According to the Louisiana Department of Health website on December 13, 2020, Winn Parish reported 1,122 (953 confirmed – 169 probable) total new cases of COVID 19. An increase of 70 cases since 12-06-2020. No additional deaths were reported in Winn Parish last week keeping the parish total at 26 (25 confirmed – 1 probable). Winn Parish is once again in the top ten of Louisiana parishes with the most cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. The average number of cases reported daily is 12. 

Confirmed cases and deaths, which are widely considered to be an undercount of the true toll, are counts of individuals whose coronavirus infections were confirmed by a molecular laboratory test. Probable cases and deaths count individuals who meet criteria for other types of testing, symptoms and exposure, as developed by national and local governments.

The week of 11/19 – 12/12 Winn Parish two week cumulative incidence was 870.24. Placing Winn Parish in the “High” category. 

Winn Correctional Center

According to ICE.GOV as of 12/10/2020 there are 3 detainees with confirmed cases of COVID 19 currently under isolation or monitoring at the Winn Correctional Center (WCC). There have been  no additional deaths keeping the total number of deaths of a detainee who died after testing positive for COVID-19 while in ICE custody at WCC at one. There have been 246 total confirmed COVID-19 cases at WCC since testing began in February 2020. These numbers did not change since last week’s update.

There have been no official numbers reported by Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office or LaSalle Management regarding number of positive COVID cases or deaths amongst staff at WCC. 

Winn Parish Long-Term Care Facilities

The latest Nursing Home Report dated  December 9, 2020, reflects  1 new cases among residents, and 3 new case among staff reported for this week at Autumn Leaves Nursing & Rehab Center. Winnfield Nursing & Rehab reported 1 new cases among residents, and 0 new cases among staff.

Facility	Autumn Leaves	Winnfield Nursing & Rehab
Parish	Winn	Winn
Resident Census	82	76
Total COVID-19 Cases Among Residents	32	63
New COVID-19 Cases Among Residents Since Last Report (12-2-20)	1	1
Of Total Resident Cases, Number Whose Infections Began at this Facility	30	59
Total Residents Recovered	28	48
Total COVD-19 Deaths Among Residents	2	10
Total COVID-19 Cases Among Staff	33	41
New COVID-19 Cases Among Staff Since Last Report (12-5-20)	3	0
Total Staff Recovered	30	39

Winn Parish Schools

COVID-19 cases reported to LDH by K-12 Winn Parish Schools as of the 11/29/20 report:

Parish	No. of Schools in Parish	Faculty/ Staff/ Volunteer Total Cases	Student Total Cases	Faculty/ Staff/ Volunteer Cases Reported 11/30 – 12/06	Student Reported 11/30 – 12/06
Winn	6	29	76	8	13

The Winn Parish Journal is changing the format of the Arrest Report. We will post arrest from Winnfield Police Department on Monday and arrest from Winn Parish Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.

Winnfield Police Department
Name: Bennett Barnes
Date: 12-10-2020
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Charge: Possession of a Firearm by a Person Convicted of Certain Felonies
Bond: Not Listed

Name: Marcus Booker
Date: 12*10-2020
Address: Winnfield, LA
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Charge: Failure to Appear
Bond: Not Listed

Name: John W. Dooley, Jr.
Date: 12-13-2020
Address: Homeless
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Charge: Disturbing the Peace
Bond: Not Listed

The Academy will begin on Feb. 15, 2021 and will last approximately 9
weeks. Classes will be held Monday through Thursday beginning each
night at 6 p.m. at the Natchitoches Police Department Training Center.
If accepted, cadets in the academy will undergo training in areas such
as search and seizure, building clearing, traffic stops, firearms and
defensive tactics.

If you are interested in applying you can pick up an application at
The Natchitoches Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division
located at 416 Shady Lane or contact Reserve Commander, Lieutenant
Jeff Townson at (318) 357-3852. Applications can be obtained Monday
through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Applicants must
have a high school diploma, be at least 18 years of age and pass a
background check.

This is a great opportunity for citizens to serve
their community in a positive manner.

COVID-19 testing is provided every Monday, by the National Guard at the Winn Parish Health Unit located at 301 W Main St #101, Winnfield, LA 71483. The testing hours are 8am-12pm. This is a free service for our community.

