soil under the proposed dam site.

THE LIVINGSTON-TANGIPAHOA ADVOCATE 10291 Hwy. 190, Walker, LA 70785 or P.O. Box 309, Walker, LA 70785 (225) 388-0215

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY Online at www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/ communities/livingston_tangipahoa/ EDITOR

Darlene T. Denstorff ddenstorff@theadvocate.com

OFFICE: (225) 388-0215 CELL: (225) 603-1998

LEWIS CELL: (504) 615-1166

If desired, the Albany location may expand the menu after a year of operation to include bone-in chicken and other items like the fish sandwich and pork chop biscuit. But first, the team wants to fully grasp the menu and execute it to perfection, he said.

Why Albany?

Cleave, born and raised in McComb, Mississippi, is a third-generation pe-

AROUND

Children’s choirs signups

The Livingston Parish Children’s Choirs are accepting members through the end of August. Rehearsals have begun.

The Apprentice level is for kindergarten through third grade. Rehearsals are from 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. at Healing Place Denham Springs.

The Chorus is for third through ninth grades. It meets Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Healing Place Denham Springs.

The Chorale is for fourth through 12th grades and is by audition only It meets 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays at Live Oak Church.

The Apprentice and Chorus levels are $200 a semester The Chorale is

troleum jobber in a family that also owns a small chain of convenience stores. Around 2019, Cleave decided it was time for some diversification. After spending 27 weeks of in-store training at a corporate Bojangles, his team began a property hunt.

More Louisiana locations to come

“Albany — it reminded me so much of my hometown and also of my dad’s hometown,” Cleave said. “It’s just great community spirit. Very familyoriented. It looks like it’s primed for growth.” Cleave’s favorite item on the menu is Bo’s Chicken Sandwich, which comes on a premium bun with mayonnaise and crisp dill pickles It can also be customized to add lettuce, tomato, bacon or cheese.

$250 a semester Register at lpccsing.org. For information, contact info@lpccsing.org or call or text Barbara Walker at (225) 247-8555.

Drug awareness events planned MO’s Movement, a drug awareness and prevention program in the area, is hosting a series of meetings: n Aug. 24 in Kentwood at First Baptist Church Kentwood, 310 Ave E. Showcase starts at 4:30 p.m. and the presentation at 6 p.m. The evening of remembrance honors those who have lost their life to drug poisoning and raise awareness about the fentanyl epidemic. It will share the stories of three people through their mothers.

n Sept. 2 at the LSU Parade Grounds.

n Oct. 8 at the Southeastern Louisiana University from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Student Union.

Cleave plans to open a Hammond location on the Interstate 55 corridor by next summer, if not sooner His team also plans on property hunting more along Interstate 12. “Chicken is king in the South,” he said. “The brand is really focusing on franchise growth and expansion and constantly innovating.”

The Empty Chair Project will be set up at three events. It is a visual of empty chairs signifying the number of overdose deaths in the parish from January to date of event. It includes memorial and educational posters, to save lives and shield families from the devastating consequences of addiction. Visit MO’s Movement on Facebook for information.

Farmers market Saturday Four Seasons Farmers Market opens every Saturday at 116 North Range Ave. in Denham Springs. The event includes fresh produce and crafts items. For information, call (225) 366-7241 or email thefourseasonsfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

Send news and events for Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes to livingston@theadvocate.com by 4 p.m. Friday or call (225) 388-0731.

BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer

Twenty-eight schools in the Baton Rouge region and 117 across Louisiana recently received state grants of up to $50,000 to upgrade security on their campuses

The grants program, now in its third year, has awarded $5 million each year to cover physical improvements to campuses, such as new doors or fences, updating emergency plans and better training for staff. The latest awards, announced in July, were selected from 575 applicants.

The grants are given out each year by the Louisiana Center for Safe Schools. The center, which opened in 2023, was created by the state Legislature in the wake of the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 21 people and injured 17 more.

The center is part of the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or GOHSEP

Schools winning grants will be reimbursed for eligible costs. They have to complete projects within a set amount of time, usually about 12 months.

The East Baton Rouge Parish school system, the second-largest traditional district in the state, has seven winning schools. Each school will receive the maximum of $50,000 each to pay for improved security measures

The seven campuses are Claiborne, LaBelle Aire and Park elementary schools; McKinley and Southeast middle schools; and Belaire and Glen Oaks high schools.

The improvements include new alarms, cameras, doors, gates, fences, radios and signs. They also call for modernizing entryways.

“This initiative represents a significant investment in strengthening physical security and enhancing campus crisis response capabilities,” the school system said in a recent announcement about its grant awards.

Three other schools in Baton Rouge also won up to $50,000 each for better security These include a charter school, Louisiana Key Academy Baton Rouge, and two Catholic elementary schools, St. Alphonsus in Central and St. Jean Vianney in Baton Rouge.

The Livingston Parish school system won grants to improve security at 12 of its schools: Albany Lower, Albany Upper, Levi Milton, Lewis Vincent South Live Oak and Springfield elementary schools; Frost School; Albany Middle; Juban Parc and Walker junior high schools; and Live Oak and Walker high schools.

