Winn Parish – On January 23, 2023, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Louisiana State Police Troop E responded to a one-vehicle crash on Louisiana Highway 34. The crash claimed the life of 62-year-old Hiram Cook of Winnfield.
The initial investigation revealed that Cook was traveling east on Louisiana Highway 34 on a 2017 Harley Davidson motorcycle. For reasons still under investigation, the motorcycle traveled off the right side of the roadway and overturned. This action ejected Cook from the motorcycle.
Cook, who was wearing a helmet, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Toxicology samples were obtained and submitted for analysis.
While the cause of this crash remains under investigation, distracted and inattentive driving continues to be a leading cause of crashes in our state. Louisiana State Police urges all motorists to stay alert while driving. A lapse in one’s awareness can have deadly consequences.
In 2023, Troop E has investigated one fatal crash, resulting in one death.
Winn Parish School Board Committees will meet Monday, January 30, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Winn Parish School Board.
Executive: Joe Lynn Browning Patrick Howell Michelle Carpenter
Academic and Instruction: Joe Llaine Long Lacey McManus Mike Riffe Harry Scott Lance Underwood
Finance and Budget: Patrick Howell Amber Cox Joe Llaine Long Dan Taylor Steve Vines
WINN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD Committee Meeting Agenda January 30, 2023 WPSB Meeting Room – 5:30 p.m.
Academics and Instruction – Long, McManus, Riffe, Scott, Underwood 1. Consider Calendar Options for 2023-24
Finance and Budget- Howell, Cox, Long, Taylor, Vines 1. Consider Ordering and Calling Special Elections for Consolidated School District No. 11 and Parishwide Proposition
Executive – Browning, Howell, Carpenter 1. Consider setting the Agenda for WPSB meeting on February 6, 2023
Andrea Poisso said when she saw that today was “National Compliment Day” she was excited because that is what Hope4Winn is all about emphasizes kindness and giving compliments to others to help them feel better about themselves. There have been a lot of losses in our community in the last 3 – 4 years, young and old, as a result of suicide. Mrs. Poisso told the story of her son who took his life in March of 2020. She said she was fortunate because her son did talk to her about his problems and she did all she could to get him help. Some parents are blindsided because they have no idea something is wrong. After his death due to something on his phone they realized that he was battling with a demon. The psychiatrist told her that the week before he died he had said that he was hearing voices. After wallowing in pity for several months Mrs. Poisso realized that she had to do something to help this problem. A suicide survivor came in to the schools and shared her story with the students. The goal for Hope4Winn is to get students involved. Mrs. Poisso has become someone the students can talk to if they are facing problems with the knowledge that if she sees a red flag she will talk to their parents. She was also interviewed for a documentary about suicide awareness. One issue is that there are no mental health counselors in the schools but the legislature passed a law mandating mental health counselors in schools probably starting in 2024.
Mrs. Poisso brought with her 2 students Jaci Mixon and Breanna Prey who spoke about their issues with depression and anxiety. Jaci is a senior and Breanna is a sophomore. They are posting weekly videos on YouTube on mental health and their faith. The videos are found as Talks with Jaci and Breanna. They also have a facebook page JaciandBreanna Mixon Prey.
Hope4Winn has a facebook page. They are also working on their 501C3 status.
Suicide awareness is an important issue and we appreciate Mrs. Poisso’s willingness to share her story with the Kiwanis club.
Date: 1-19-23 Name: Elounda M Davis Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 48 Charge: Speeding, Failure to appear, Driving under suspension
Date: 1-19-23 Name: Justin D Grayson Address: Montgomery, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 41 Charge: Failure to appear
Date: 1-20-23 Name: Corey T Jackson Address: Winnfield, LA Race: Black Sex: Male Age: 26 Charge: Theft
Date: 1-20-23 Name: John W Passman Address: Columbia, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 32 Charge: Speeding, Driving under suspension
Date: 1-22-23 Name: Jeremey S Rowell Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Male Age: 37 Charge: Failure to appear (bench warrant)
Date: 1-24-23 Name: Brandi J McGee Address: Winnfield, LA Race: White Sex: Female Age: 32 Charge: Failure to appear (bench warrant, Sabine Parish)
Date: 1-25-23 Name: Michael L McKinney Address: Natchitoches, LA Race: Black Sex: Male Age: 23 Charge: Failure to appear (x8) (Winn/Natchitoches)
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The Krewe of Kingfish’s Mardi Gras Parade will be February 4, 2023 at 2 PM. Lineup will begin at 12 PM at Earl K. Long Park and judging will begin at 1:30 PM.
