The Red River Parish School Board said “No” to the applicants for a charter school in the Parish. The board voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of an independent evaluator hired to examine the application from Advantage Charter Academy. A special called meeting of the board was held Monday night to consider the application of proposed School Director Crystal Cummins.

Speaking in favor of the application were Cummins and Traci Schmidley of Coushatta. Schmidley spoke first expressing her desire that there be ore options for the school system. She said when her family moved to Coushatta two years ago she was told the parish education system was weak, that some people had opted to attend private school or out-of-parish schools. Schmidley said, “A new, innovative approachmay bring back people who have left the public school system.” And Schmidley added, “New innovation is very attractive to industry and others to show the community is growing and thriving.”

Cummins began her presentation by stating, “I am not the enemy. I taught in Red River Parish and I loved it. I left to have a baby.” The proposed charter school would be a Montessori school. Cummins related that she had seen the Montessori system help a neglected child to grow. And she said children who have a greater capacity to learn “explore areas of interests with reading added in and math added in.”

Randy Thomas, Jr. addressed the board with several questions he had concerning the application. His first question was, “How would this benefit the parish? How many students? What is the impact on transportation needs?” Thomas said he saw an ad for the school several months ago and at that time it was a private school. Thomas asked, “Was there a reason for the change to this type of school?”

Another speaker was Tarina Duplantis. She told the board, “My daughter gets all that Montessori claims to offer. She is now getting it at Red River Elementary School.” Duplantis said she graduated from the parish and has a daughter who graduated here. Both have college degrees. Duplantis made the point “It is what the child takes from the school.”

Then the board heard from Kimberly Williams, the third party evaluator. Williams said she studied the application and all information she could find out about the principals of the proposed school. Her recommendation was to deny the application based on several factors.

Williams’ report questioned the applicant on finances, lack of a proven school leader, how the Montessori program would meet the needs of “at-risk” students in the parish, and the applicant was criticized for failing to provide a plan to improve student performance.

Following the presentations, board member Gary Giddens moved “to accept the recommendations to deny the charter application from Advanced Charter Academy.” Board member Susan Taylor seconded the motion. All members of the board voted in favor of the motion to deny.

After the meeting The Journal asked School Superintendent Alison Hughes for her response. Hughes said, “It was a win for public education. The school board is doing everything possible to give the best possible education to students. We give all options available to the students. I think the charter school is not needed at this moment.”

Repairs are being made to the LA 515 Bridge across Coushatta Bayou. New pilings are being driven through the deck into the creek bottom below to shore up pilings that had deteriorated.

Pardon the sun streak in the video of the pile driver at work. It made a lot of noise as the pilings were being driven. The DOTD Foreman on site was Todd Moreau. He told The Journal that they used jackhammers to cut through the bridge deck. Then two new pilings were driven in place beside the old pilings that had deteriorated.

Next a cross cap would be put under the deck between the two new pilings. This would now support the bridge’s weight. Several new pilings are being driven to hold up the bridge. DOTD estimated the repairs would take about two weeks.

The repair of the bridge over Coushatta Bayou has LA 515 closed between Tanyard Cemetery Road and Crichton Oilfield Road.

There are two other closures of bridges coming up in the parish this month. Two bridges over Bayou Pierre will be inspected on June 13th. Here are the News Releases from DOTD:

US 84, Bridge over Bayou Pierre in Red River Parish.

This is to advise that on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, beginning at 8am until 12pm, one lane of the US 84 Bridge over Bayou Pierre, in Red River Parish, approximately 2.4 miles west of LA 1, will be closed for routine bridge inspection. Alternate Route: This closure will allow vehicles 10 feet wide or smaller to pass through the bridge inspection zone. Larger vehicles must detour using I-49 to US 371 to LA 1.

LA 174, Bridge over Bayou Pierre in Red River Parish.

This is to advise that on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, beginning at 12:00 pm until 3:00 pm, one lane of the LA 174 Bridge over Bayou Pierre, in Red River Parish, approximately 2.9 miles west of LA 1, will be closed for routine bridge inspection. Alternate Route: This closure will allow vehicles 10 feet wide or smaller to pass through the bridge inspection zone. Larger vehicles must detour using I-49 to US 371 to LA 1.

The weather is warming up and air conditioners are beginning to work overtime. To help stay cool this summer, Cleco is partnering with councils on aging and other agencies to donate fans to elderly across Louisiana.

Tripp Dungan, Cleco principal governmental services representative, recently dropped of fans to Liz Cannon, Executive Director of the Red River Parish COA and Mary Jones, Board of Directors member.

