Leila Pitchford AROUND ZACHARY
Vendors sought for Novemberfest
Crafters and vendors are invited to participate in St. Patrick’sNovemberfest from 10 a.m. to 4p.m., Nov.2
The day will include food, fun, games, activities, crafts/ vendors and more. The church is at 1322 Church St., Zachary For information or applications go to www.stpatsla.org, email churchoffice@stpatsla. org, or call the church at (225) 654-4091.
Veterans Park sellingbanners
Regional Veterans Park is selling military hero banners for display in November Limited spaces are available. Visit www.regionalveteranspark.org/banners-on-mainstreet/ to order abanner that features the name, military branch and rank of the service, and amilitary photo of you loved one who served. The banners will be displayed on select light poles on Main Street/La. 64 and in the Zachary Historic District in November
SpeakFrench, otheractivities
n Adults interested in speaking French are invited to the Zachary Branch Library,1900 Church St., for Zachary’s French Table at 6p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of each month. Adults at anylevel of French are invited. Call (225) 658-1840.
n Kids’ Orchestra will have aSeptember program based “Max Found TwoSticks,” by Brian Pinkney,and “The Aunts GoMarching,” by Maurie Manning at 11 a.m., Sept. 7at the Zachary Branch Library, (225) 658-1840, and at 1p.m at the Central Branch Library at 11260 Joor Road. Call (225) 262-2640.
n The Pride-Chaneyville Branch, 13600 Pride-Port Hudson Road, will host Bridgerton: Tea, Trivia, and Strategy Games at 1p.m., Sept. 21. 20-somethings will play games with the goal of an auspicious marriage proposal.Afternoon tea and tea trivia round outthe event.Call (225) 658-1540.
n The 47th annual AuthorIllustrator Program featuring Jerry Pallotta is set for Sept 26-27 at the Main Branch on Goodwood Boulevard, Baton Rouge. School librarians, teachers and administrators are invited to register for aVirtual School Visit with JerryPallotta at10a.m., Sept. 26. Register at www.ebrpl.com/events.html#/ events by Sept. 24 to receive the virtual link. All ages are welcome to meet Pallotta at the Main Library at 7p.m., Sept. 26. An autograph session and reception will follow the free presentation. No registration is required. Teachers, librarians, writers, parents and loversofchildren’s literature are encouraged to attend Behind the Writing at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 27. Registration is required, but the event isfree. Call (225) 231-3760 or email tdearing@ebrpl.com Snacks will be provided during breaks, and an autograph session will follow this professional presentation.
Hike thelibrary andmore Head to the PrideChaneyville Branch Library 13600Pride-Port Hudson Road, to walk by yourselforwitha
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HowshouldZachary grow?
City councildiscusses lotsizes,apartments, need forzoningchanges
BY OLIVIA MCCLURE
Contributing writer
Zachary City Council members
voiced interest duringtheir Aug. 13 meetinginmaking changesto zoning classifications.
Councilwoman Brandy Westmoreland would like to require larger lot sizes and encourage more spa-
ciousdevelopmentsinZachary And Councilman JamesGraves wants to put morerestrictions on where multifamily housingdevelopments like apartmentcomplexes can be constructed.
The issuescame up as council membersdiscussed the need to be strategic as thecity and surrounding area continue to grow
Westmoreland expressedconcernthat mostnew subdivisions —many being built just outside of Zacharycity limits —are madeup of starter homes on small lots. She suggested that Zachary adjust its zoning standards both to slow the overall pace of development in the region and to offer more housing options.
ZacharyMen’s Club offers sweatshirtstostudents
BYFRANCES Y. SPENCER
Contributing writer
Back-to-school giveawayshavebecome popular events in the area and most childrenhaveanopportunitytoattend more than oneleading to some redundancy in supplies. The ZacharyMen’sClub, to compliment those efforts, zeroed in on aspecific need of all school children: sweatshirts.
TheZachary Men’sClub Back-to-School Event, heldAug. 10, had the goal to provide 300 blue sweatshirts to the town’sstudents heading back to school this month.Club Secretary Carl Dawson said they wanted to make anotable impact on the young lives of participants. “Most years, when they go to all of theseother different back-to-school giveaways they’re given the same materials —pens, tablets, notebooks,and more,”hesaid. “So, the kids have five full book bags that day.”
