News

Kingdom Builders’ Ron Windham of Trout, Chester “Sonny” Tarver of Clinton, and Bill Beasley of Ferriday, are all smiles as they work from the rafters during the mission group’s summer project last week at Oak Grove Baptist Church in LaSalle Parish. The builders saved the church thousands of dollars in labor costs.

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Seven year-old Jena resident Ellie Kate Cassels and her mother, Tonie, unpack a meal during the recent Summer Meals Kickoff event at Jena Elementary School sponsored by The Dairy Alliance and the LaSalle Parish Child Nutrition Program. Students received a meal and goodies at both Jena and Olla elementary schools

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Statistically, LaSalle Parish ranks as one of the safest places to live in all of the United States. Violent crimes are consistently low and when an unusual murder does occur, it is solved quickly and justice is delivered just as swift.

In the past quarter century, there have been 17 homicides in the parish with six of those coming in the three years of 2014, 2015, and 2016. In all of those most recent murders, law enforcement had the perpetrator in custody within 72 hours and officials within the 28th Judicial District Court believe in abiding by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution: The Right to a Speedy Trial.

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For the past six years, LaSalle Parish students in eighth grade have participated in the annual Youth Crime Awareness Prevention Program (YCAP) sponsored by the LaSalle Parish Sheriff’s Office and the LaSalle Correctional Center. This program was created as a way to bring awareness to teenager’s lives that the choices they make could land them in this very place.

The message that inmates who reside in the LaSalle Correctional Center try to get across to the students is that their decisions determine their destiny. So many kids and teens don’t realize that things they consider to be harmless such as sneaking out, lying, hanging with friends their parents don’t approve of, drinking alcohol and smoking or chewing tobacco could all lead them down a path of destructive decisions.

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Two Memorial Day programs are planned this weekend to honor the memory of fallen soldiers from this area and from throughout the nation. The first of these events will be held at the Centennial Cultural Center (CCC) in downtown Olla, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 27th. The Veterans Honor Guard from VFW Post 5002 of Jena will participate in the events, along with numerous local citizens. A program saluting a special veteran, WWII U.S. Army veteran Carnot Waggoner, will be presented.

The program will conclude with handing out small United States flags to be taken to area cemeteries and placed on graves of veterans. CCC Board President R. V. Couch will give the welcome, and Boy Scout Brayden Lee, Life Rank with Troop 1, will preside over the program. Prayer will be delivered by Rev. Scott Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Tullos.

LaSalle Sheriff Scott Franklin places a Torch Run medal around the neck of Brad Oswalt, an athlete from the LADD Center in Jena, prior to the start of the Louisiana Torch Run held in Jena last week. Athletes from the LADD Center and LaSalle Parish School system Special Education program, joined law enforcement officers from the sheriff’s office, Jena police department and others in the 1-mile leg of the Louisiana Torch Run in Jena. The Torch Run in Jena was one of the first of many taking place around Louisiana to bring awareness to Special Olympics Louisiana and the upcoming State Summer Games. (See story and related

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