Register online at health.questdiagnostics.com/stlou

One of Winn Parish’s most beloved eateries is offering letters to Santa this year. Children can write a letter to Santa and Grantadams Dairy Made will forward it to Santa for them. Letters can be dropped off or mailed to Grantadams located at 1601 E. Lafayette St, Winnfield, LA. Letters will be collected 11/23/20 – 12/17/20. Please include child’s name and return address.

Santa has assured Grantadams that he will respond to every child that sends a letter!

WINN:
Elbert Woody Thompson
July 11, 1948 – December 10, 2020
Private graveside services will be held at Jordan Hill Cemetery under the direction of Southern Funeral Home of Winnfield.

NATCHITOCHES:
Walter McFerren
May 05, 1938 – December 09, 2020
Service: Monday, December 14 at 1 pm at The Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

Elijah Calhoun
February 11, 1960 – December 11, 2020
Arrangements TBA

Margaret Ann Holmes
April 26, 1954 – December 10, 2020
Arrangements TBA

Randall Pitts
January 12, 1953 – December 08, 2020
Due to restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

Ruby Lucille Ferri
October 02, 1925 – December 02, 2020
Services are pending due to Covid 19.

Shirley Ann Remo
December 6, 2020
Arrangements TBA

Arthur M. Hardy
December 8, 2020
Arrangements TBA

SABINE:
Charles “Charlie” Brown
July 7, 1954 – December 10, 2020
Service: Tuesday, December 15 at 2 pm at First Baptist Church

Thomas Harold Dew of Many, Louisiana
June 7, 1937 – December 7, 2020
Service: Monday, December 14 at 2 pm at Warren Meadows Funeral Home Chapel

Miriam Elizabeth “Mimi” Wold
July 15, 1941 – December 08, 2020

On December 8, 2020 the glories of Heaven began to shine more brightly as our Heavenly Father, the angels and Lord Jesus Christ welcomed Miriam Elizabeth Wold.  She was preceded in death by her parents Reverend Fisk Ray and Grace Ray.  She is survived by her husband of 57 years Ted Wold of Winnfield, her son Todd Wold and wife Shelley Strong of Big Horn, WY, son Troy Wold and wife Janeana Wold and grandson Parker Wold of Monroe, and son Tracy Wold and wife Melissa Wold and grandson Ryan Nix of Jena.  She is also survived by her sister, Betsy Clement and husband Dr. John Clement along with their children, daughter Jennifer and husband Taylor Mobley and son Jeffrey Clement of Pineville.   

Mimi, as she was known to her friends, was proud Baylor Bear Alumni.   She was born and bred a true American patriot with lineage tracing back to the American Revolution.  Mimi was a devoted Christian and proud to be the daughter of a preacher of formidable faith.  She took great comfort in her Christian faith and faith and comfort in knowing that “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable, and we will all know each other better than we do now.”

She volunteered in many civic organizations such as Pilot International and Alpha Delta Kappa. She was a life long educator both in and out of the classroom.  Students, friends and family who received her educational blessings are located all over the world. She was a life long educator both in and out of the classroom.  Students, friends and family who received recognition as Teacher of the Year on multiple occasions.   

Due to COVID-19 a memorial service will held at a later date.   

The Grinch has been accused of stealing Christmas tree’s from Lynda’s Country Kitchen. He will appear at the restaurant tonight to answer for his alleged crime.

The Grinch will be at the Lynda’s from 5 PM – 8 PM tonight. The entire family is invited to come down and give the Grinch a piece of your mind for trying to steal the Christmas spirit.

Lynda’s Country Kitchen is located at 1903 B Maple St., Winnfield, LA 71483.

The City of Winnfield is hosting an event in downtown Winnfield tonight in place of the annual Christmas Parade.

The Fun, Fireworks and Food Trucks event will also have live music and will be set up near the post office in Winnfield starting at 4:30 PM until fireworks start at 7 PM. 

Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that Joe Louis Anderson, 53, of Winnfield, Louisiana was sentenced in federal court for stealing firearms from a local store.

United States District Judge Dee D. Drell sentenced Anderson to 42 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for theft of firearms from a federal firearms dealer. Anderson was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $5,000.

Evidence introduced in court revealed that during the early morning hours of July 25, 2019, Anderson unlawfully entered the Governor’s Affair store in Winnfield, LA and stole five firearms from the firearm display case. The store had surveillance video of Anderson stealing the firearms and leaving the store with them.

Anderson has a lengthy criminal history, with previous convictions for second degree burglary and possession of stolen vehicle (1991); possession of stolen vehicle and larceny (1992); second degree burglary and knowingly concealing stolen property (1995); larceny of an automobile (1997); and possession of contraband in penal institution (1998). The ATF and Winnfield Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian C. Flanagan prosecuted the case.