The turnout forthe sweatshirtswas overwhelming andmore than 300 children attended. Club President Gayton Montgomery said in less than two hours, the group’ssupplies were exhausted. Unfortunately, the need exceeded the supply,and somemissed out. Dawson said the group hopes to provide complete
page 2G
“Ifyou wantahorse or you want your own pool in your backyard or you want ashoptoput your RV in or whatever,it’slike, ‘Wecan’taccommodate any of y’all. Go to East Feliciana.’ That’saproblem,” she said. “Weneedtobeabletokeep everybody andhaveabalance of
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Newcity charter couldgoto thevoters in 2025
BY OLIVIA MCCLURE
Contributing writer
In the coming months, Zachary residents arelikely to gettovote on aslate of changestothe city’s home rule charter —a26-page document thatdetails the organization and functions of the local government. Over the past 18 months, acommissionhas been meeting to revise the charter,largely cleaning up language to make thedocument easier to understand and moredetailed. The panel recently finished afinaldraft of thecharter,which waslast updated in 2008, with voters approving the changes in a 2010 election.
The Zachary City Council which has the authority to call an election to put the updated documentbefore voters —heard an update on theeffort at itsAug. 13 meeting.
City Attorney John Hopewell, who participatedinthe
Zacary choose
BY CHARLESLUSSIER Staff writer
The starting salary for public schoolteachersinthe BatonRouge region thesedaysroutinely tops $50,000 ayear thanks to aseries of locally funded pay raises approved in recent months. Sevenofthe 12 school districts within the nine-parish region —East Baton Rouge andeight surrounding parishes —have approvedteacher payraisesover the past four months.Theyrange from $283 moreayear in Livingston Parish to a$7,236 raise in East Feliciana Parish. Six of thoseseven payraises vaulted starting teachers above the $50k threshold. Pointe Coupee, St.Helenaand Livingston parishes are the only districts in the region that paystarting teachers less than that. The districts that have thus far opted against teacher pay raises this year areBaker andZacharyas well as Pointe Coupee, St. Helena and West Feliciana parishes. Some of those districts, though, made notable stridesinthe recent past. For instance, the City of Baker ayear ago increased starting teacher pay by almost $11,000 $50K club:
ZacharyMen’sClub secretaryCarlDawson sorts throughsweatshirts at the group’s back-to-school event.
PHOTOSBYFRANCES Y. SPENCER
Nikki Apostolidas visits the ZacharyMen’s Club on Aug. 12 during the group’sback-to-school event with her children and Zachary Schools students Catherine and Alexander Prevost.
uniform sets soon. The Men’sClub has along history of group community engagement and meeting the needs of local children. Like previous events,there was visible support from city, parish, andstate officials. Agrowing number of vendors representing local businesses and community partnershelped provide food, supplies, and connections to resources to students and families. Developing ties andmeeting needs is acontinuing themefor the Zachary Men’sClub. It was established more than 65 years ago. Dawson, aretired secondlieutenant, has lived in Europe and fought in the Gulf War, butheshares a starting point with the children his group seeks to reach.Hegrew up in Zachary and graduated from Zachary High and Southern University before leaving for acareer in the military Dawson is the back-to-school event coordinator because he feels it is important to make an early impact on the children of the community.Heparaphrased theBiblical passage that says to train up achild in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. The groups wouldlike to establish afoundation that willmake it much easiertocontinue positive development and discipline.
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do you want astarter home, do you want agarden home, do youwant an apartment, do you want large acreage?“
Zachary currently allows amaximum of 12 homes to be built on an acre,Westmoreland said. She would like to reduce that number to five. With several large tracts of land still undeveloped in the city,she is worried about the strain thatany potential densely-built sub-
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divisions would put on local infrastructure
“This is my way to prevent amoratorium —I’m going to be honest. …Help me to keep it growingata safe speed to whereeverything is not acookie-cutter house,” she said. “I have heard your concerns,and thatisdefinitely something we can look into,” city planner Bryant Dixon said. On the multifamily housing matter,Graves said he’d like to limitthose developments to justone zoning classification. Developments such as apartment
small group of friends. There are threemeasuredareas:the “inside loop” is 145 steps or 1/16 of amile, “against the wall” is 280steps or 1/8 of amile, and the “serpentine” is 565 stepsor1/4 mile. There are also exercise stationsscattered throughout the library Events nearby
The ChoctawTrail garage sales areplanned for 8a.m. to 3p.m.Sept. 6-7. The route stretches from Clinton, Jackson andSt. Francisville. Vendor space is available to rent in Jackson, and spaces are available at the Clinton Community Market on Sept. 7from 8a.m. to 1p.m.Contact Ginger at (225) 933-4911 or ging130@yahoo.com for
complexes are currently allowedonland zoned as commercial general,residential urban and urban center
“Say aproperty owner wants to do onething and then sells the property off, and then next thing you know,wesee three-story apartments going up because it’spermitted in commercial,” Graves said. “I want to see howwecan better serve thecommunity as far as having amultifamily district —one district for multifamily.Thatway we know what’scoming.” Dixon said he’d investi-
information. If setting up at your house, contact the organizers for ayard sign. The sale of guns and animals is not permitted. Christmasparadeiscoming
In arecent newsletter,the Zachary Chamber of Commerce announced the Zachary Christmas Parade is at 10 a.m. Dec. 14.The theme will be Luau Under the Mistletoe. Details and registration will be available in September Lanternfestivalmoved
TheWater Lantern Festival, at Zachary Community Park, 20055 Old Scenic Highway,has been moved to Sept. 21. Visit tinyurl.com/556f2tu8 for details.
