Wednesday, October 21, 2020
The Confederate monument that’s been at the entrance of the Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport for more than 100 years will be moved to the Pleasant Hill Battlefield in south DeSoto Parish. The Battle of Pleasant Hill was fought 156 years ago. No date has been set for the removal of the monument. The Pleasant Hill site is privately owned by the Poimboeuf Family.
The Shreveport Chapter No. 237 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy reached an agreement with the Caddo Parish Commission to move the monument with the Commission paying the costs. Thus far, one-half million has been budgeted to cover the expenses.
In late July the Commission covered the monument with a wooden structure to shield it from public view and protect it from possible vandalism. The monument has been the subject of court litigation since 2017 when the Commission voted to have it removed.
The land where the battle was fought in South DeSoto is where the Village of Pleasant Hill was originally located. Years after the Civil War, the village moved two miles to the south to Sabine Parish to take advantage of the railroad which was coming through.
Remembering Gene Wyatt
Gene (Preston Eugene) Wyatt was born July 28, 1937 in Lake Village, AR. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arby Lee Wyatt, returned to their native Sabine Parish when Gene was about a year old.
Music was Gene’s divine gift. Untutored, he became an accomplished guitar player and singer. He honed his art by playing and singing in church as a child.
One of the first personal appearances he made was at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport in 1957. He landed a job with David Houston’s band and served as the opening act. The group enjoyed great popularity touring Europe and especially in Germany. The highlight of his career was playing the London Palladium to a standing-room-only crowd.
Darkness crept into his life when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Shreveport on Jan. 16, 1979. He was only 41. His body was returned home, and he was buried at the Old Pisgah Cemetery located between Belmont and Marthaville.
Gene married Joereita Andrea Stanford on April 26, 1956 and they had two children, Kimberly Rachelle Wyatt and Christopher Loren Wyatt. All three are deceased.
Early voting for the Nov. 3 Presidential Election continues at the Registrar of Voters Office at the Sabine Courthouse. They are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day with the exception of Sunday from now until Oct 27.
There are 13 candidates listed on the Louisiana ballot for President. Our friend David West of Natchitoches called something to our attention recently: Kanye West is on the Louisiana ballot for President, and he also got on the ballot in several other states. He is running on “The Birthday Party” ticket.
A total of 14 are running for Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Fourth District Congressman Mike Johnson has a couple of opponents.
For help with understanding what your “For” or “Against” votes will mean on Amendments and the Proposition, please refer to the chart below.
Our friend Ronald Byrd shared the following with Observations. Please read it slowly and thoughtfully. Its message is said simply and well:
Class War at its Best
The folks who are getting the free stuff don’t like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff. And the folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop. And the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!
Now… The people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.
So… The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff and giving them the free stuff in the first place. We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than people paying for the free stuff.
Now understand this: All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 243 years ago.
The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the number of people paying for the free stuff. Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.
ELECTION 2020 IS HERE.
The Town of Many recently announced their slate of honorees for this year’s Many Christmas parade. As noted in Friday’s Observations, the Grand Marshals will be Shawn and Lauren Manasco Moore.
Other Christmas parade honorees are Honorary Grand Marshals Ricky and Mary Beth Tarver, Young Achiever Shelly Haigh and Shining Star Andrianna Lea Payne.
As the holidays draw closer, Observations looks forward to sharing more information about this deserving slate of Christmas season honorees. Please watch for it.
The Social Distance Social in downtown Many will be this Saturday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m., headquartered on the sidewalk in front of Sabine Theater with free music by The Turn-Ups and their musical guests.
Lots of fun activities are planned, including free and raffle prize giveaway, the Sabine Runners 5K and the Great Chili CookOff. All will benefit Project Celebration, which operates Taylor House. The organization was selected in recognition of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
As always, Bayou Crawfish will be open as will Southern Ladeez. Other downtown merchants may also decide to be open Saturday evening as well.
If you miss it, you’re going to miss a mighty good time! See you there.
It’s been a long time coming. And the excitement is real at Sabine Association for Retarded Citizens (SARC). They are close to finishing an impressive rebuild following the devastating fire they suffered almost three years ago on Nov. 7, 2017.
“This whole ordeal has been something, but we are so excited,” said SARC Executive Director Wayne Martinez. “Not only for the addition of this beautiful building to our community, but especially for our clients to have it to come to every day.”
“Sometimes bad things happen and it turns into good things,” Martinez said.
SARC began in 1970 to help developmentally challenged Sabine Parish citizens. Martinez came on board in 1979, working his way up to Executive Director in 1995, a position he’s now held for 25 years.
