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Two programs approved by the Louisiana Legislature during the recent session were designed to help essential workers and Louisiana business owners, according to the legislative delegation representing LaSalle Parish.

Sen. Glen D. Womack of Harrisonburg, Senate District #32; Rep. Neil Riser of Columbia, District 20; and Rep. Gabe Firment of Pollock, District 22, were in-strumental in getting both programs approved in a bipartisan effort.

The first program provides a one-time payment of $250 as hazard payment to essential Louisiana workers, and the second program, called ‘Louisiana Main Street Recovery’ program, provides grant funds up to $15,000 of reimbursable expenses for businesses throughout the state.

The Louisiana De partment of Revenue will take payment applications through Oct. 31 for the hazard payment Continued from page 1A program at frontlineworkers.la.gov.

Unemployment figures for Louisiana for the month of June were released last week and despite the corona virus shut down, LaSalle Parish once again recorded the lowest jobless rate from among all 64 parishes in the state.

LaSalle’s jobless rate was 5.9-percent with the closest parishes to LaSalle being Red River and West Feliciana, both with a jobless rate of 6.7-percent. A good many of the parishes had unemployment figures into the double digits.

In fact, this is the third month in a row LaSalle had the lowest unemployment rate of any parish in the state. In April, the jobless figure for LaSalle was 7.2-percent while many other parishes had unemployment rates into the double digits.

LaSalle Parish schools are set to open next week but exactly what that will look like depends upon which phase Governor John Bel Edwards has the State of Louisiana in next Thursday.

“Our plans are in place to educate our students whether we are in Phase 1, 2, or 3,” said LaSalle Parish School Superintendent Janet Tullos. “We are confident in our administrations, educators, faculty, support personnel, our students and their parents, that despite the COVID-19 pandemic education in LaSalle Parish will not only continue but it will thrive.”

Governor Edwards is expected to announce whether he will keep Louisiana in Phase 2, or move the state to Phase 3, or even possibly back to Phase 1 this week. (That information was not available at press time Monday.)

Several sheriffs and homeland security directors in the state last week drew statewide attention when they questioned the accuracy of coronavirus numbers being listed by the Louisiana Department of Hospitals (LDH).

LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin, who also serves as Homeland Security Director for the parish, is one of the sheriffs who has disagreed with state numbers since the state first started publishing COVID-19 numbers in mid-March.

Franklin appeared on the popular conservative-Louisiana talk radio show Moon Griffon twice last week, first in an appearance to confirm along with other parishes that the numbers the state is taunting are not correct and again to respond to the governor’s Thursday press conference where he accused the several sheriffs of putting out false information.

State and local officials met in Jena on Monday of this week to discuss a way to keep the Belah area in the Jena gas system. At their July meeting, a committee was named to study and make recommendations on a solution to the natural gas service provided to nearly 90 residences in the Belah Community. Jena is under orders to replace or abandon the Belah system. Shown discussing the problem are from left, counter-clockwise: Sen. Glen Womack, Rep. Neil Riser, Jena Mayor LaDawn Edwards, Jena Attorney Walter E. Dorroh, Jr., Town Superintendent David Miller, Consultant John Lennox, Rep. Gabe Firment, Justin Reeves, Jena council members Tommy Sandifer and Lester Francis. Also in attendance were four representatives from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, who oversees Louisiana pipelines, such as the Belah natural gas line. Story and related photo can be found on Page 7A in this issue of your parish newspaper.

For 45 years LaSalle Parish has taken a week of each year to recognize it’s businesses and industries that have helped make this one of the state’s strongest parishes economically.

From record unemployment rates, to steady retail sales, to continual growth in new economic opportunities, LaSalle Parish continues to be the envy of the state thanks in part to strong leadership, a strong workforce, and a strong moral value system.

This week officials of LaSalle Parish have proclaimed July 20-24 as “Business and Industry Appreciation Week” throughout the parish and urges citizens to show their appreciation to all industries and businesses.

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The LaSalle Parish School Board officially adopted the 2020-21 school-reopening plan at their regular monthly meeting Monday night, July 13, in Jena.

The plan features different options that are directly related to which phase the governor has the state in during the time of school’s start date of August 13.

“School will look different this year than in the past,” LaSalle School Superintendent Janet Tullos said at the meeting. “Our plans will not be perfect, but we have strived to be reasonable, practical, and flexible.”

“We also want to make it perfectly clear that we do not expect students to wear masks all day, every day,” she continued. “They will have to wear them during transition times, between classes, but to require them to wear them all day every day is just unreasonable.”