Send news and events for the Zachary area to zachary@theadvocate.com by noon Friday or call (225) 388-0731.
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Leila Pitchford zachary@theadvocate.com (225)388-0731
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gate the issue andoffer the council someoptions, such as removing multifam-
or
PHOTO BY FRANCES Y. SPENCER
ZacharyMen’s Club officers, from left, SecretaryCarlDawson and President Gayton
thegroup’sback-to-school event.
Zacharyschools’employees convene
The 2024-25 ZacharyCommunity SchoolsDistrict Convocation took place Aug. 6.
All employeesofthe ZCSD gatheredinthe ZacharyHighSchool Visualand PerformingArts Building to celebrate thenew schoolyear
The district holds theevent each year to celebrate its employees, thank them forthe work that they do andkick off thenew school year.
ayear, lifting it briefly to second in the region.
Here are annual salariesfor starting teachers in the region for select districts:
n Iberville, $56,606
n Ascension, $50,533
n East Baton Rouge, $50,000
n Livingston, $47,400
n St. Helena Parish, $41,000
Starting teachers, in this comparison, are thosewitha bachelor’s
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Continued from page1G
commission, told the council that the majority of changes were simply amatter of rewording sections and clarifying information.
degreewho work nine months of the year.These figures don’tincludevariousstipends, performance pay and other incentives districts routinely disburse. Nor do the figures account for often very competitive pay offered by charter schoolsand someprivate schools.
Over thepasttwo years,the state has stopped short of approving permanent pay raises for school employees, optinginstead for onetime stipends. This year,the Legislature approved, for asecond year in arow,stipendsof$2,000 for educatorsand $1,000 for sup-
The document covers everything from various officials’job duties andhow their salaries should be determined to how councilmeetings should be runtorequirements for the city budget.
“By my figures, we made 1,712 changes,” Hopewell said. “A lot of that is stylistic —but obvious-
port workers.
East BatonRouge Parish, the largest district in the regionand hometoabout 3,000 teachers, approvedanacross-the-board pay raise of $2,200 for teachers. Similarly,Ascension Parish, thethirdlargest districtregionally,opted for a$1,750 pay raise for all teachers. Those payincreases are costing $11.4 million and$8.1 million a year,respectively The biggest mover regionally when it comes to employee pay is East FelicianaParish, whichapproved abig employee pay raise. It added $7,236 to the payofall of
ly there were some substantive changes.”
While council members cannot change anyverbiage themselves, Hopewell askedthemtolet him know if they haveany questions or criticisms so he could relay those issuestothe commission.
As for when thenew charter
its teachers. Starting teacher pay increased from$42,764 to $50,000 ayear.The pay raise is costing the district an estimated $1.3 million.
Thelatest pay raise is part of a larger 36% increaseinstarting teacher pay going back to 2021. That year,starting teachersin
East Feliciana made $36,664 a year,byfar the lowest in the region. The last previous districtfunded teacher payraise in that district was in 2008.
The latest raise puts East Feliciana’sstarting teachers on par with East Baton Rougeand justshy of neighboring Zacharyand West
will appear on the ballot, “it is doubtful that we aregoing to hit November or December,” Hopewell said. “We’re going to be into early 2025 —unless you guys decide you want to call and payfor aspecial election.” It will take time, he explained, forthe citytomakearrange-
Feliciana —Zachary pays just $22 more, while West Feliciana pays $272 more.
“A starting salary forteachers of $50,000 makes ourteacher pay competitive with other districts in the Capitalregionwhile still ensuring that we can sustain these increases long-term,” Keisha Netterville, East Feliciana Parish’s school superintendent since fall 2019, explained in an email.
Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate.com and followhim on Twitter,@Charles Lussier
mentswithstateelection officials.
In addition to Hopewell, members of the commissioninclude Billy Kline,Adam Kwentua, L.T Dupré, Brandon Noel, Ben Cavin and Darin David. Emily Harr previously served on the commission.