Cleco vice president of customer experience, Shirley Turner said, “Air conditioners are typically the largest energy users in a home. Raising the thermostat to 78 degrees and using a fan can help the air temperature feel 10 degrees cooler and help reduce energy bills.”

In addition to adjusting thermostats for energy efficiency, Cleco recommends the following tips to help lower electric bills:
Turn off fans when you leave a room.
Install a programmable thermostat and raise the setting to the highest comfortable temperature. You can save three to five percent on your air conditioning costs for each degree you raise the thermostat.
Seal holes and cracks around doors and windows.
Keep curtains and blinds closed during the day
Use heat generating appliances, such as clothes dryers or the oven, in the evening when temperatures are cooler
Those wishing to donate a new fan can drop it off at the Council on Aging on Front Street. For energy conservation tips, visit https://www.cleco.com or follow Cleco’s official Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/clecopower.

Cleco is distributing Hurricane Preparation Information throughout its service area including Coushatta and portions of Red River Parish. Cleco representative Tripp Dungan will be at the Town Council meeting Tuesday, June 5th and he will have Cleco brochures to distribute.

“Cleco prepares year-round for storms, and we encourage our customers to be ready, too.” said James Lass, general manager distribution operations and emergency management. “Hurricane season can be very unpredictable, but being prepared means you are ready no matter when or where a storm hits.”

Cleco reminds customers of the following tips to prepare and stay safe this hurricane season:
Prepare a storm kit – gather supplies you might need for an outage, including flashlights, batteries, canned food, manual can opener, bottled water, medication and a first aid kit.
Put all important documents in a waterproof container.
Plan ahead for special or medical needs.
If you see downed power lines, treat them as if they are energized. Stay away from lines and any objects they are touching. Report a downed power line immediately by calling Cleco at 1-800-622-6537 and 911 in the case of an emergency.
Don’t plug a generator directly into a wall outlet. A generator can back feed electricity through your home’s electric wiring to the Cleco circuit. This can cause injury or even death to a worker attempting to repair that circuit and anyone else who may come into contact with power lines.
If water is rising near your home or business, turn off electricity at the main breaker. Evacuate and do not return until waters have completely receded. Wait until the water recedes, and have an electrician check the building’s wiring before using electricity.

Workers were finishing the placement of the first temporary building behind Red River Junior High when the rains hit on Tuesday morning. And they are preparing to move the remainder of the t-buildings to the old tennis courts.

The welding building was demolished a few days ago. And on Monday workers were taking apart the greenhouse.

The t-buildings are home to sixth graders at Red River Junior High. They will attend classes in the new location while a new Sixth Grade Academy is constructed.

More buildings are scheduled to be re-located, sold as surplus or demolished this summer. A new building for vocational courses of study will be built on the west side of the high school campus. A $29,000,000 bond issue passed last year funds the changes.

Shortly after 4:00 pm Sunday afternoon, June 3rd, a car traveling north on LA 507 just north of US 71 left the road on the northbound side. The driver over corrected and flipped his car and landed in the southbound ditch. Witnesses said the driver climbed out of the car and jumped in another vehicle and left the scene.

Louisiana state police apprehended 26-year-old Randy Lamar Frazier of Coushatta. He was identified as the driver of the vehicle. Frazier was arrested and charged with the following:

– Hit and Run
– Careless Operation
– No seat belt
– Expired inspection sticker
– Switched license plate
– Simple kidnapping
– Failure to transfer title of motor vehicle
– No driver’s license

Frazier was booked in the Red River Parish jail.

This Saturday, at the Rivertown parking lot, Open Door Fellowship will be selling hamburger lunch plates. Plates include burger with fixings, chips, and a drink. The price is $8.00. All proceeds will go toward the cost of our mission trip to Grafitti Church in NYC, scheduled for July 14-21.

Louisiana Tech University held its spring commencement ceremony Saturday, May 19, in the Thomas Assembly Center. There were over 1,000 students awarded degrees. Those from Coushatta were Morgan R. Auzenne, awarded a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering; James Michael Fair, awarded a Bachelor of Science; and Caitlin Nicole Finton, awarded a Graduate Certificate.

Red River Parish Health Unit is offering a reminder to parents to come and get their children’s immunizations during the summer months Don’t wait until August when it’s super busy.

The school board is having a surplus equipment sale on Friday. It will be held in the old cafeteria building on the Springville campus from 8:00 am until Noon.