News

The American Enterprise Institute has ranked Louisiana’s broadband office, known as ConnectLA, first in the U.S. for implementation of broadband best practices and initiatives. AEI’s Broadband Barometer Project released its annual report cards to document each state’s efforts related to broadband access and programming.

Ranked first along with Idaho, Louisiana secured perfect scores on its report card by meeting all criteria in areas such as transparency, efficiency and accountability.

According to AEI’s report card, transparent access to Louisiana’s broadband plans and emphasis on market-based competition were significant factors that contributed to the state’s ranking.

In 1924, a group of local businessmen and professional leaders joined together to establish the Winn Parish Enterprise. That was 100 years ago. Today, even though technology has advanced and we now have the Internet, the Enterprise is still going strong. Before the Enterprise there were several different newspapers in Winn Parish. The most complete history of earlier Winn papers comes from an item in the January 17, 1930 issue of the Winnfield News-American, most of it supplied by a W.L. Smylie.

The Southern Sentinel, he wrote, was started in 1859, before the Civil War, and was the first newspaper in Winn Parish. It was suspended during the war but revived afterward for a short period of time and was passed into the hands of O.M. Grisham in 1904.

Within a year Major Will A. Strong of Monroe bought the office and managed the publication of the paper. He published it until his death in 1910.

When the inaugural Sales Along 84 occurred last fall, any skepticism on the new event’s success was quickly dissolved during the first few hours of the very first day. Hundreds of people poured into LaSalle and surrounding areas visiting yard sales and vendor locations to scoop up as much as possible on that first day.

By Saturday, many had sold completely out of merchandise and were already planning for the next year including having much more items to sell and getting more people involved.

According to event founder Lavelle Evans of Whitehall, stories of people and vendors raking in thousands of dollars during last year’s Sales Along 84 were common to hear.

“We had one family, located a mile off the main road in Jena, initially wonder if anyone would even come by their house and shop,” Evans said. “By the time the weekend was over, they made over $5,000.”

Kiwanian Joe Evans spoke to the Kiwanis club, June 18, 2024. He pointed out our motto on the wall, which says we “serve the children of the world”. He talked about the ways our local Kiwanis club serves the children of the world. The first way is through the Toys for Kids program every year at Christmas, which is coordinated by Rita James. Not to toot his own horn but for 2 years now the Evans family has been helping to supply a children’s book for each bag given to a child at Christmas. Another program for older children would be our scholarships that we give to graduating seniors in our parish. This year we presented 3 scholarships. Evans is part of the cooking crew for our scholarship lunch that raises money for the scholarships. The last program he spoke about was Terrific Kids. He was awarded Terrific Kid in the 6th grade, the first month he was at a new school.

The Goldonna School reunion will be July 13, 2024 at Goldonna Baptist Church in Goldonna, Louisiana. You can arrive as early as 10:30 am, so you can have time to visit. Feel free to bring any old pictures, newspaper clippings or yearbooks you may have that you can share with everyone. Contact everyone you know that attended or graduated from Goldonna School. The menu will be fish with all the trimmings. The cost will be $20.00 per plate. Please let Linda Dupree or Eva Gates know ASAP if you plan to join us for the meal. If you have any questions you may contact Roy or Linda Dupree at 318-875-2716 or 318-471-0602 or Eva Gates at 318-727-9315 or 318-471-9312.

LSUA, LA-HOSA Future Health Professionals and CLTCC have partnered to offer a Future Nurse Camp July 15th through July 19th at the CLTCC Winnfield Campus. The five-day camp is for high school students considering a career in nursing. Participants will explore various nursing careers and participate in hands-on nursing skills including wound care, vital signs, head-to-toe assessments and medication administration. The camp is free of charge and is funded by a Future of HealthC.A.R.E. Program Grant from The Rapides Foundation. Participants will be provided a set of scrubs, a stethoscope, and lunch. Interested students should contact Kristina Sloan via text or call at 571417-8417.

Caring & Sharing along with Winn Initiatives Coalition are hosting a back to school party at the Winnfield Civic Center located at 2000 S Jones St., on Friday, July 26. The doors will open at 10:00 am and close at 1:00 pm. There will be games, bouncy houses, door prizes and lots of other fun stuff. Also, free school supplies, hygiene and toiletry items, sack lunches and informational and educational items will be given away.

Sheriff-Elect Josh McAllister will be sworn in to take his position as sheriff on Saturday, June 29, 2024 at the Civic Center, located on the Winn Parish Fairgrounds. All are welcome. McAllister will officially become Winn Parish Sheriff at midnight June 30, 2024. The Enterprise is looking forward to working with Mr. McAllister and the deputies of the Winn Parish Sheriff ’s Office as we have with past sheriffs and their deputies.

Back in 2012 an article entitled “Sheriff Who Gave Stature to Small-Town Smarts” was published in the New York Times. The article weighed in on the idea of whether small-town is smarter than urban, or vice versa.

An example used in the article was an episode of The Danny Thomas show when Sheriff Andy Taylor stepped out of his police cruiser to issue a ticket to Thomas’s character, a nightclub comedian named Danny Williams. Williams tried to get out of the ticket by using his name and status. “You’ll discover that I’m somebody,” stated Williams. Sheriff Taylor responds by saying, “Well, you know, I knew that the minute I laid eyes on you. Yessir, I’ve never seen a car yet that wasn’t driven by somebody.”

There you have it. Next came the classic television series “The Andy Griffith Show”. Each episode delved into small town life and the way the sheriff, handled day to day business in law enforcement with integrity, humility and little humor.

Ethel Howell introduced herself as Ethel Marie Calhoun Evans Howell. Her parents were Husher and Inez Calhoun and her mother was also a schoolteacher. She has 2 sisters and 1 brother. She was the mother of 5 biological children but only 2 lived to adulthood. When she married Robert Howell she gained 6 more children.