News

The 2024 Fall Festival has been slated for October 31 in downtown Winnfield from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. when Main Street is traditionally lined with booths, tables and pickup trucks from the Methodist Church down to the Political Museum where youngsters can find plenty of Trick or Treat goodies.

A good starting point for activities is always the Costume Contest for all ages, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. (registration at 5 p.m.) at the Louisiana Political Museum. Six age groups are 0-3 years, 4-7 years, 8-10 years, 1113 years, 14-17 years and 18 years and up. There will also be Theme Groups and Pets divisions.

Along the route, downtown Treaters will also find Bounce Houses beside First Baptist Church, free food (hot dogs, chips and drinks) and the Pumpkin Patch located at the First United Methodist Church.

WPFD 3 Holds District Meeting

New Kiwanis member Sheriff Josh McAllister spoke to the Kiwanis club, Tuesday, September 17th. He is blessed with a great team and the office is the people of Winn Parish’s office. There are good people in the office and on the team. One of the first accomplishments of his office was starting the litter abatement team and they have picked up a lot of garbage. They have also received a grant that will allow them to have another litter abatement team. In the past week a robbery was caught in progress at Saline Lake.

Increased patrols have been put into place to deter crime. There are zones in the parish and each zone has officer on patrol. This means there is quicker response times in emergencies. This is called community policing. The sheriff ’s office is not to make money but to use that money to service the community. $150,000 was used for repairs and maintenance on the Winn Detention Center. The chase team is 8 for 8 being used in Winn Parish and to help other parishes.

State makes most significant jump in the country on scorecard evaluating education choice, teacher freedom, academic transparency, and the return on investment for education spending (BATON ROUGE, LA) - Louisiana ranks fourth in the nation for its support of education freedom. The state saw the most significant jump in the country on the Education Freedom Report Card, produced annually by the Heritage Foundation. The report card evaluates states based on numerous education criteria, ranking them on their support for education freedom. Categories include education choice, teacher freedom, academic transparency, and the return on investment for education spending. “Expanding education freedom is a priority in Louisiana, and I’m glad to see our progress recognized nationally” said Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley.

Sheriff McAllister, his deputies and investigators worked many hours over the last couple weeks. The hard work resulted in deputies making several arrests. On September 9, 2024, Winn Sheriff ’s office received a report concerning a gunshot victim. Investigators learned the shooting occurred at a residence on Old Gainsville Road resulting in Eric Doughty receiving a gunshot wound to his left arm. Deputies arrested Jason Royce Holland of Dodson for the shooting and charged Holland with Attempted Second Degree Murder, other charges are pending against Holland in this case. Also charged in this case is Tonie Netherland Bladel of Dodson for Accessory to Attempted Second Degree Murder and a warrant in Grant Parish. Both individuals were booked into the Winn Parish Detention Center.

City officials have approved some “terminology” language changes that cleared the way for the implementation of a camera photo ticketing system to begin in the City of Winnfield.

With three of the five councilmen present, one councilman was at the meeting via a zoom call, the measure was approved by a 3-1 vote. Matt Miller cast the nay vote while Chiquita Caldwell, who introduced the measure, and Teresa Phillips voted for approval, as did Councilwoman Ada Hall Dudley, who was not present but attended by Zoom. Councilwoman Ericka Breda was not present.

The first Ordinance (No. 6 of 2024 of the City of Winnfield) originally introduced by Caldwell, was adopted at their June 11, 2024 meeting by a 4-0 vote with Councilman Miller absent.

A second 13-year old Winn Parish juvenile was charged early Thursday morning, September 12, 2024 with making terroristic threats to a school, according to Winn Parish Sheriff Josh McAllister.

The Sheriff stated that his office opened an investigation late Tuesday afternoon, September 10, 2024 following social media posts concerning possible threats to Winn Parish schools.

It was determined Wednesday, September 11, 2024 that these posts were made by six juveniles in Alabama and were shared across several states. Those juveniles were arrested by Alabama authorities.

A second social media post appeared late Wednesday, September 11, 2024 and the Sheriff stated his office began another investigation. Investigators were able to determine the second post originated from an Instagram account inside the city limits of Winnfield.

Mr. Steve Shelton and Mr. Rayford Riley received Hammy Awards at the city council meeting yesterday afternoon. Mr. Shelton received his award for his dedication to the health and well-being of the citizens in the community for 47 years. Mr. Shelton is also very supportive of our schools and local events.

Mr. Riley received the Hammy Award for also being dedicated to the citizens in our parish for many years, Mr. Riley has had the longest running business on Main Street at the same location for over 55 years. He has been a trusting barber and friend to many clients through the years.

Thank you both for being amazing citizens to our community!

BATON ROUGE, La.— Secretary of State Nancy Landry joins Registrars of Voters across the state the week of Sept. 16 – Sept. 20, 2024 to promote Voter Registration Week activities aimed at registering Louisiana citizens to vote ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The deadline to register to vote in person or by mail is Monday, Oct. 7, and the deadline to register to vote through the GeauxVote Online Registration System is Tuesday, Oct. 15.

“The first step to participating in the electoral process is registering to vote. It’s never been easier to register or update your registration information in Louisiana–any citizen with a Louisiana license or ID can register online in a matter of minutes at GeauxVo t e. c o m , ” Secretary Landry said.

To register and vote in Louisiana, individuals must:

• be a U.S. citizen;

Where were you on September 11, 2001? On this day there were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States. On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California. The first two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nations capital. The third succeeded in striking the Pentagon, while the fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. 2,977 people were killed during these attacks making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history.