News

Mayor LaDawn Edwards reported to members of the Jena Town Council at their regular February meeting held on Tuesday night of last week that work on the Third Street Plaza project is underway and proceeding nicely.

Crews from Progressive Construction Company, LLC, of Alexandria, moved onto the site in mid-January and started work on the project. This project has been on the drawing board since 2012 when the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development awarded Jena a $1-million Transportation Enhancement Grant.

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School board officials, administrators, coaches and others gathered in the west end zone of Jena Giant Stadium last Thursday afternoon to break ground for the new 10,000-sq. ft. JHS field house.

Early last year, the LaSalle Parish School Board approved construction of the new facility and after plans were drawn, bids were taken in December 2018. At their January 2019 meeting, the board awarded the contract for construction of the field house to Gentry Construction of Monroe, who submitted a base bid of $1,698,000.

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A 38-year-old West Monroe man is behind bars after stealing multiple vehicles and leading officers on a dangerous, high-speed chase through LaSalle Parish and into Rapides Parish Wednesday morning, January 30.

John David Cameron is being held in a LaSalle Parish Jail on several charges following his capture in the Tioga area after the chase ended.

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The unemployment rate for LaSalle Parish for December tied with three other parishes for the seventh lowest rate in the state, according to figures just released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

The jobless rate for LaSalle dropped to 3.7 percent in December, down from 4.1 percent in November. There were 5,954 people employed and 229 unemployed for the month. A year earlier in December 2017, the figures were almost identical with a 3.7 percent jobless rate, 5,954 people employed and 227 unemployed.

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LaSalle students participated in the “A Day with the Doctors” program at LSU in Shreveport recently. The students had the opportunity to spend a day shadowing medical students at the medical facility. The program is made  possible by a partnership between Central Louisiana Area Health Education Center (CLAHEC) and LSU-Health Shreveport (LSUS) and offers high school juniors and seniors the chance to experience a day in the life of a doctor. LaSalle students taking part in the program are shown: front row, from left, Erin Wilkinson, Jordyn Hough, Julia King, Katelin Ratcliff, and Alyssa Howard; back row, Allison Tradewell, Blake Hester, Clayton Cotten, Colton Herrington, Taylor Snow, and Laura Peters. 

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Officer Jenny Parker takes digital fingerprints of Fellowship Elementary Second grader sevenyear- old Abbi Grace Edwards as part of the LPSO’s EZ Child ID Program. This program, a self contained mobile child ID unit, is a free service to families and provides peace of mind, knowing that in an emergency involving a missing or kidnapped child, they will have data needed to assist law enforcement and for publicizing through Amber Alert and other media agencies as well as identify the missing child when found.

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The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index remained basically unchanged in December, drifting down 0.4 points to 104.4, according to the report released recently.

Unfilled jobs and the lack of qualified applicants continue to be a primary driver, with job openings setting a record high and job creation plans strengthening.

State-specific data is unavailable, but NFIB State Director Dawn Starns said, “Some of our members say finding good applicants is one of the toughest challenges they’re facing heading into 2019.”

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How to remain productive during changing times in the timber industry was a key topic covered at the 2019 Ag Expo Forestry Forum held Jan. 18 at the West Monroe Convention Center. Information shared during the Expo was important to timber producers in LaSalle Parish, one of the top timber producing parishes in the state.

LaSalle is fortunate in the opening of the pellet plant, and the state-of-the-art lumber mill now under construction, both located near Urania. Both plants will provide needed job opportunities, plus provide a local market for harvested timber.

Buck Vandersteen, executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association, told the group how the recent announcement by Georgia-Pacific that it is closing a plant in the Baton Rouge area will affect the entire industry.

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A crew with Progressive Construction Company, LLC, of Alexandria, began work on the Third Street Plaza project in Jena last week. Almost a two block section of Third Street will be completely reworked in the coming weeks, and when finished will have a 5-ft. trail and 11-ft. traffic lane on both sides of the street, along with parking spaces for about 78 vehicles in the center of the Plaza.

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Senator Neil Riser and LaSalle Parish Police Jury President Bard Lambeth have been notified that the USDA Rural Development Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant program has approved a $4.1 million loan to refurbish a water treatment storage and distribution lines for the Belah-Fellowship Water System. The system serves approximately 1,500 people.

Nationwide, USDA awarded $1.2 billion in loans and grants for 234 projects to rebuild or improve rural water and wastewater infrastructure. More than 936,000 rural residents in 46 states will benefit from these investments.

Although the Belah-Fellowship Water System has needed major renovation work for several years, an EF2 tornado that struck the area in April 2017 caused the system to sustain further damage.

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