ASCENSION PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIRECTOR OF MIDDLE SCHOOLS GWENDOLYN PRICE TO RETIRE ä Page 5G
THE ASCENSION
ADVOCATE
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THURSDAY DECEMBER 24, 2015 H DONALDSONVILLE • DUTCHTOWN • GEISMAR • GONZALES • PRAIRIEVILLE • ST. AMANT • SORRENTO THEADVOCATE.COM
Darlene Denstorff AROUND ASCENSION
DDENSTORFF@ THEADVOCATE.COM
Share your celebrations with us The holidays are family time for many in our area. Bountiful family dinners, festive gathering and gala parties take up much of our time until the end of the year. The Advocate family extends holiday greetings to our readers. As you get together in the next few weeks, don’t forget to share a few photos with The Advocate. It’s easy to send photos and information to us. Simply email photos — cellphone photos are fine — to ascension@theadvocate. com. Include the names of the people in the photo and a brief explanation of what’s going on in the photo. Whether it’s a reunion of five generations or a visit from an out-of-state relative, please share your holiday memories.
Bid accepted for project to pave levee Cycle Construction to do job for $297,456
BY AARON E. LOONEY Special to The Advocate
DONALDSONVILLE — After concerns about finding funds to pave an additional area of Mississippi River levee, City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to accept the low bid for the project. During its final meeting of
2015, the council accepted a bid of $297,456 from Cycle Construction Co. LLC to pave the levee top from Veterans Memorial Boulevard near Crescent Park to Lee Avenue. The city had been $109,000 short to cover the extension, Mayor Leroy Sullivan Sr. said. However, officials found the dollars by allocating funds from revenues recently returned to the city by its Industrial Development Board. The paving extension will not
include lighting or benches, Sullivan has said. The remainder of the project is being funded through dollars received from the state’s Rails and Trails grant program, Sullivan said. The city originally planned to pave the levee near Thibaut Drive, but rising costs and funding setbacks led to the project being reduced. City Attorney Chuck Long said he will present for introduction an ordinance calling
for award of the contract at the council’s Jan. 12 meeting. A public hearing and vote on the matter will take place at the Jan. 26 council meeting. Council members also voted to have the mayor apply for up to $50,000 in Louisiana Community Development Block Grant funds to renovate the Lemann Memorial Center. The funds will help rehabilitate the aging multipurpose building on Clay Street, near Thibaut Drive. Repairs include
THROWS FOR ALL
Sorrento Lions Club roaring back to life
All Ascension Parish governmental offices will be closed Thursday and Friday in observance of Christmas. Offices will reopen Monday for regular business hours.
Holiday garbage pickup
BY KATE STEVENS
Special to The Advocate
Advocate staff photos by APRIL BUFFINGTON
Paradegoers clamor for throws as floats pass by Saturday during the Donaldsonville Christmas Parade.
Holiday library closures
All branches of Ascension Parish Library are closed Thursday and Friday for Christmas, as well as Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 for New Year’s.
Teen open mic night
Teens are welcome to share their talent at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Dutchtown Branch of Ascension Parish Library. Bring 10 minutes of material or two songs to perform in front of a crowd, or just stop in to listen. No registration is required, but time is limited. Call (225) 673-8699.
Parish receives award
Ascension Parish recently received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the budget year ended Dec. 31, 2015. The award is the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting and is awarded through the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada, a news release said. “The Finance Department has worked hard to achieve this distinguished designation for the fourth consecutive year,” Parish President Tommy Martinez said. Contact Darlene Denstorff by phone, (225) 336-6952 or (225) 603-1996; fax, (225) 644-5851; or email, ascension@the advocate.com or ddenstorff@ theadvocate.com. Deadline: noon Monday.
Advocate file photo
Terry LeBlanc, left, and Terry Tripp cut pork fat into strips for the cracklin cooking contest at the 2010 Boucherie Festival in Sorrento. The Sorrento Lions Club hopes to bring back the popular festival.
Parish offices close
Gonzales residents can expecte the following garbage pickup dates for the holidays: THURSDAY: normal schedule. FRIDAY: no pickup. SATURDAY: will pick up as replacement for Friday. DEC. 31: normal schedule. JAN. 1: no pickup. JAN. 2: will pick up as replacement for Friday.
paving, adding exterior lighting and repairing areas damaged by water leaks. In other matters, the council voted to permanently set city Halloween trick-or-treating time for Oct. 31 of each year from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. However, when Oct. 31 falls on a Sunday, the trick-or-treating time will be moved to the preceding Saturday evening. Only children ages 13 and under will be allowed to partake in the activity.
ABOVE: Miss Donaldsonville Teen 2015 Tamiko Terraz Stroud tosses a candy cane as her car passes down Railroad Avenue during Saturday’s Christmas Parade. RIGHT: Kadon Edmondston holds his hand up for treats at the parade.
Ascension cuts ribbons on projects Advocate staff report Ascension Parish officials have been busy in the last week cutting ribbons as construction and renovation projects come to an end. Outgoing Parish President Tommy Martinez cut the ribbon Dec. 17 at the new $6.9 million governmental complex located on the former site of the East Ascension Hospital in Gonzales. Construction on the governmental complex began in summer 2014 and finished this month. The complex was paid for
with $5 million surplus left in the East Ascension Hospital’s accounts and parish sales taxes that had been held in escrow for an industrial construction rebate but was not used by the applicant. The 33,500-square foot modern building provides a new consolidated home for various departments previously housed in several buildings. Elected officials gathered Advocate staff photo by DAVID J. MITCHELL again Monday to celebrate the opening of the upgraded 4-H Outgoing Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez, cenbuilding at the Lamar-Dixon ter, speaks Dec. 17 about the new governmental complex building during a ribbon-cutting ceremony while, from left, Expo Center. his wife Theresa Martinez and Councilmen Randy Clouatre, äSee PROJECTS, page 2G Kent Schexnaydre and Todd Lambert look on.
SORRENTO — As recently as this summer, the Sorrento Lions Club struggled with dwindling membership, few volunteer projects and had placed its Joseph Street meeting hall up for sale. The community service organization, formed three years before the town was incorporated in 1956, seemed to be fading away. But over the past three months, the Sorrento Lions Club has been infused with younger membership determined to jump-start the organization and bring back the unique fête fundraiser the town was known for — the Boucherie Festival. Once heralded as the “Boucherie Capital of the World,” Sorrento has been without the annual festival since 2011. “We hope to do a smallerscale boucherie this year,” said Lions Club Vice President Heather Templet, 35. “It’s in the works. It’s our goal. We are pretty determined.” The festival — and its tradition of celebrating the area’s Cajun culture and hog dish recipes — is of such significance to the town that candidates running for public office in 2013 were asked at a public debate if they supported bringing the festival back. And, more recently, new signs indicating the town limits were installed with the second “o” in Sorrento featuring a curly pig tail. For more than 25 years, the Sorrento Lions Club hosted the October festival at the Ascension Civic Center off Airline Highway. The annual event featured carnival rides, food and music plus cracklin’ and jambalaya cooking competitions. The festival was reigned over by the year’s Miss Sorrento Boucherie Festival Queen. The event went off without a hitch for many years, postponed only once by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. äSee LIONS, page 3G