Five candidates are set to compete in twospecialraces foropenseats on the CovingtonCity Council and Abita Town Council on Nov.5 Meanwhile, when the three-day qualifying period endedFriday,Todd Burrall wonthe District Eseatonthe Covington City Council when no other candidate signed up for that race
ä Parish takes planned tax
The council races are the highlight of asmall Nov 5local ballot in St. Tammany Parish. Thekey election that day,ofcourse, will be the intense presidential race thatissetting up between President Joe Biden and former President DonaldTrump. Louisiana also has six congressional seatsup for grabs, as well as racesfor astate Supreme Court justice and anumber of appeals court judge posts. The District ECovington Council seat opened earlier this year when Mark Verret won aspecialelection for the at-large CovingtonCouncil post that opened when Rick Smith was elected to the Parish Council last October Burrall, 46,isacommercial banker and longtime Covington resident. He has never held office before, he said. “I’m thrilled. Iabsolutely thrilled,” he said Friday afternoon In the other Covington race, District BCouncil member John Botsfordand Jerry Lee Coner qualified for an open at-large seat. Botsford is aRepublican. Coner, an Independent, is aformer council member whoran foranat-large seat in 2023 but withdrew after aresidency challenge. That at-large seat opened when Larry Rolling was elected to the St. Tammany Parish Council last November In Abita Springs, Regan Kelley Contois, Stewart “ManyLightnings” Eastman and Claire Carley Guidry have qualified for the racefor an open seat on the Town Council. ContoisisanIndependent, Guidry is a Republican, and Eastman’spartyis listedas“other.”
The special raceisbeingheld to elect amember to the council to fill the seat of Lynne Congemi, who died in January.Contois was appointed by the council to fill thepost on an interim basis. In other St. Tammany-related qualifying, Judge Allison Penzato, aRepublican, was reelectedtoher seat on the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal bench. And21st Judicial District Judge Blair DowningEdwards, aRepublican from Hammond, was the lone qualifier for the 3rd District, Division Aseat on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal. Incumbent Appeal Court Judge Wayne Ray Chutz is retiring.
LIFE OFFTHE FIELD
PROVIDED PHOTO
Former Covington High star MikeWilliams wasanAll-SoutheasternConference player and All-American at LSU.Hewas drafted in the first round of the NFLdraft in 1975 by the San DiegoChargers.
Mike Williams is an LSU legend, but Covington is alwayshome
BY JOSEPH HALM Staff writer
MikeWilliams still has his signature smile, even if he can’trun as fast as he once did.
Thenow 70-year-old former Covington Highand LSUstandout spent nine seasons in theNFL,but his favoritememories of all thegames he played at the highest levels are still crystal clear
“Thething Iremember most is spending time hanging with theguys,” Williams said. “I just like being around people. That was themain thing.”
So who is Mike Williams?
The simple answer is he’ssomeone who likes helping people where he can and inserting aquick jokeintoany conversation.
Themore detailed responseisthat he is someone who had ahistoric career at LSU —hewas one of the first two players to break the LSUfootball color barrier and was LSU’sfirst Black player to earn AllAmerican status.
But he always shied away from thepublic eye, preferring to spend time with family andfriends.
“He had awonderful career at LSU and in theNFL,” his daughter,Michelle Williams, said. “Off the field, he’sjust very humble andquiet and generous about giving back to thecommunity.Hedoesn’tlike alot of attention.Hedoes it behind thescenes. That’s just hisway.”
Editor’snote: “Where are they now?”
Butdespite his efforts to stay behind the scenes, his athletic ability prevented that. Everyone still stops and waves if they see him outside.
“I played baseball and football, but when Ipicked up afootball, that wasit. When I started playing football in high school, that took away baseball,” Williams said. “Football was justsomething that came natural. Then, as Igot bigger,Ilearned to play a little better.”
He didn’tstartplaying football until junior high, but by thetime he was asenior at Covington High, he finished third in the
ä See WILLIAMS, page 4A
TheSt. Tammany Farmer asked that question about some of the best athletes in localsports history and then we went out and found them.
