The annual Louisiana Marathon, a USAT&F certified course and one of the official Boston Qualifier routes, was held Sunday, January 14, in Baton Rouge and this time it included some local Winnfield flavor.

Two Winnfield Senior High School graduates took part on the challenge of the Louisiana Marathon and both came away with outstanding finishes.  Lindsey Thurmon Norris and Matt Carroll, members of the WSHS Class of 2000, each recorded personal best times for the 26.2 mile race.

Lindsey crossed the line in 3 hours 27 minutes and 40 seconds to finish first in her age group and as the 18th female overall.  This was her 15th marathon.

Matt completed the course in 2 hours, 53 minutes and 1 second to finish third in his age group and 21st in a field of 1,013 runners.  This was his third marathon.

The 26.2 miles in Baton Rouge is described as a fast, flat, runner-friendly path through the lakes, along the river, around downtown, on the university campus and in historic neighborhoods.  Runners must complete the marathon course within 6 hours. 

The Winnfield City Council in special session declined to enter an agreement with Louisiana Asset Management Pool (LAMP), choosing instead to keep its monies invested locally at Sabine State Bank.

CPA Steven McKay who is currently conducting the city’s annual audit was present at the January 18 session.  He suggested that the state-sponsored LAMP investment option would give the city considerably higher payments on its investments than the 0.1% or perhaps 0.25% being paid at the bank.  If the city had acted on an available $3 million to $4 million when he first suggested it in August, citing 5%, earning could have been around $100,000.

It was Councilman Matt Miller who read aloud the agreement introduction but he immediately spoke out on concerns.  He said the LAMP account would not be insured by the FDIC as it is in the bank.  “It is possible to lose money,” he said.  McKay challenge that while the account could decline if the market is down, the state-structured system for short term investments protects against a loss.

“If you need, you can take out your money the next day.”

District Attorney Chris Nevils, attending the meeting on another matter, spoke up saying that his office uses the LAMP program on a much smaller financial basis. “ When the market is up, you make money.  But the benefits in a depressed market are not as rosy as pictured by the CPA.  I’d say it’s a wash (between LAMP and low-interest bank investment).  There are times that I’ll get as little as $15.”

Ironically, it was not Sabine State Bank but Bank of Winnfield attending the meeting.  Dicky Heard spoke, saying, “The city has most of its money at Sabine.  I don’t know if anybody has come to negotiate rates.  This plan does take this money out of the community.  We all pay taxes and I don’t know what folks would think.  You might consider not zapping all of this out of the community.”

City Attorney Herman Castete observed relating to the night’s action, just because the council approves the agreement with LAMP, it doesn’t mean that they have to move any money. 

McKay then pointed out that by making this resolution, it could create the opportunity for a more pro-active relationship with the banks.  “You might be taken more seriously.”

When Mayor Gerald Hamms called for the vote, the members barely audibly voted it down.

A Community Garden could be in the future for Winnfield, thanks to a cooperative endeavor agreement approved by the city council January 18.

Council member Ada Hall Dudley explained that the cooperating parties will collaborate on creating a Community Garden and educational space, growing fresh fruit and vegetables to offset food insecurity.  The primary objective is to develop an educational center in a neutral meeting space where programs can be conducted for citizens to develop a healthier parish population.

This Community Garden will encompass two to three city blocks set aside for this purpose.  It will take a team of volunteers to make this happen.  On that team are:

LSU AgCenter (Winn Parish) who will provide educational activities, help with layout of the site, help with construction of needed beds and facilities and oversee construction plans.

Steve Shelton who will provide location to construct the project and provide grass and weed maintenance.

The City of Winnfield who will provide water for the garden as an in-kind service to citizens.

Winn Parish Master Gardeners who will provide assistance with educational programs and activities.

Winnfield Senior High School FFA who will construct the Community Garden beds and other projects, assist with educational programming and activities and assist with layout of sites.

Mardi Grad celebrations continue to move northward through Louisiana from their New Orleans starting point and this Saturday, January 27, Mardi Gras will arrive in Sikes.

The festivities are sponsored by the Sikes Wolf Creek Guild. This is the community’s first-ever Mardi Gras, explains Rita James. There will be plenty of food, fun and music.

Mardi Gras will be held on the Sikes Wolf Creek Festival Grounds, with the parade getting under way at 3 p.m. Food on the grounds will follow, featuring pastalaya and hamburger plates, hot dogs and nachos.

Organizers encourage, “Bring your family and your dancing shoes for DJ music. Laissez les bons temps rouler!”

Goldonna Elementary Junior High School Principal, Cori Beth Manuel, would like to congratulate the following most recent honor roll recipients.

