News

Members of the LaSalle Parish Police Jury adopted their 2018 budget totaling just over $7.0-million at their regular December meeting held Monday night of last week following a public hearing. The budget was introduced at the November meeting with public hearing called for December session.

The budget contains $4,415,320 in the general fund and other parish wide funds, another $593,415 in individual district funds, and $2-million in JTPA funds, which are used for health and welfare programs and administered through the Police Jury.

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Santa Claus made his official appearance in Jena on Friday night, Dec. 8, aboard one of Jena’s fire trucks during the Jena Christmas parade. During the past few weeks, parades, senior citizens Christmas suppers, festivals, and other events have been held all across LaSalle Parish.

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The Jena Town Council adopted the town’s 2018 year budget totaling nearly $6.2 million at its regular December meeting held Tuesday night of last week following a public hearing on the budget with no comments being received.

The new budget was introduced at the November meeting with the public hearing set for the December meeting.

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Students and employees of the LaSalle Parish School System are being rewarded after scoring 105.1 and again earning the letter grade of “A” on achievement testing for the 2016-17 school year.

Superintendent Janet Tullos has announced that schools will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, December 15, with students not returning to school until Thursday, Jan. 4th. This is two additional days of vacation for the Christmas and New Years holidays.

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The Tullos Town Council unanimously approved to table the adoption of Water Revenue Bonds in the amount of $525,000 to help fund a water filtration system for the town after a lengthy discussion ensued during the public hearing prior to the regular Council meeting last week. Council member and Mayor Pro-Tem Fritz Sagdahl led the meeting in the absence of Mayor Charles Newsom.

Shelby Loe, Jr. was present at the public hearing to ask several questions of the Council including one of his first, which was in regard to how the town planned to pay for the USDA loan.

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“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” was the tune most LaSalle residents awoke to last Friday morning as a surprise snow event covered the ground with from two to four inches of beautiful snow.

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Two local men, Austin Dyess of Olla, and Randy Eugene Waits of Urania, were sentenced to serve the remainder of their natural lives in prison without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence, according to J. Reed Walters, LaSalle Parish District Attorney.

The two were sentenced by Judge J. Christopher Peters, District Judge of LaSalle Parish. The sentencing took place in the 28th Judicial District Courtroom in Jena on Tuesday, December 5, 2017.

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The unemployment rate in LaSalle Parish for October dropped to levels not recorded in the past three years, and is the lowest of any parish north of the I-10 corridor in South Louisiana.

At 3.8 percent, LaSalle’s rate ranks at number 9 in the state. Only eight parishes in the extreme southern part of the state had lower rates, and those only slightly lower.

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The annual Jena Christmas parade will be held this Friday, December 8, beginning at 6 p.m., with Jimmie C. Peters, former 28th Judicial District Judge and Court of Appeal Judge, serving as Grand Marshal. The Jena Merchants Association and Colonial Trails, sponsors of the event, have announced the theme of the parade this year: “I Believe.”

The parade will line up in the Jena Town Park and start promptly at 6 p.m., going onto U.S. 84 from Sycamore Street, traveling west through downtown Jena, turning north on First Street (LA 127) and ending at Elm Street.

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This year marks the tenth anniversary of the longstanding partnership between LaSalle Parish and The GEO Group’s LaSalle ICE Processing Center (LIPC), which is operated by The GEO Group.

The facility, formerly known as the LaSalle Detention Facility, is located on Pine Hill Road in Jena.

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