Please register to participate online using the ling below.
Recently, I watched a great YouTube video by Elite Series Pro Chris Zaldain. He and his wife, Trait, host a YouTube/Podcast show called “Zaldaingerous,” and I came across a 1 hour 44 min video in which they dove deep into some of the issues facing professional bass fishing. This episode featured Elite Series Pro, Matt Herron, who happens to be a good friend of mine and is never short on words. If you want the truth and perspective of a guy who has made a great career for himself, then Matt is the guy you want to talk with. He will not sugarcoat the issues and has sound advice on how these issues should be dealt with.
In this particular episode, Matt breaks down some of the problems and situations pertaining to professional bass fishing. Matt, Chris, and Trait talk about rules, sponsorship dollars, polygraph testing, the 2019 split, the new open series, and the Tony Christian scandal. If you’re an up-and-coming young man and want to know how to be a pro angler, you better make the time to sit down with Matt Herron. He will not lead you to believe that being a full-time professional angler is easy. If anything, he may have you second-guessing yourself before you walk away. He’ll probably ask you, “Are you sure you want to do this for a living?”
The first topic they discuss is the fight over sponsorship dollars and how the pool has shrunk. He referred to his days of starting on the FLW (Forrest L. Wood) Tour (2003) and how FLW ruined and burned so many non-indemnity sponsors like Tide, Walmart, Gastrol Oil, Land-of-Lakes, Kellogg’s, and many more. FLW did not deliver the exposure they promised all these major sponsors. When FLW folded, all these potentially great sponsors dropped out of the professional fishing market and left only never to return.
The market of companies out there looking to provide assistance to an angler has shrunk dramatically. Matt points out that today, it’s almost impossible for an angler to make it on his own without solid financial backing. He makes light of how mommas, daddies, or grandparents with deep pockets are footing the bill for these young anglers to try and make it. They do okay for the first couple of years, which is all they are guaranteed. Then, the 70% that don’t make it leave the sport with thousands of dollars of debt up to their eyeballs!
Next, Matt, Chris, and Trait talk about polygraph issues. He and Chris both would like to see more anglers polygraphed after an event and have some of the questions revamped. Matt talks about how he personally knew an FBI investigator and how the FBI conducts a polygraph test. He talks about how the wording of questions is critical to catching a cheater. Then they brought up the Tony Christian scandal that rocked the professional bass fishing world when Tony was caught cheating in an FLW Tournament after his “honey hole” was discovered and investigated. It was discovered that he had made a special basket, put it in the water, and stocked it with bass. The basket allowed for his bait to enter the basket, catch a bass, and exit while the lid closed as the fish came out of the basket, retaining all other bass waiting to be caught. Tony was eventually banned for life from fishing as a professional angler and has virtually disappeared.
I could go into all the topics they discussed on this episode, but if you want to hear the undisclosed side of the professional bass fishing world, check out the episode yourself. Go to youtube.com and search “Zaldaingerous.” The husband/wife team of Chris and Trait Zaldain interview the anglers that fish the Bassmaster Elite Series. They do a fantastic job of introducing their fans to the harsh reality of being a professional angler. There’s no topic or subject that’s out of bounds as Chris and Trait are excellent hosts with a wealth of experience themselves as professional bass anglers.
Till next time, good luck, good fishing, and don’t forget your sunscreen. Also, make sure to schedule regular dermatologist appointments. If you don’t have a dermatologist, find one!
Back in the day, I’m talking eight decades or so ago, kids raised out on the rural route did it differently. When it came to entertaining yourself, there was no high fi gadgets; no cell phone; no video games. Why? It takes electricity for these things to work and it was years before the wires were strung and lights came on in Goldonna.
I grew up in a four room house my daddy built – a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. Bathroom? Forget about it; it took water piped into the house to make it work. Our bored well, bucket, pulley and rope in the back yard was the water supply. Indoor plumbing consisted of what some folks called a thunder mug or slop jar. The serious stuff took place down a path out back that led to the outhouse.
My brother, Tom, was two years younger than me and we, just the two of us, would no doubt have run out of outdoorsy things to do had it not been for our first cousins, Doug and Sambo who lived on the next hill over from us. Doug and Sambo were like brothers to Tom and me and we did virtually everything together. I was the oldest, Doug a year younger than me, Tom a year younger than Doug and Sambo bringing up the rear, a year younger than Tom.