Principal’s List

Saydee Flack
Piper Killingsworth
Makenzie Dodge
Kayson Alexa-Blaire Federick
Grace Elora Day
Case Blaine Sampey
Brookelyn Ciara Garner
Michael Bronson McLendon
Brody Eli Guin
Anthony Isiah Giannone-Flores
Alayanna Cheyenne Day

A Honor Roll

Zalien Antowine Paul
Willis Edward Freeman
Posey Lane Riddle
Nathan Joseph Black
Lani Elizabeth Todd
Kayden Dewayne Bedgood
Gavin Lane Spears
Chaylie Delise Cox
Bryson Lane Carter
Ayden Lee Desadier
Autumn Rain Womack

B Honor Roll

Victoria Marie Stewart
Silas Trevor Collinsworth
Lydia Charlotte Mogridge
Kayden James Dodge
Johnny Wayne Stewart
Henry Barnum
Haiden Justice Black
Ella Marie Chism
Dillon Dax Tebbetts
Chanz Cody Winn
Caylee Ann Cotton
Caston Allen Stewart
Brinley Grace Sampey
Brentlee Bryce Desadier
Breanna Nikole Bates
Braylee Marie Martin
Branson Alexander Choate
Awnah Renee Schmidt
Amy Lynn Lee

Many well wishes for a successful Spring semester. Fall enrollment will be right around the corner. If you would like more information about enrolling your child for the 24-25 school year at Goldonna Elementary Junior High School please reach out to the School Board Office at 318-352-2368.

NATCHITOCHES – During this past week’s cold snap, almost 90 Northwestern State University students took advantage of an important resource, the campus food pantry, highlighting its ongoing impact not only during campus closures but for students year-round.

Branded as The Pantry, the facility is open to all NSU and BPCC@NSU students free of charge offering non-perishable food items, toiletries, cleaning supplies, kitchen tools, cutlery, sanitizer, personal hygiene products, and other items. The Pantry is staffed by more than 50 student, faculty, and staff volunteers who are trained on the importance of courtesy and confidentiality.

The Pantry was created in 2015 as a class project for social work students and the NSU Social Work Club, who discovered a need to combat food insecurity on campus where some students struggle financially and aren’t inclined to ask for help. As interest in The Pantry and the number of students it served grew, students worked with administrators to identify space in the Trisler Power Plant and transformed it into an area where shelving, displays, and storage are arranged in a manner similar to a convenience store.

In recent years, the importance of The Pantry was made evident during the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple damaging weather events. During those times, The Pantry was available for students unable to travel home, including a significant number of international students.

NSU was one of the first universities in the state to create a food pantry. Today, most universities support some type of food bank. NSU partners with student organizations and philanthropies outside the university to maintain inventory while volunteers ensure The Pantry is clean, organized, and welcoming.

The Pantry is located on the south side of Trisler Power Plant across from Magale Recital Hall on NSU’s Central Avenue.

Donations to the Food Pantry are always welcome. Monetary donations are also accepted through the NSU Foundation. Donors can visit http://www.northwesternstatealumni.com and support the NSU Food Pantry in the Make A Gift section and specify the NSU Food Pantry.

If you are lucky, you decide when you retire.

No pink slip. No “we are downsizing.” No corporate restructure.

The power to call it quits and ride off in the sunset is in your hands.

Ron Higgins, Journal Columnist, recently wrote this about Nick Saban.

I thought it appropriate for me, not that I am in Nick Saban’s class.

Yes, I decided to retire from Waskom, Brown & Associates, LLC. (WBA) in July 2023.

I did not retire from New York Life Insurance Company.

People have asked me when I was going to retire and I always responded “as long as I am having fun and helping people, I will not retire.”

Well, I am still having fun and helping people representing New York Life Insurance Company as I have for the past 23 years.

If I have not told you of my retirement from WBA, I apologize!

David Waskom and I had a great relationship for 24 years but as I have been told “sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do,” and I did what I thought was best for me and my family.

I retired and “repurposed” my time and energy to represent the best mutual life insurance company in the world, New York Life Insurance Company.

If you need my services, want to talk about your issues, or just want to sit and chat about your life, I am available at 213 Renee Street, Suite B or you can call me at 318/332-7684.

As a friend recently reminded me, “we are truly blessed way beyond what we deserve.”

Ruston’s Jeff Perot was deer hunting in Richland Parish on December 28. What caliber was he toting? He wasn’t carrying a rifle; he was armed with his camera as he has contracted with a landowner to spend time on his land and photograph as many deer as he can to give the owner an idea of just what he has on his 7200 acres.

Perot is an architect by profession but he is also one of this area’s most notable wildlife and nature photographers. He sums up what he does…”I DRAW pictures as an architect and TAKE pictures as a photographer,’ he quipped.