“It’s hard to believe that years ago our original buildings were once the old Montgomery Ward and Piggly Wiggly,” Martinez said as he reminisced about the spot’s long history.
“February this year made 41 years I’ve been with SARC,” Martinez noted. “And I’ve seen a lot of changes.”
Following the fire of 2017, the buildings located at 545 San Antonio Ave. had to be gutted. Rebuilding was a slow process, but a slower pace allowed for much thought and planning – all of which now benefits the clients and staff.
A completely new building has been added to the rear of the old structure. What was once the back door now opens into a huge day services workshop where clients can devote their time to their work duties, training programs, group sessions and other activities, which round out each client’s personal development.
SARC has five community homes in Many and one in Zwolle. These locations house six clients each, and the organization also sends transportation out each weekday throughout the parish to pick up clients from their private homes and apartments. Right now, they are picking up about 20-25 from across the parish. The total number is down overall due to the limitations the fire created and more recently, pandemic restrictions.
“Right after the fire, we tried to keep most clients coming and thankfully were able to place them at other workshops we have,” Martinez explained.
The group operates a number of services, for which clients get paid to work. These include the Day Services Workshop area, which includes federal contracts to assemble “maintenance kits” for the U.S. Army and Navy, Car Care, the SARC Thrift Store at 995 San Antonio, Lawn Care and the Wood Shop building south of Many. By the way, the Thrift Store is expected to reopen next week and Car Care services resumed on Monday. Lawn Care and other services were mostly unaffected by the pandemic.
“We have taken baby steps to begin operation of services again with caution,” Martinez explained.
Martinez and his staff are also understandably excited about opportunities the rebuild gave them to better situate their administrative offices. They now have business offices, a board room, a medical office and a social worker’s office – both for clients – and more along a central hallway, which makes it much easier to run an efficient and effective operation.
“This required an unusual type of construction,” Martinez pointed out. “Due to the type of business we are. It had to meet code, of course, but also our special needs to serve our clients and staff.”
Barron, Heinberg and Brocato of Alexandria were architects for the project, and Rivers Construction of Zwolle handled the building. Though it is certainly hoped to never be tested, the new construction also includes many fireproof features, including a double firewall between the left and right parts of the new structure.
As plans were underway, careful thought was given to serving the needs of each client to the utmost and also how staff could be accommodated with a better work layout.
“We put a lot of thought into it,” Martinez said. “This is what we had versus this is what we need,” he said.
Operations Director Tim Goodwin’s catchphrase during the building’s planning became a byword: “If we don’t do it now, we’re never going to do it.” The drive to improve on the logistics of operation certainly helped move the project along toward exactly what is needed for success now and in the future.
It’s been a long journey since the night of Nov. 7, 2017, when fire engines and water trucks gathered around the old SARC complex in downtown Many to battle the intense blaze, but from the ashes has come a new opportunity to serve the parish even more effectively and well into the future.
As he looked with approval at their almost-completed new client and office areas, Martinez said with satisfaction, “If something were to happen right now, I’d feel good. Our clients are going to be fine.”
For those new to Sabine who may not know, the Sabine Association for Retarded Citizens (SARC) offers services to developmentally disabled clients, aged 18 and older, who are paid to work in one of the areas of service the organization provides. These include the Day Services Workshop area, Car Care, the SARC Thrift Store, Lawn Care and a Wood Shop.
To inquire about someone becoming an SARC client, call (318) 256-2025. SARC will make contact with the State to start the process, and then after paperwork and a mental evaluation are completed, a determination is made of whether SARC services would be useful to the applicant.
If determined useful, the potential client is referred back to SARC and an appointment is set to meet the individual and his or her caretaker. A SARC team meeting follows, and if accepted into the program, the client then meets with an SARC-affiliated psychologist and speech therapist to develop a personal program plan for the client.
“Down the road, our hope is that they graduate upward through our services, and then a psychologist makes a new plan for that individual,” SARC Executive Director Wayne Martinez explained. “Once they progress fully, sometimes clients don’t need us anymore, and they go out on their own. We strive for that,” he said.
That will do it for this 21st day of October. Thanks for sharing your ideas and suggestions for future articles. I always love to hear from you. Call (318) 332-8653 or send an email to robertrgentry@gmail.com. To save, send or print today’s column, click on the icon below. To see columns of the recent past, scroll through the pages provided. To see older, archived Observations, visit our Facebook page. As always, thank you for faithfully reading.
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