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THURSDAY APRIL 9, 2015 H
SERVING THE PARISHES OF EAST FELICIANA, WEST FELICIANA AND ST. HELENA THEADVOCATE.COM
Fire dispatch console malfunctions Senator offers to help find grants
“The faulty equipment has been scheduled for an upgrade for the past few years,” Williams said. “When the renovations at the jail began, we BY STEPHANIE WARREN discovered the equipment we swarren@theadvocate.com use to dispatch fire and rescue The St. Helena Parish Sher- workers would not work once it iff’s Office dispatch console, was moved.” Due to the recent malfuncwhich is used to dispatch emergency responders including tions, Williams said the upfire and rescue, has malfunc- grade will be rushed and hopetioned since the renovations fully completed soon. Willimas began at the jail last month, called an emergency meeting March 30. Sheriff Nat Williams said.
Police jury dismisses individual authority
The malfunctioning equipment is 10 years old and had problems in recent months, said St. Helena Parish Chief of Homeland Security, Rita Allen. “At this time, the sheriff’s office and fire department’s do not have the funds for a quick fix, and we are having to use portable radios for communication,” said Allen. The St. Helena fire chiefs met with the sheriff’s office to try to work around the issues at hand during the renovations, accord-
ing to SHPSO Chief Michael Martin. Martin said the department has begun emergency work to fix the system and will deploy additional units and take other precautions to compensate for the troubled system. Although Martin said that fixing the system was an urgent matter, he said residents should still have faith in the parish’s emergency responders and 911 system. “Right now we still need residents to go through
911 on all fire and emergency dispatches and the sheriff’s office will notify the appropriate department for their response,” Martin said. Until it’s clear that the system is working properly, Martin said the department ordered all units to use radio communications. Senator Bodi White dropped in on the meeting while visiting the community for a school board meeting. White told parish leaders that he would help in any way that he can, Martin
said. “He asked us if we could do write-up on what kind of equipment we needed to move forward with this and, he may be able to find grant money or emergency money for the departments to ensure the parish has good emergency communication,” said Martin. Martin said White will be working closely with the fire departments because it is their system that is not working properly.
New hospital coming
BY JAMES MINTON
Special to The Advocate
CLINTON — A majority of the East Feliciana Parish Police Jury thwarted a move Monday to give individual jurors the authority to allocate money to municipalities for building or repairing infrastructure. During the heated discussion, jurors spoke of road improvements rather than other infrastructure needs. Jurors Chris Hall and Larry Beauchamp, who represent East the towns of Feliciana Slaughter and Clinton, respectively, were the only jurors supporting a resolution to give jurors the discretion to spend jury funds in the municipalities. Jurors Ed Brooks, Jason McCray, Keith Mills, Louis Kent, Sean Smith and Dwight Hill voted to get an attorney general’s opinion on the proposed resolution. Jury President Dennis Aucoin did not vote. East Feliciana’s municipalities receive some sales tax funds for street and sidewalk work, but Hall and Beauchamp said the money does not cover the work that needs to be done. Slaughter Mayor Robbie äSee POLICE JURY, page 2G
Rendering provided
Architect rendering of the new West Feliciana Parish Hospital. The hospital is waiting on financing to be approved.
No plans yet on use for old West Feliciana building BY HOWARD ARCENEAUX Special to The Advocate ST. FRANCISVILLE
Work will soon begin on the West Feliciana Parish Hospital that will replace the existing outdated structure with a state-of-the-art medical center. Hospital CEO Lee Chastant said the only hold-up is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will provide low-interest bonds that will fund the $25.7 million project.
INSIDE West Feliciana...........3G East Feliciana............5G St. Helena .................7G Sports .......................1H Schools............2H,8H
Preliminary approval has been received, and a private lender, Investar Bank, is going through the approval process and will service the debt. Within the next month, Chastant said, the hospital will ask permission from the Parish Council to seek Bond Commission approval. “If that happens by the end of April, in May, we can go to the Bond Commission for final approval, then we’ll put the project out for bid,” Chastant said. “The council will not have any liability with this project, so it should be a simple process.” The 53,000-square-foot new hospital building will be built adjacent to Burnett Road. It was designed by Curtis Group Architects and Grace Hebert Architects. The first construction phase will be a $440,000 road that will provide a traffic artery
for the roughly 12-acre hospital campus. The existing Health Unit building will be converted to doctors’ offices, and the existing support services building will be utilized as central supply, purchasing and maintenance. “We’ll build a road across the gully to provide connectivity for the two campuses (between the new and old hospital buildings),” Chastant said. “We’ll build a retention pond that will be aesthetic as well as serve as a functional purpose for collecting the runoff to prevent erosion.” The future of the existing hospital building, which was built in the mid-’70s, is under consideration, and Chastant said it has three possibilities: use it as it is; renovate it; or raze the building and repurpose the property. äSee HOSPITAL, page 2G
Actors, re-enactors needed for ‘Underground’ TV series BY STACY GILL
ing general submissions for paid background actors of all ages and ethnicities. “The Underground” story Re-enactors or those in the dramatic and theater arts who line follows a group of slaves would like an opportunity to planning a daring escape from become a background actor on a Georgia plantation hoping to a new television series set to cross 600 miles to freedom, a film in St. Francisville will get news release said. The slaves are aided along the way by a setheir chance. Caballero Casting is accept- cret abolitionist couple running
sgill@theadvocate.com
a station on the Underground Railroad, and the group evades those tasked with bringing them back, dead or alive. The WGN-scripted series is from creators/executive producers Misha Green (“Sons of Anarchy”) and Joe Pokaski (“Heroes”) and stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell (“True Blood”), Christopher Meloni (“Law &
Order: SVU”) and Aldis Hodge (“Leverage”). Anthony Hemingway (“Treme”) is set to direct some episodes. Sony Pictures Television and Tribune Studios are producing the show, which is expected to debut on WGN America this year. The first shoot date is April
13, and filming will take place in the Baton Rouge, St. Francisville and Vacherie areas. Casting will take place over the next few months. Anyone interested in auditioning is asked to stop grooming from now until filming, Rikki Hegwood, of Caballero äSee TV SERIES, page 2G