12-26-16
A Ville Platte woman has died in a Christmas morning traffic accident. State police say 24-year-old Allison Gremillion was driving a Nissan Maxima eastbound on an Evangeline Parish road when she ran off the roadway. The vehicle ran into a ditch, struck an embankment and overturned. Gremillion was not wearing a seat belt and was fatally injured when she was partially ejected from the car.
SCOTT AND DUHE’S DINER IN IOWA GAVE OUT FREE MEALS YESTERDAY FOR CHRISTMAS. OWNER GILBERT DUHE OPENED THE DINER JUST THREE WEEKS AGO. HE TELLS KPLC TV THAT THE PEOPLE OF IOWA HAVE SHOWN HIM A LOT OF LOVE, SO HE DECIDED THIS CHRISTMAS TO GIVE BACK. FAMILY AND FRIENDS VOLUNTEERED THEIR TIME AT THE DINER, WHICH GAVE FREE MEALS THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
PLANS ARE MOVING FORWARD FOR A TEMPORARY CAMPUS OF WESTSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN SCOTT THAT WILL OPEN BY AUGUST OF NEXT YEAR. WESTSIDE HAS BEEN CLOSED SINCE IT WAS FLOODED IN AUGUST AND THE STUDENTS AND STAFF WERE SPLIT BETWEEN N-P MOSS PREP AND SCOTT MIDDLE SCHOOL. THE SCHOOL BOARD HAS APPROVED THE LEASING OF TWO 12 CLASSROOM UNITS AND A CAFETERIA UNIT, WHICH WILL BE LOCATED AT SCOTT MIDDLE SCHOOL, AND THEY’VE HIRED FUSION ARCHITECTURE TO PUT IN PARKING, DRIVEWAYS, WALKWAYS, ELECTRICAL SERVICE, FIRE ALARMS AND MORE. SUPERINTENDENT DONALD AGUILLARD TELLS THE ADVERTISER WESTSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL’S PERMANENT CAMPUS WILL NOT LIKELY BE UP AND RUNNING BEFORE JANUARY OF 2018, BECAUSE THEY NEED TIME TO BRING IT UP TO CODE AND MAKE NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS.
Plans for spending more than $1billion in newly approved federal flood recovery money will be discussed at a Jan. 6 meeting of the Restore Louisiana Task Force.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro announced Friday that Louisiana would receive more than $1.2 billion — part of a disaster relief package approved by Congress earlier this month. Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a news release that federal rules require the state to present a plan to HUD before the money can be spent. Edwards said the money doesn’t cover all of the state’s needs but marks a “significant milestone in our recovery.”
FOUR YOUNG MEN FROM NEW IBERIA, WHO GOT TRAPPED BY HIGH WATER WHILE CAMPING IN NEW MEXICO, WERE RESCUED YESTERDAY. SEARCH AND RESCUE LOCATED THE MEN IN THE GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS NATIONAL MONUMENT SATURDAY, BUT WERE UNABLE TO RESCUE THEM UNTIL THE WATERS RECEDED ON SUNDAY. 20-YEAR-OLD BRANDON KONGPHONGMANY, 20-YEAR-OLD CASEY MEAUX, 19-YEAR-OLD ETHAN J. RIGGS, AND 18-YEAR-OLD LIAM HIMEL HAD GONE HIKING. A FLASH FLOOD CUT THEM OFF FROM THE VISITER’S CENTER, AND THEY HAD TO SURVIVE IN FRIGID TEMPERATURES WITH LITTLE TO NO FOOD UNTIL A HELICOPTER EXTRACTED THEM YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
KYLE ALMAGUER OF LAKE CHARLES, WHO WAS BORN WITH JEUNE SYNDROME, HAS HAD THIRTY SURGERIES, LOST SIGHT IN HIS RIGHT EYE AND HAD KIDNEY FAILURE. SO HIS GRANDMOTHER, BETTY COLLINS, WANTED TO DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR HIM THIS CHRISTMAS AND CALLED THE LAKE CHARLES POLICE DEPARTMENT TO SEE IF HE COULD RIDE AROUND THE BLOCK IN A POLICE CAR AND SEE WHAT THEY DO, SOMETHING KYLE HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO DO. CORPORAL ROSS RATHBUN DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING EVEN BETTER…A RIDE IN A SWAT VEHICLE, A CHANCE TO TALK ON THE RADIO, AND A VISIT FROM POLICE CHIEF DON DIXON, WHO PRESENTED HIM WITH A SPECIAL COIN. KPLC TV REPORTS THAT THE SMILE NEVER LEFT KYLE’S FACE AS HE ENJOYED HIS RIDE AROUND THE BLOCK.
THE LAFAYETTE ANIMAL SHELTER HAS MADE PROGRESS TOWARD CITY PARISH MAYOR PRESIDENT JOEL ROBIDEAUX’S GOAL OF BECOMING A NO KILL SHELTER. IN 2015, ONLY ONE IN FOUR ANIMALS LEFT THE SHELTER ALIVE, BUT BETWEEN SEPTEMBER AND NOVEMBER OF THIS YEAR, THE SHELTER’S SAVE RATE ROSE TO 56 PERCENT. THE PLAN IS TO REACH A 90 PERCENT SAVE RATE AND EVENTUALLY REACH NO KILL STATUS BY 2020. ROBIDEAUX TELLS THE ADVOCATE THE NEXT MAJOR STEP IS A POLICY TO RETURN STRAY CATS, WHO HAVE BEEN SPAYED OR NEUTERED, TO THE AREAS WHERE THEY WERE FOUND.
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana’s lawmakers didn’t need to wait for Christmas to get the lump of coal in their stockings. They already knew about the financial headaches they’ll have to tackle in 2017. Louisiana’s 15th midyear budget gap in nine years is expected to be formally recognized in January, when the state’s income forecasting panel puts a dollar figure on a shortfall from the current budget year that began July 1. The shortfall is expected to reach around $300 million.