Ascension has three schools that won grants: G.W. Carver Primary, Lakeside Primary and Donaldsonville High schools.

Other winners in the Baton Rouge region include East Iberville Elementary/High in St. Gabriel, Livonia High in Livonia and Valverda Elementary in Maringouin. Other winners close to Baton Rouge include St. Peter Chanel Interparochial School, a Catholic school in Paulina, and D.C. Reeves Elementary in Ponchatoula.

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Buddy Ellis Road. At both addresses, police found the couples’ stolen property

John Sharp, a spokesman for the Walker Police Department, said Rex and Lacy’s unit was directly behind the newlyweds’ At some point, a panel was pealed from the wall separating the two units, giving Rex and Lacy access to the nuptial gifts.

Lacey and Rex were soon arrested and booked by Walker Police on counts of simple burglary The two were also booked on drugrelated charges by LPSO.

Scrimmages provide football coaches chance to see what they’ve got

Including this week’s slate of jamboree games, high school football teams essentially have two preseason opportunities to prepare for the regular season.

The first of those came last week with an LHSAA sanctioned scrimmage, and it provided a first look for coaches and fans before the regular season begins next week.

Charles Salzer

SPORTS ROUNDUP

For Denham Springs, the scrimmage was against Zachary a program that has won four state championships and played for another since 2015. The meeting consisted of a controlled practice session followed by a scrimmage with two 12-minute halves.

It was only an initial practice session, and coaches for both teams were more concerned with players getting game-speed reps than the final score. Still, Denham Springs held its own throughout the meeting and got the better of things on the scoreboard with five touchdowns to three for Zachary

“When you put together a scrimmage like this early in the season, you get to test all of your emotions and you get to test them against an elite team,” Denham Springs coach Brett Beard said. “Zachary has been one of the best teams the last 10 years and they’ve built the program that we want. We made a lot of mistakes, but we can clean that up.”

In the scrimmage, Zachary’s Treven Barber returned an interception 33-yards for a touchdown as the Broncos took a 14-0 lead four minutes in. From there, Denham Springs took over

Tight end Hayden Rea showed off his speed turning a short pass from Da’Jean Golmond into a 65-yard touchdown. After Jonathan Bravo converted on a 28-yard field goal, the Broncos’ defense came up big with Devon Mack’s 52yard fumble return for a touchdown.

Denham Springs led 17-14 and held Zachary scoreless on two more drives before the scrimmage ended. Golmond completed 5 of 13 passes for 107 yards with three going to Rea for 77 yards. Golmond also had an 18-yard fourth down scramble to set up Bravo’s field goal, but it was defense that stood out the most. Mack, Jason Dixon and Darreyus Scott each had a sack, Jayd’n Washington broke up three passes and Quentin Clay had an interception. Zachary was limited to 116 yards on 25 plays, a number even more impressive minus a 42-yard completion on the first play of the scrimmage.

To be fair, Zachary played two quarterbacks, senior Michael Kirby and sophomore Willie Johnson, and both struggled to move the Broncos at times. But for one scrimmage, Denham Springs showed it was capable of going toe-to-toe with one of the state’s premier programs. The Yellow Jackets have something to build on.

Charles Salzer covers Livingston sports for the LivingstonTangipahoa Advocate. To reach Salzer, email livingston@ theadvocate.com.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Hammond-based photographer Tyler Vance will speak to the Northlake Camera Club on Sept. 3, 2025. His French Quarter photos are one of several topics.

Hammond camera club to meet Sept. 3

Irish Travelers,

New Orleans French Quarter and tornado chasing tours. He is also sharing a collection of humorous outtakes from 20 years of wedding photography For information about the Northlake Camera Club or the September meeting, call (985) 748-5176 or email sandymadere@aol.com.

Applications open for the Everett G. Powers Fund for Creativity

Community news report

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge is accepting applications for the Everett G Powers Fund for Creativity offering a $5,000 award to support one project that embodies innovation, creativity and artistic excellence. The submission window runs Aug. 21 to Oct. 15, and is open to individuals or to organizations with a 501©(3) designation based in the Arts Council’s 10-parish region: East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, Ascension, Livingston or Tangipahoa parishes.

Established through the vision of Everett G. Powers, the fund recognizes that creativity is essential not only in the arts, but also in fields such as engineering, education, the food industry, architecture and beyond. “Virtually every human undertaking can thrive by consciously including creativity in the mix,” said Powers.

The award supports new projects taking place between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2026. Eligible expenses include artist fees, production costs, supplies, equipment rental, consultant fee, and other direct costs tied to the project. Projects will be evaluated based on creative innovation and artistic excellence (70%) and viability and impact (30%). Applications are due by 4 p.m. Oct. 15 and must be submitted online at artsbr.org. No printed, emailed, or faxed applications will be accepted. For full guidelines and to submit an application, visit artsbr.org.