The Federal Communications Commission(FCC) announced this week that Winn Parish was allocated $15,977,430 in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction to provide high speed internet to 3,964 unserved/underserved locations. The winning bidders in Winn Parish were Segnem Egere Consortium and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

The winning bidders have 6 years to complete the build out, but there are significant incentives to complete the work faster. The FCC website contains an interactive map that allows addresses to be entered to determine if that location is eligible for funding and who the winning bidder for that particular census tract was. The interactive map can be found here – https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/maps/rdof-phase-i-dec-2020/.

In Louisiana, the RDOF auction allocated $342,207,315.20 in support to expand broadband to 175,692 unserved homes and businesses over the next 10 years. Nearly all locations in Louisiana that were eligible for the auction will be receiving access to broadband with speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps, with an overwhelming majority (82%) getting gigabit-speed broadband. The auction unleashed robust competition that resulted in more locations being awarded at less cost to Americans who pay into the FCC’s Universal Service Fund.

“This historic auction is great news for the residents of so many rural Louisiana communities, who will get access to high-quality broadband service in areas that for too long have been on the wrong side of the digital divide,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “We structured this innovative and groundbreaking auction to prioritize bids for high-speed, low-latency services to deliver the best results for rural Americans, and the results show that this strategy worked. This auction was the Commission’s single largest step ever taken toward delivering digital opportunity to every American and is another key success in our ongoing commitment to universal service.”

Although this announcement does not immediately solve our problems with the lack of affordable and reliable high speed internet, it is a big win for the people of Winn Parish and rural communities across Louisiana. I will continue working with elected officials, internet service providers, and all interested stakeholders until every citizen has access to high speed internet service. Thank you and God Bless!

Gabe Firment
District 22 State Rep
(318)765-9606 – office
Hse022@legis.la.gov

By Steve Graf Owner/Co-host Hook’N Up & Track’N Down Show

Well the ABA Ray Scott National Championship is in the books. This is a tournament that took place at Lake Hartwell South Carolina. It’s the final event for American Bass Anglers Association that anglers all across the country had to qualify for to enter. It’s some of the best anglers in America coming together for 7 days of bass fishing. The most challenging part of this tournament besides the 12 hour ride getting there, is the fact that it’s a four day event not including the three official practice days. To put it mildly, it’s a grind, an iron man event that starting in 2022 will be decreased by one day. I mean even the greatest bass tournament in the world, the Bassmaster Classic, is only three days. So, let me give you an anglers perspective as to how this event unfolded for me.

First, the drive, I have a whole new respect for anglers that choose this profession to make a living. You leave home and hope to get there without a trailer or truck tire blowout, which I’ve now had two trips in a row. The road is hard on both the angler and your equipment and is a true test of your endurance. It helps to have another angler as a travel companion who can give you a hand if you have some form of a breakdown. When you’re on the road, you open yourself up to the risks that go with travel like accidents or thieves looking to take your boat apart and steal whatever is loose or what they can take off your boat in a short time frame. It helps to have another guy traveling with you to watch out for these would be low life opportunist.

Next, let’s talk about practice time. Now hopefully you’ve done your homework and research on the lake you’ll be fishing before you left home which I did. This can be critical and very important in saving you time by not fishing unproductive areas. Map reading is still the best way to break a lake down. Understanding where the major creeks are and looking for subtle details like ditches, humps and ridges. Are there boat docks or brush piles on the lake? Finding where the creeks come in tight to a main lake or secondary point is also of major importance. But when it’s all said and done, you still have to get on the lake and learn to read the water. A common theme among all good anglers, is that nothing is more important than time on the water. This trumps everything when it comes to figuring out a body of water especially that you’re not familiar with.

After practice, you have to put a game plan together but keep in mind, Mother Nature can play a huge roll in you changing your game plan. It’s the one variable you have no control over and has wrecked a many a game plan for anglers of all levels. But the anglers that make the best adjustments, are usually the guys to beat in any event. Fishing is a constant game of decisions and adjustments and can really test an angler’s abilities. Just when you think you have the fish figured out, a cold front blows through and everything you learned in three days of practice, you can now disregard.

Next week I’ll continue to explain all the scenarios that went into me fishing the Ray Scott National Championship and how hindsight is always 20/20 when it comes to tournament bass fishing. Till next time, don’t forget to set the hook!