Perot has shared some of his outstanding photos on Facebook and especially some of the deer he’s photographed on his Richland Parish project. Perot’s ability to take a photo that just grabs you when you see it confirms his expertise at the craft. He shares photos of not only deer doing what deer do in the wild but also of turkeys, ducks and herons and egrets and a variety of other creatures. He shared with me one of the most unusual finds he has ever had on his outdoor photographic jaunts.

“I have walked over just about every acre of this plot in Richland Parish but on the morning of December 28, I found something that made me stop and first thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to find what I found,” Perot began.

“While walking through some tall grass in the woods on the property, I saw something that caused me to pause. There were bones of a deer, laid out in a manner like the animal had just laid down and died. There was no evidence that a coyote had killed it or rodents had gnawed it because everything was laid out in order,” he said.

He saw what he thought were bones from the deer’s rib cage sticking up out of the grass. Walking closer, Perot was looking at something that he at first couldn’t believe.

“Upon closer examination, what I was looking at sticking up out of the grass were antlers the likes I had never seen. Realizing what I was looking at, I didn’t pick it up immediately before thanking God for giving me the opportunity to stumble upon something like that,’ he said.

When he reached to pick up the antlers attached to the top half of a skull, Perot was in total shock. He held in his hand the rack of a buck that almost defied description.

“I got to counting points and ended up with 25 on a non-typical rack. The antlers were in good shape, not starting to deteriorate but faded somewhat and having lost most of their natural color after it is believed the deer had died two years ago,” he continued.

Perot took the rack to Cecil Reddick, a Buckmaster official scorer living in the area who put the tape on the rack and came up with 244 5/8 inches of mass and the jawbone revealed the buck was only 4 ½ years old.

In sharing his find with the property owner, Perot learned that this was a mystery buck; nobody had ever reported seeing it nor had photos of the deer. It’s a mystery that will likely go unsolved because there was nothing left of the carcass to indicate why it died.

What are Perot’s plans for his unusual find?

“I’m going to see if the rack can be preserved and maybe made into a mount to have it look like it did before it died. Right now, all I have is the top half of the skull to which the antlers are attached. I’m in no hurry and want to explore all possibilities as to how to preserve it,” he said.

Perot is back at work in his office drawing pictures as an architect. However, he’ll probably never forget the photograph in his excitement he forgot to take when he found the remains of a mystery buck lying in grass in Richland Parish..

Welcome to January 2025! Did 2024 disappear faster than paper napkins at the church barbecue or what?! In case you missed it, a brief review.

January: Striking yet another blow for time-rich champions of political correctness, a woman named Susan returned a Christmas gift, sued the maker and had the name of the “Lazy Susan” legally and forever changed to “Energy Challenged And Genderless Rotating Food Server.” Her husband Lester snored through the entire episode, comfortably, in his La-Z-Boy.

February: Friends, Roman numerals, countrymen, lend me your ears. In Super Bowl XIX, the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints, XXI-XVII, with a touchdown late in the IVth quarter. The Falcons new head coach Bill Belichick, wearing one of the less moldy tops from his NFL-licensed Bereaved Sweatshirts Collection, said, “The New Orleanians are a good team. If we played them X times, we’d probably win V and they’d probably win V. We were fortunate to win this I.”

March: Larry the Cable Guy, in an unfortunate comeback, stars in “True Grits,” billed as a “culinary comedy” that will leave you “hungry for more.”

April: Apple introduces the I-Gadget, a thing that does something but no one is sure just what. Cost: $1,299 per unit. It is the size of a thumb tack. Supply cannot keep up with demand.

May: Marring a month made for affection, a power-broking Hollywood couple announces in a joint statement that they have, “after much thoughtful consideration, decided to split at this time.” The pair’s Facebook page read, “We remain committed and caring friends.” Each Tweeted and TikTok-ed that they would “have no more comments” about the “amicable separation.” Their personal skywriter wrote in the skies over the Hollywood Hills that the pair would “appreciate privacy in this difficult time.”

June: From Joy Story to … this. After falling in love on the set of “Toy Story 3,” Buzz Lightyear and Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl announce the end of their two-year courtship, beginning a nasty split-up. “No one can live with her, I don’t care how big his batteries are,” Lightyear said. “‘Light’ is in his name for a reason,” said Jessie.

July: A postal worker described as “disgruntled” does something bad. Also, a fire “guts” a home, stimulus dollars “make an impact” on the local economy, and a “person of interest” is divorced by a person who didn’t find that person interesting at all. Why do so few people seem happy and gruntled anymore?

August: It was hot.

