Local realtor Tommy Straughan spoke to the Kiwanis Club Tuesday, January 30. He gave a little background on himself. He came to Winnfield with his family in 1945 at the age of 10. He graduated from Winnfield High School in 1953 and from Northwestern in 1956 with a degree in education. He started teaching and coaching and did that for 10 years. After 10 years he went into business with his dad at the Conoco station. In the 1960s Sheriff Sanford Jordan asked him to start a youth program which he did. This youth program built the high school baseball field, a football practice field and a sports field in Sikes. He also had a construction company that was involved in the Superfund project.

The Real Estate industry is one of the largest industries because it involves land and what is on that land and what is under that land. He spoke about Winnfield as it was when he was growing up with movie theaters, businesses and the population to support them. Winnfield is an older town with most houses in excess of 50 years old.

There is no zoning which hurts comps. The first new house built in the city limits in 10 years is being built right now on Center St. We are losing younger people because few that graduate from Winnfield Senior High School come back here after college. People pass away, their family doesn’t live here and houses deteriorate. We are losing 150 – 175 families per year so our population is dwindling city and parish.

We need to capitalize on what we have and bring in small businesses with 10 – 12 employees and not try to bring in some big company with a hundred employees. When people call Mr. Straughan about our town, they want to know about education. When communities lose schools, those communities lose their identity.

We need to come up with ideas to make it attractive for people to come here. A small group of concerned citizens working with the police jury and city council could get some things accomplished.  There are grants and other monies out there that we need to be competing for. The political climate in our state now is such that we have a good opportunity to get elected officials to help our town and parish. 

He spoke about the Port De Luce Reservoir which has been in the works for years and the size has now been decreased. As originally planned it would have done wonderful things for our area. We need legislative help to put it back the way it was.

Real estate is 16% of the gross national product. The average home value in Winnfield and Winn parish is $75,000 – $100,000. This makes the note about $550-650 per month. There are fewer than a dozen houses in the city that are over $250,000. We need a loan originator in Winnfield to help with pre-approval. A 640 credit score is needed for home loan.

Mr. Straughan concluded there are a lot of possibilities in Winnfield and Winn Parish, we just need citizens to step up and help make a difference.