Wednesday, July 14, 2021

It is with a great deal of sadness that we learned Monday morning of the death of our longtime friend Gov. Edwin W. Edwards. I had the honor to have had a friendship with him which spanned over 50 years.

We will have special releases of Observations on Thursday and Friday of this week remembering Gov. Edwards, so be sure and watch for those special posts.

Former Gov. Edwards was always faithful to visit Sabine when he was in office. He met many needs here, interacted with many people and was beloved throughout the parish.

It has been nice to see locals sharing their photos and memories of Gov. Edwards over the last couple of days. Here are some area folks who admired the Governor.

We will pay tribute to Gov. Edwards in lagniappe Observations this Thursday and Friday on bdcradio.com. Be sure to watch for it.

Kathryn Woodruff is a well-respected artist who lives in the Toledo Bend area. She operates Toledo Art and Woodworking and, in the fall, will begin teaching art full time for Sabine Parish Schools. They are lucky to have her. Something she shared on Facebook over the recent holiday was directed to our attention. Her July 4 post follows:

“I don’t usually complain on here, but I’ve got to air this out. We drove 30 minutes out of our way to go have dinner at Cypress Bend Resort, BW Premier Collection. We called ahead of time to confirm they were open and not busy. We got there and there were only three tables occupied. We were seated, about to give our order to the waitress and the General Manager comes out and tells us there is a table of nine people on their way and they couldn’t serve us. Literally made us get up from the table and leave. This is unacceptable. I will not be giving them any more of my business or recommending them to anyone I know. I told the man he would regret disrespecting my husband, father and stepmother… so feel free to share.”

And share they did – a whopping 215 shares the last time we checked. Sixty-eight had responded to her post with an emoji. There were also 51 comments, all of whom sided with Ms. Woodruff.

Finally, Cypress Bend Resort commented, saying, “So sorry we did not communicate with you and your family well. You are correct there were three tables in the dining room and two outside having dinner. We also had a waiting list with 29 on it at that time and nine of them had been called and were on their way into the dining room to be seated. I could not seat you in the dining room and have you wait while we served everyone on the wait list in front of you. We are very short staffed as most businesses are in the current times.”

Randy Rolland is the resort’s General Manager.

Woodruff responded, “You should notify the person who answers the phone and especially your sweet hostess when this is the situation. Once we were seated, you as the GM should have done what needed to be done to serve your customers the best you could, then addressed your staff to get them on the same page. Having a family stand up from a table is inexcusable. I accept your apology, but will not be back, nor will my multiple family and friends who spend lots of dollars there.”

We had a gentleman recently tell us that he has worked to bring seminars to Cypress Bend Resort, and attendees have not at all been satisfied, including complaints of guest rooms not being clean and littered with things like beer cans and other trash. Another story is that a group held a meeting there, and the guestrooms were so bad that some left and went to Natchitoches to stay.

And yet another Many business leader recounted a recent family visit to the Cypress Bend Resort restaurant shortly after five in the evening after she and her family had gotten off work. Their small group of only five or six persons arrived to an almost empty restaurant and were asked if they had reservations. They did not but expressed hopes they could be seated since there was hardly anyone there. The host on duty and management would not seat this family because the restaurant had two small group reservations (fewer than 10-12 persons) scheduled to arrive within the following hour. Like Ms. Woodruff, the family was turned away. After experiencing such a lack of hospitality, the family happily went to enjoy their early dinner elsewhere.

We need Cypress Bend operating in Sabine Parish, and we hope the owners will take the necessary steps to see that it is operated properly.

ESPN has released its Recruiting Database for 2023 Top Inside Linebackers and Many’s own Tackett Curtis is at the top of the list. That’s right, Many’s own is the No. 1 Linebacker in the nation. 

Tackett is the son and Mr. and Mrs. Moses Curtis and the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. John Curtis and Mr. and Mrs. Warren Founds. We know they are all very proud.

Patricia “Pepper” Rains recently started a page on Facebook titled Transparency in Sabine. Her goal is to inform the citizens of Sabine – the taxpayers – of what is going on in government, their government. She just started the page recently and it is growing fast.

