News

Lt. General (Ret.) William Boykin will be guest speaker for a special 9/11 service at Winnfield First Baptist. Current &  former military as well as all first responders and their families are invited as honored guests.

A public hearing followed by the regular monthly meeting of the WPPJ was held on Aug 15. On the agenda for the public hearing was the business of obtaining views on the housing and community development needs and to discuss submission of LCDBG 2023 application. Thomas McGee was on hand to talk about requirements and eligible activities for the LCDBG program. He stated that typically the state allows you to apply for roads, water, and sewer but for 2023 they are only allowing for road projects. With no further business, the meeting adjourned.

The regular monthly meeting began with no amendments or deletions to the agenda. The agenda was adopted.

We asked and parents delivered. There are pages and pages of pictures of Winn Parish students  on their first day back to school. We decided  to kick it off on the front page with a picture sent in by Matt Miller, City Councilman. Everyone have a great school year!

If you frequent social media, specifically Facebook, you have undoubtedly seen hundreds of shares, likes, and comments about Daniel McHenry. This young man lives in Winnfield and loves his city and his neighbors. He feels strongly in protecting others and even more so in doing the right thing. His neighbor shared the story of an incident that happened on the night of Aug 13. According to the Facebook post, Daniel saw someone breaking into a neighbor’s home and then running from the home. Heroically, Daniel ran after the suspect and tackled him. He then physically held him while his dad, Dan Starks, called the police.

Many have called Daniel a good friend, a good neighbor, a brave soul. Today he is being called a hero. When asked why he did what he did, Daniel stated, “I wanted to do the right thing. We watch our neighborhood.”

This past week was a busy one for the entire staff of the Winn Parish school system. Preparing for the new school year to kick off meant lots of training, meetings, and classroom prep.

Mrs. Nancy Crain, Instructional Supervisor with the WPSB, states that the state legislature passed a law requiring all K-3 grade teachers and administrators to take a Foundations of Reading class. “It is a lengthy amount of work that they have to do and Winn Parish teachers were in a two-day training at Winnfield Primary School with a trainer who was hired by the school board to come in and teach the class. They will finish the class on their own time, as there are several more sessions that the teachers will need to do. They are required to take a test after each module. Once the training is done, they will receive a certificate that the school board will collect to show that they have met the requirements of the law.”

The City of Winnfield held it’s regular monthly meeting on Aug 8. Lindlay Howell, the Regional Director with Rural Revitalization was present. Rural Revitalization is a new office at the state level directly under the Governor’s office. It was formed to help rural communities. Howell stated that she had previously met with mayor Hamms to discuss the needs of Winnfield and also Winn Parish. The one thing that is greatly needed is a plan, a vision. She added that there have already been two meetings with leaders throughout the entire parish. The goal was to touch all areas of leadership. They discussed the needs, strengths, and weaknesses as well as ways to improve the quality of life and in doing that, the community would buy back into it. They all agreed that it was time to unify resources, city and parish. They agreed to do a community calendar so that events within the parish could be planned without conflicting dates.

The regular monthly meeting of the WPSB was held on August 1. All members were in attendance with the exception of District 8 member Patrick Howell and District 11 member Leah Clingan.

The Winn Parish Medical Center continues to make upgrades to better serve their patients. In fact, the Radiology Department recently received their new digital equipment. It’s a direct capture which means it’s much quicker for the patients, more cost effective, and less radiation.

Radiology Director Amber Callender states that it offers direct capture which means that patients are “in and out in five minutes.”

This new technology seems to be more cost effective, which also benefits the hospital as the upgrade means better reimbursement from Medicare.

Maybe the best news regarding the new digital equipment is this means less radiation than the computed radiography that was used before. In fact, Callender states that it is around 50 percent less radiation.

Trash cans should be placed for pickup with the handle facing away from the road. They should also be a safe distance off the roadway as the trash truck has arms that extend up to 10 feet for pickup. Please do not place cans on the edge of the road. Some cans have instructions with arrows on the lid stating: “Place container with arrows facing the street for collection”. See photo showing how a can should properly be placed for pickup. Door to door trash pickup is paid from a 1¢ sales tax that is shared by the City and the Parish. For questions or problems, Parish residents can call: 318-628-5824; City residents can call: 318-628-3939.

A special called meeting of the city council was held on July 21. The only item on the agenda was the purchase of the Timberman building located across from the City Hall. Mayor Hamms opened the floor for discussion. City counsel member Theresa Phillips offered questions on where the funding would come from. Mayor Hamms added that it had been set aside over previous years. Phillips stated that a lot of money has been put into the current building and added that she didn’t feel comfortable tying up money into the Timberman building. Hamms added that it is important to move forward and move Winnfield forward.