What did kids do for entertainment way back then before electricity and such came to us? If youngsters growing up today had been deprived of all the gadgets and widgets available today, chaos would no doubt ensue. Not for the four Harris boys; none of the other kids growing up in the community had anything modern either so we didn’t miss what we never had.
What we did have was the tank pond lying adjacent to the L&A railroad track that furnished water for the steam engines that chugged and labored up Oshkosh hill after filling tanks. Just over the track was Molido (pronounced Molly-dough) creek that coursed through the woods half a mile in back of our house. We learned to swim in the tank pond and Molido with its resident red perch, goggle eye, bass, jackfish and mud cat population was the perfect training ground for boys just learning to fish.
The passage of time has a way of changing things. We all grew up, married, had kids and lived in homes with electricity and indoor plumbing and all the amenities these afforded. Tom and I moved away while Doug and Sambo remained in the little town where we grew up. It’s sad but it’s true; when the realities of life separate you from those who were once so important to you, you grow apart, not because of problems but that’s just the reality of life.
Several years ago, I got a call from Doug. He had retired from a successful career in the petroleum industry, had purchased land and constructed a nice pond near his home and he stocked it with bluegills and bass. Like me, he had missed the times the four Harris boys had growing up and he suggested that we meet on his pond, catch, clean and cook fish and relive some of the special times we had growing up.
On June 29, 2007, the four of us met up on the pond, did those things he suggested, had so much fun and enjoyment we decided we would meet together every year and do it all over again. The Cuz’n Fish Fest was born on that day fifteen years ago and has continued ever since.
Changes are inevitable with the passage of time and eight April’s ago, my brother Tom passed away. That left the three of us to continue what Doug started fifteen years ago. We continued to meet and it became obvious that Doug’s health was in a slow decline. On January 11, I drove to Goldonna to attend the funeral of Doug, the one who started it all. This leaves just
Sambo and me, the oldest and youngest of the four Harris boys to pick up the pieces of our childhood. Will we continue the tradition? I suppose time will tell.
This year for the annual, ‘Uncle Earl’s Hog Dog Trials, (March 20th-26th) our Parish would like its residents to be aware ahead of time that both Country Club Rd and Orange St will be closed/blocked off at the fairgrounds.
The only way to access the fairgrounds will be from Highway 34. This is being done with the intent of giving our vendors more room to move and do, instead of being crammed within the fence and limited to space for their own comings and goings–as well as those of the residents who have paid for the opportunity to participate.
Residents will be able to purchase either a ten-dollar pass for the day or a twenty-five-dollar wristband for the entire week as always.
Thank you for your cooperation, can’t wait to see you there!
(Bob Holeman conducted this series of interviews with local World War II in 2011-12. Most of those 34 American heroes have passed away in the decade since).
When we think of American soldiers fighting for our freedoms, we generally visualize mature, battle-tested men.
But as we look at history, we find that our soldiers were often boys, placed on the fast track to manhood by way of military service.
Such was the case of Roy Stickman, a Virginia lad of 17 who was likely thinking about his fast-approaching 18th birthday in 1943 as he was working in a Washington, D.C., bakery.
“But when I got home one day, there was a letter, inviting me to report to the doctor for an Army physical. I’m sure my mom could have gotten me out of it, due to age and hardship and all. But we didn’t.”
Stickman was assigned to the 204th Ordnance of the 9th Air Force. “Our voyage across the Atlantic was a historic one,” he said. “We sailed from New York to Scotland on the Queen Mary in record time. But when we got there, we had to remain on board for a few days due to a flu outbreak ashore.”
Once the American troops were allowed to disembark, Stickman said he boarded a train to Oxford University where he stayed until they found room for him on the base in England, not far outside of London.
As the army advanced on the European front, Stickman explained, the duty of his unit was to trail behind them and maintain all vehicles so that there would be no problems in the field.
The local veteran recalls that in Saint-Quentin, France, they stayed in a hotel that served as the battalion headquarters. As always, their assignment was vehicle maintenance.
Stickman moved to various locations during the campaign and was in Munich, Germany, when the war ended. “When we heard it was over, it was a nice feeling. We knew we’d finally be going home.”