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has set Jan. 2, 2021, as the implementation date for allowing anyone requiring a basic hunting license 16 and older to earn their hunter education certification completely online. The online only option will not be available to anyone under 16 years of age.

Under the new process, there is no additional field day required for those who qualify and who successfully complete Louisiana’s approved online course, which can be found at https://www.hunter-ed.com/louisiana/. A fee for the course will apply. Qualifying individuals who successfully complete the online course will receive their hunter education credentials digitally.

The traditional classroom course, which is open to those 10 years and older, will continue to be offered. Those 10-15 years old choosing the online/field day option will still be required to complete a field day. LDWF will continue to offer field days for those under 16 and anyone 16 and over who wish to take one for additional training even if they have received their credentials. There is no cost for the classroom or field day courses.

Current regulations, which include a field day requirement, will remain in place until Jan. 2. Traditional classroom courses and the online course with a field day will still be available for all students preferring these formats.

For more information on the current hunter education certification process, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/hunter-and-trapper-education. 

For additional information regarding the new online only certification option, contact Eric Shanks at eshanks@wlf.la.gov.

NATCHITOCHES – Pioneering New Orleans sportscaster Ro Brown, former Northwestern
State sports publicist and longtime Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland, and
Baton Rouge sportswriter Sheldon Mickles have been selected for the 2021 Distinguished
Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
The trio will be inducted in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame next June.
Brown was the first on-air African-American sports anchor-reporter in New Orleans, in 1978 at
WDSU-TV, and became a staple of the Crescent City’s sports scene. An award-winning
journalist who also became the first education reporter in the New Orleans market in his final
three years (1999-2002) at WDSU, Brown has continued covering and promoting sports during
the last two decades.

Ireland has been the chairman of the Hall of Fame, a volunteer role, since April 1990, just over a year after he left the Alexandria Town Talk sports staff to become sports information director at
Northwestern. He spearheaded efforts leading to construction and opening of the Louisiana
Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches in 2013. Ireland
wrapped up over 30 years as the Demons’ innovative SID last summer.
Mickles is in his 43rd year of sports coverage in Baton Rouge, currently as a beat writer on LSU
basketball for The Advocate. First for the Baton Rouge State-Times, a now defunct afternoon
paper in Baton Rouge, and then the morning Advocate, Mickles covered the New Orleans Saints for 30 seasons. While winning many state, regional and national writing awards, Mickles has been a key leader for the LSWA, including a term as president, and has been chair of the nominations subcommittee for the Hall of Fame for years.

While earning his journalism degree at NSU, Ireland was a news reporter for the Shreveport
Times for two years, running the Times Natchitoches Bureau in 1981-82. He spent the next three years as the first-ever assistant SID at UL-Lafayette, then was an award-winning sports editor of the Natchitoches Times before joining the Alexandria Town Talk sports staff in 1987.

In 18 months in Alexandria, Ireland captured 15 LSWA writing contest top three finishes,
including records of nine overall awards including six first places in the 1987-88 competition
while he covered state colleges, high schools and did general assignment reporting. He picked up six more awards, two firsts, in the 1988-89 contest despite leaving the LSU beat in mid-year to accept the SID post at his alma mater in January 1989.

Ireland added dozens of LSWA awards for writing and publications in 30-plus years as the
Demons’ SID, including 33 since 2000. In 2016, he won the LSWA’s Story of the Year award
while writing for the Natchitoches Metro Leader. His 1992 Demon football media guide won
Best in the Nation for Division I-AA from the College Sports Information Directors of America,
and a 1997 historical feature marking Demon great Joe Delaney’s induction in the College
Football Hall of Fame was second in a national CoSIDA contest.

Just over a year after taking the Northwestern SID job, Ireland was asked to step in as the
LSWA’s Hall of Fame chairman in April 1990. A decade later, he began a process which took
root in 2003 when the Hall of Fame partnered with the Louisiana State Museum, ultimately
leading to construction of the acclaimed $23 million Hall of Fame museum that opened in 2013
in Natchitoches.

Ireland managed all aspects of the annual Hall of Fame selections and inductions from 1990-
2010, and has continued to coordinate elections since while collaborating with LSHOF
Foundation leaders to stage the Induction Celebration each year. He serves as executive director of the Foundation, led by CEO/President Ronnie Rantz since 2016 as its events schedule and brand has greatly expanded around the state and throughout the year.