Each edition this summer,we’ll reacquaint readers withone of these familiarfaces. We’ll take adeep dive into thesuccess stories that began in parish youth leagues, continuedatlocal high schools and then colleges near and far.Many of these homegrown talents played professional sports, too, reaching the pinnacle of athletic achievement. This week, we feature former Covington High, LSUand NFLstar Mike Williams.
Staff report
Forthe fifth consecutiveyear, the St. Tammany Farmerwas named Newspaper of the Year among the state’s weekly publications by the Louisiana Press Association.
Results of the organization’sBetter Newspaper Contest wereannounced during the LPA’sannual meetings held July 19 at the City Club in Baton Rouge.
The contest honored Louisiana’s top journalists and work produced in the 2023 calendar year
Theawardcontinued the Farmer’s run of excellence since being purchased by the Georges Media Group in 2017.The newspaper, which is headquartered in Covington but is theofficialjournalfor the entire parish, is celebrating its 150th year of publishing in 2024, making it the oldest business in the parish.
“I can’tthink of amore fitting way to honor the Farmer’slong history than being honored yet again with the Louisiana Press Association’s Newspaper of theYear Award,” said St.TammanyFarmer editor Andrew Canulette, who joined the newspaper’sstaff shortlyafter it waspurchased by locally owned Georges Media.
“This wasnodoubt the mostsatisfying of the five times we’ve won this award,” Canulette said. “Wehave atremendous team —a handful of full-timers and more thana dozen freelance writers and photographers. They all put their hearts into this job and just about every single one of them won an individual LPA award this year.For them to be rewarded fortheir hard workinforming, educating andentertaining our readers makes me extremely proud.
“And it goes without saying that winning firstplace in GeneralExcellence is an extreme point of pride.” Award winners this year include: n St.TammanyFarmer sports editor Joseph Halm whowon six individual honors at this year’smeetings. Halm’spiece on Northshore High School andthe city of Slidell honoring LSU baseballplayer BraydenJobertafterthe Tigers won their seventh national championship won first place forbest sports story Apiece Halm penned on longtime volleyball coach Danny Tullis making abig career move following the tragic death of his son took third place in the same category.Halm also wonsecond place forBest Sports Column andswept thetop 3 sports in the Best News Videocategory n Freelance reporter/columnist Jessica Saggio wonthreeawards, including thetop two spots in the Best Feature Story category.Her piece on aboy trying to win anational competition for having the best mullet haircut to raise awareness forheartdiseasewon first place. Another on ayoung girl starring in atouring Broadway production of the Tina Turner story placed second. Saggio also wonthe coveted SamHanna Award for producing the year’sBest Regular Column. Her sometimes humorous, sometimes
ä See FARMER, page 2A
STAFF PHOTO BY JOSEPHHALM
Former CovingtonHigh, LSUand NFL standout MikeWilliams in the front yard of his Covington home
Parish takestax reform item offNovemberballot
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
St. Tammany Parish government planned to ask voters in Novembertoallow Parish President Mike Cooper’sadministration to pull cash out of aroads and drainage fund and use it for other costs. The referendum will now be delayed until next spring, parish spokesperson Michael Vinsanau said July 18. With so much attentiononthe presidentialelection that will be at the top of the Nov.5ballot, Vinsanau said that the Cooper administration had begun to doubt
whether its messaging on tax reform wouldreach voters, who may be more focused on aTrumpBiden rematch. The Cooper administration last week got approval from the Parish Council to spend $225,000 to cover election costs and hire aPRfirm to craft what they termed avoter education campaign. “Something like this is so critically important, it needs to be on its own and doesn’tneed to be lost in the mix of other elections,” Vinsanau said.