ZacharyHigh jazz band playsatthe 2024-2025 ZCSD Convocation. PROVIDED PHOTOSBYTAYLOR WATSON LEE
All employees of the ZacharyCommunity SchoolsDistrict gather Aug. 6inthe ZacharyHigh School Visual and Performing Arts Building to celebrate the newschool year
SPORTS
BIGGER,FASTER, STRONGER
PHOTO BY WARREN BRADY
forZacharyschools
ZacharyintroducesTravisNichols as directorofstrengthand conditioning
In July,the Zachary High Athletic Department welcomed Travis Nichols as the director of strength and conditioningfor the district.
Nichols has had quite thejourney to Zachary starting with graduation from Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge, followed by earning aB.S. in kinesiology from LSU.
Along the way he has hada 10yearcareer of training athletes to excel. He brings certifications as strength and conditioning specialist throughthe National Strength and ConditioningAssociation, aperformance enhancement specialist through the National Association of Sports Medicine, and is recognized as a Level 1Sport Performance coach through USA Weightlifting.
Nichols said about his jobinterview, “I was impressed by the clear standard of excellence across all theprograms and the way everything operates from the top down. It wasimpressive.”
His philosophy is simple: “I am interested in health and safety andmaking sure we are safe first. We are not lifting weights for the sake of liftingweights. Everything has amethodand apurpose behind what we do.”
Nichols began as an intern withthe LSU strength and conditioning staff, working primarily withmen’sand women’sbasketball, softball, tennis and cheer.Healso trained and studied under thetutelage of renownedOlympic weightliftingcoach Gayle Hatch.
From LSU, Nichols moved to Monroeto serve aUniversity of Louisiana-Monroe assistant strength and conditioningcoach responsible for thetraining of men’s basketball, track andfieldthrowers,and assistedinall areasofpreparation for the football program. While at ULMhe earned up an masters in exercise management.
Nicholsmoved furthernorth to Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri, where he was served as the strength coach for all 10 of MSSU’sOlympic sports and worked with the football program. His time in Joplin saw men’s basketball, baseball,and women’strack and field reach NCAA Division II Top-25 rankings with several of student-athletes across all sports achieving All-American and All-Conference honors.
Ready to head back south, Nichols moved to Lamar University in Texas where he trained the men’s basketball,
women’sbasketball, and baseball teams and assisted with football.
This included athree-monthstint where he served as the interim headstrength and conditioning coach for football.
In May 2022, Nichols moved closer to home when he was hired as the Southeastern Louisiana University assistant director of sports performance, where he was responsible for all aspect of training for softball and women’ssoccer and assisting with thefootball training.
“Wewon aconference championship in football andsoftball when Iwas there”
Travis said. During that time, he was able to work with ZHS alum William Granville on the Southeastern football team.
Travis said, “With all thestuff on social media and distractions, lotsofpeople forgetthe factthat you have to workhard.”
“If you are not working hard none of that stuff matters and you will not see results,” hesaid. He added he looks forward to workingwith powerlifting coach Jason Davis andthe powerlifting team.
At the Zachary Athletics kickoff meeting before school, Nicholls one month impact was apparent as he garnered the most athlete recognitions in theform of clapsand whoops when new coaches were announced.
Nicholls and his wife, Alexandra, have one son,Jack, who is almost 2.
ZHSAthletics Hall of Fame
Time is running out to submit your 2024 nominations for theZachary High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Nominationsfor theClass of 2024-2025 will be accepted through August 31.
Athletes must have graduated at least five years beforeinduction. Nominations should be based on outstanding high school athletic honors, achievements, and/ or accomplishments (parish honors;alltournament teams; all-district, all-state, All-American teams, etc).
Guidelines and applications are available at www.zacharyhigh.orgonthe Athleticspage or by picking them up at theZachary High School front office or Academic/Athletic Building.
New memberswill be inducted the Thursday beforethe Woodlawn game, Oct. 25, with on-the field recognition at thehalf.
WarrenBrady coverssports forThe Plainsman. He can be contacted at zachary@theadvocate.com.
ZHSfootball holds second Ladies at the Corralevent
Communitynewsreport
On Aug. 9, Zachary Highfootballhosted 140 women for the second annual Ladies at the Corral event.The event almost doubled theturnout from theprevious year.The itinerary for the night is similar to what the players experience on agame day Attendants ate apregame meal catered by South Plains Food Company, anddoor prizes were awarded.
Athletic director and football coach David Brewerton presented Football 101 with the
women,and they watched ahype video presentation. They attended breakout sessions withposition coaches and coordinatorsto learn moreabout what the players do on the field. When the participants entered the locker room, they got apregame talk from Brewerton before entering the field through the giant Bronco tunneljustasthe players do Once on the field, they got to experience a pregamewarm-up with strengthand conditioning coach Travis Nichols and then a postgametalk with Brewerton.
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Travis Nichols, director of strength and conditioning
David Brewerton speaks