But the final chapter in Stickman’s war story wasn’t all “clear sailing,” literally. As they returned by ship, the vessel hit such a fierce storm that an SOS was sent out to another ship for assistance. But the crisis passed and the ship made its way back to New York harbor. He was discharged in Washington, D.C.
Helping keep this young man’s spirits afloat during those turbulent years was a lovely young lady, Marjorie Land of Homer, whom he’d met during service. “She worked for Western Union in Shreveport and wrote me every day.”
After his discharge, Stickman took the train directly to Shreveport, only to find that Miss Land had been transferred to Baton Rouge. So he boarded the next train there.
Wedding bells? Not immediately, for this man of principle told his beloved that only “when I could make a good salary, we could get married. And during that time, with all the soldiers returning, it took quite a while to find a job.”
At last, the mechanical skills he’d acquired during his service during the war helped him get a job with a car dealership and in 1946, the two got married. They went on to have two sons (Roy Jr. and Ray Edward) and two daughters (Becky Barton and Pam Shelton). Extending the family are 10 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
Date: 1-17-23 Name: Jamie L Brown Address: Houma, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 39 Charge: Simple robbery (warrant)
Date: 1-19-23 Name: Monica Evans Address: Natchitoches, LA Race: Black Sex: Female Age: 44 Charge: Failure to appear
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
If you were enjoying a casual dinner at Lakewood Inn this past Friday evening, you may have noticed a local celebrity who was being honored against his will. Scores of friends, family, School Board Members and coworkers gathered to celebrate the Birthday and School Board Retirement of Mr. Willis Eugean Garner. Mr. Garner is known for his quiet leadership, big heart and dedication to his the School Board District he faithfully served for with years. Even though he is always reluctant of receiving attention, he was very appreciative and pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of love and support.
Goldonna Elementary Junior High School has kicked off the New Year with many fun activities. Donuts with Dad will be happening on January 27th at 9:00am. Dust off your dancing shoes and tune up the piano! The school is planning its First Annual Talent Show. It will be held on Friday, February 10, 2023 at 6:00pm. If you have a special talent to showcase please reach out to Mrs. Carolyn Abels.
Goldonna Assembly of God will be hosting their first revival of 2023 beginning January 26th thru 29th at 6:00pm each evening. Brother Mathew Gro will the visiting minister during this time.
The Village of Goldonna recently laid to rest one of their most treasured members of the community. Mr. Doug Harris was a pillar in the town for many decades and loved by all who knew him. He was a past School Board Member for Natchitoches Parish Schools, a Goldonna Town Councilman, a Sunday School Superintendent and dedicated Deacon at Goldonna Baptist Church until his passing. He leaves behind a precious wife, children and grandchildren who honor his memory by counting his legacy of loving the people of Goldonna.
Local resident and Goldonna Baptist Church musician, Wesley Martin lost his family home to a fire this week. Residents have rallied in support of him and helped him replace his base guitar that he used in church services. Former resident, Jill Morgan Cox, assisted Martin with replacing his treasured instrument. Goldonna Baptist Church and River of Life Church are collecting household items to donate to Mr. Martin. There is also a love fund set up in the name of Johnny W. Martin at Sabine State Bank.
The Village of Goldonna is not short on outstanding people who love their community and dedicate their lives to the wellbeing of their neighbors. If you know of an exceptional resident who you would like to recognize in the Goldonna News, please email me at jreba.phelps@gmail.com
A GREAT celebration for Operation Christmas Child was held recently at South Winnfield Baptist Church. There were cheerleaders with yells, songs prayers, and praises for what God did during 2022.
Winn Parish passed their goal with 2,465 packed shoeboxes. This was an 11% increase from the prior year’s total. Our West Central La team, which includes Winn, Natchitoches, Sabine and Red River parishes packed more shoeboxes per capitathan ALL the teams in Texas and Louisiana.
For each shoebox packed for ages 2-14 both boys and girls ten people heard the Gospel. For every 6.5 shoeboxes donated, 1 child will spend eternity in Heaven. Your packed shoebox makes an eternal difference in a child’s life.
Candy Bedgood, Drop Off leader for Winn Parish at First Baptist Church, Jeanine Ford, Area Coordinator for West Central La team, and Ciena Thompson, church relation team member is willing to help your church, organization, group, school or business to begin packing shoeboxes for 2023. They have resources, materials, shoeboxes, ideas and videos to share with you.