The proposal would ask voters to allow some of the revenue now being brought in by asales tax
for roads and drainage to be used to cover some criminal justice costs. Because voters years ago approved theroads and drainage tax for that purpose, avoteisrequired for voters to unlock that dedication. The reallocation of tax dollars is Cooper’slatest attempt to resolve the parish’slong-running budget crunch, kicked off by voters’ persistent refusal to approve atax to fund St. Tammany’scriminal justice system. Five separate times since 2016, the parish government or public safety agencies have asked voters to approve atax that would fund criminal justice costs
that St. Tammany is requiredby state law to cover.And five separate times, voters have rejected the tax.
The lack of funding for agencies like the district attorney’s office and the parish jail has prompted lawsuits from several parish agencies. Even the judges charged with ruling in that lawsuit sued the parish, arguing that the court itself is underfunded.
Rather than ask voters again to approve atax, the Cooper administrationistaking anew tack by instead asking voters to let the parish government to shuffle around money it already has.
The roads and drainage tax, a 2% sales tax levied in unincorporated St.TammanyParish, raises about $75 million annually,according to parish estimates, and is set to come up to avote for reapproval in 2031. Under Cooper’s proposal, the parish could use 17%ofthose fundsfor criminal justice costs, and the tax would be extendedatits current rate for another 25 years. Having that revenuefromthis tax guaranteed through 2056 would allow the parish to take on bond debt to fund road, drainage, and other infrastructure projects, Cooper has argued.
goes pumpkin picking at St. Michael’sEpiscopal Church in Mandeville during thechurch’s PumpkinPatch in October
Mandeville’sNate Sheppard fights off twoWalker defenders to haul in a2-point conversion catchonSept. 15,2023.
Continued from page1A
poignant pieces on young motherhood, run monthly in the Farmer’s pages. n Grant Therkildsen, alongtime freelance photographerlocally, earnedfour LPAawards.His haul included first place in the Best Feature Photo category (a shot of ayoungster playing in alocal pumpkin patch),secondplace in the Best Photo Package (three or more images) and athird-place award in the photo packagecate-
goryshared with fellow photographer David Grunfeld. Therkildsen also took third place in theBest SportsPhoto category
n Kay Gervais, who designs each of the Farmer’saward-winning editions,won yetanother Gary Hebert Award for her work as the state’sbest designer in 2023.
n Freelance photographer Joseph Trombatore placed firstin theBestSportsPhoto category forhis shotofMandeville High starfootballplayer Nate Sheppard making aleaping grab.
n Bobby Gilboy, alongtime Farmer shooter,shot the second
Louisiana
place Feature Photo (a girl gleefully playing in fake snow at alocal festival).
n Kim Chatelain, one of the most respected area newsmen for decades, won first place in Best News Story for his piece on alocal Catholic priest being named an auxiliary bishop in the Atlanta area.
n The Farmer swept the Best Breaking News category,with veteran newsman Bob Warren picking up first place honors for his story on the killer of Mandeville Police officer Vincent Liberto accepting aplea to life in prison for the murder that shocked the
northshore five years ago. Staff writer Alex Lubben won second in Best Breaking News and former St. Tammany Parish bureau chief Sara Pagones was third in the category
n Staff photographer Chris Granger took second place in the Best News Photo category
n Farmer advertising reps won apair of second-place awards, one each in the Staff Generated Ad and Best Ad Campaign categories. Julie Ricketts and Yvette Dellucky were named for their outstanding work.
n The Farmer’sannual prep football tabloid won first place
among Best Special Sections in 2023. The paperalso wonthe aforementioned first place award for General Excellence and Best Website, as well as asecond-place honor for Best Front Page. The complete list of publications winning Newspaper of the Year honors include TheTimesPicayune/New Orleans Advocate, Division 1(large dailies); The Ruston Daily Leader,Division 2 (smaller dailies); The St. Tammany Farmer,Division 3(large weeklies); Division 4, Pointe Coupee Banner (small weeklies); Category 5, Central City News, affiliate publications.
PHOTO BY BOBBY GILBOY
Annie Glynn enjoys playing in
‘snow’ at the Noon Year’sDay partyatthe St. TammanyChildren’sMuseum.