September: Following Larry the Cable Guy’s lead, Soap-on-a-Rope makes a comeback, as do Pet Rocks and The Waltons — with an expanded cast: there are now 112 Waltons, and four granddaughters are pregnant. Even Brooks & Dunn, the most awarded act in Country Music Association Awards history, scored their first No. 1 since 2005 with their smash single, “Losing Your Love in Fractions, A Fifth At A Time.”

October: Apple introduces the I-Don’t-Like-U, a device that gets you even further away from actual people but still allows you to communicate. Cost: $2,599 per unit. It is the size of a lint ball. People are still standing in line.

November: In between a demanding schedule of shooting commercials for Nestle, Auto Zone, Cream of Wheat, Chevrolet, Dr Pepper, Depends, Junior Mints, Senior Mints and Frosted Flakes, Jesse “Get Your Hands Off My Heisman!” Richards held a press conference to say he’d be returning for his junior season as quarterback at Southern Cal, squashing rumors he would go to the NFL early. “My dream has always been to play in the pros — but I’m already sort of doing that in the NCAA,” he said. “Plus, I just can’t afford to go to the NFL and take the pay cut right now.”

December: Doctors report that more sex decreases worry. But a government study shows that since people worry so much about how much sex is needed to decrease anxiety, the whole thing is counterproductive. The study costs a whopping and worrisome $255 million, plus tax. A government spokesman propped his feet up, lit a smoke and said, “We aren’t that worried about it.”

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.

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.

Bertha Jackson
March 7, 1960-January 17, 2024
Service: Celebration of Life to be held Saturday, January 24th, at 11a.m in Winnfield Memorial Funeral Home. 

Susie M Jones 
May 4th, 1933-January 21, 2024
Service: to be determined/scheduled at a later date. 

Good news for Winn in this new year came late last week when it was announced that Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier named Winnfield’s Rep. Jack McFarland, Dist. 13 (R), to serve as chairman of the House Committee of Appropriations, a four-year appointment.

McFarland is beginning his third term as representative for District 13.  For the past four years, he has served as a member on the House Committee of Appropriations.  He also served on the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget as well as the Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture and Rural Development Committee.

“I’m thankful for this opportunity to serve the Louisiana House of Representatives as chairman of Appropriations,” McFarland told the Journal.  “I appreciate the trust and confidence Speaker DeVillier has demonstrated by appointing me to this position.”

He believes that under the Republican leadership of Gov. Jeff Landry and Speaker DeVillier, the House will see “a more unified Republican delegation with a coordinated set of goals and messages,” he said in a statement to the Southern Strategy Group.  “It’s a common sense strategy for success.  A Republican super-majority can accomplish a lot for the voters who sent us to Baton Rouge if we pull in the same direction.”

Asked by the Journal about his priorities in this new term, the answer came “insurance and infrastructure.”  Louisiana will not be able to keep its people and businesses here if they cannot afford to live and work here due to high insurance costs, he indicated.  McFarland added that Baton Rouge needs to make it a priority to eliminate the state’s backlog of infrastructure projects.  Rural Louisiana is particularly hard-hit by this problem.

The owner of McFarland Timber and past president of the Louisiana Logging Council came onto the political horizon in 2007 when he was elected to the Winn Parish Police Jury, representing District 4.  He served as president of the parish lawmakers for both of his terms of office (eight years) before his 2015 election to the House of Representatives.

The Winnfield City Council is continuing its efforts to clean up the city through a process of identification and condemnation of eyesores such as abandoned and dilapidated buildings.

During the council’s January 9 session, members discussed a dozen such sites.  In a number of those cases, the landowners or their representatives addressed the council to give an update.  Most seemed willing to have the property cleaned up, perhaps through a controlled burn by the fire department.  One couple said they are working to bring the building used for storage up to standard.

The council generally issued a 60-day limit for the cited landowners to come into compliance.

CPA Steven McKay informed the members that he expects the city audit to be completed by the end of the month.  He also pointed out that there is an investment program available for idle city monies that could be an income opportunity for Winnfield, adding that he would talk more about this at their next meeting.

In police actions, the council agreed to a request by Chief Johnny Ray Carpenter to hire Sarah Hammons as a fulltime patrolman provisionally, contingent on her passing the Civil Service test.  They also agreed to move Pedro Reynoza up from the status of provisional jailor to that of fulltime jailor, having successfully passed his test.  Member Matt Miller also introduced an ordinance setting hourly starting pay for police at $10 for parttime and $12 fulltime.

The city will purchase an asphalt hot box and recycler for the street department on motion by member Ada Hall Dudley.  The matter had been brought up previously but tabled until some existing equipment could be viewed.  Miller pointed out that this machine heats up the mix before it is applied to fix potholes, allowing its use during colder weather.