According to a post last week on her new Facebook page, she is upset because the Sabine Tourist Commission broke the law in overcharging her for copies she requested. She writes, “I obtained those copies at an exorbitant charge. I expected nothing less of this office in [their] effort to suppress me.”

She continued, “Kicking this around in my mind, I contemplated on whether or not to post my recent interaction with the Tourist Commission and decided the public and taxpayers have a right to know. I am sharing the information with the taxpayers in hopes that you will understand my plight to fight for you and all those who have wanted to obtain public records, but failed to receive them or were charged an exorbitant rate like myself. Stand by for more to come.”

Responding to an enthusiastic supporter’s comment on her post, Rains noted she does not have a “gotcha mentality.” She said it is strictly her support of taxpayers’ right to know what governmental entities are doing. Said she, “I am a taxpayer of Sabine Parish. I have a right to these records. You [governmental employees] do not work for the Sabine Parish Tourist Commission. You work for the taxpayers. Suppressing us is not a good idea. Thinking you don’t have to answer to us in not a good idea. Everyone get where I am coming from?”

In a certified letter to Linda Curtis-Sparks dated July 5, Ms. Rains points out that she wrote a letter on June 9 requesting information on five questions. She sent the original letter to Lauren Manasco Moore, Chairman of the Tourist Commission Board, but is not sure Moore was even aware of the letter as Ms. Rains received information in reply from Curtis-Sparks.

Ms. Rains said she was charged $55 for copies that should have cost $4.50 according to the state fee schedule. She was charged $1 per page for each copy, which she points out is three times the rate set forth by the State of Louisiana Uniform Fee Schedule of 25c per copy. In addition, she pointed out she was charged $31 per hour for one hour of Curtis-Sparks’ time and $15 per hour for one hour of staff time.

She writes, “I am wondering how you intend to reimburse the taxpayers since I paid for your time and your staff’s time for that one hour. Did you claim eight hours that day or seven on your timesheet, along with your staff? My hopes are there was no double dipping, so to speak.”

Ms. Rains said she contacted Les Theriot, Assistant Attorney General, Public Records Coordinator, and the Attorney General’s office has strict guidelines against trying to recoup wages for actual time in making copies of public records for taxpayers.

She concludes that Curtis-Sparks violated state law, which she quoted:  “For all public records, except public records of state agencies, it shall be the duty of the custodian of such public records to provide copies to persons so requesting. The custodian may establish and collect reasonable fees for making copies of public records.” Ms. Rains added, “I expect some judicial recourse is necessary as you have violated the law and I do not want this to happen to any other taxpayer that comes into your office asking for public records.”

Ms. Rains closed her letter by writing: “And, let me say, I expected northing less of you and your office. I am a very disappointed taxpayer of Sabine Parish as you have done exactly what I am fighting against, which is suppression. Your effort in trying to prevent me from asking for any additional public records by charging me an exorbitant rate only fueled the fire for me to fight for my rights and the rights of other taxpayers in Sabine Parish.”

RONNY WRITES:  Here are the latest comments from Ronald Byrd, a regular Observations reader from New Boston, VA.  By the way, he is headed south and will be on the popular “Open Line” Radio Program with Tedd Dumas on Thursday, July 22, at 7:30 a.m.

“Robert, Pepper Rains is doing a good thing, but my problem with Facebook prevents me and a lot of others from taking advantage of her work.  I was on Facebook for about a week a few years ago and dropped out from seeing so much garbage and discord.  I don’t need to know when someone is constipated or just feeling blue, and I certainly don’t want to deal with a social network that censors conservative views that they call hate speech.  I noticed that phrase in your article and it pushed a button… hate speech is defined by most liberals as anything that disagrees with their points of view.  That’s another of those Orwellian look-alikes.  That George Orwell book, 1984, was incredibly predictive of what we’re seeing right now.  Rewriting history, thought police, speech police, etc.  It would all be funny if it wasn’t really happening. Your column is such a breath of fresh air… thanks for sharing.  Ronny”

Florien Quick Stop Under New Ownership

The P & K One Stop in Florien is now under new ownership as the R & R One Stop. New owners Kelcy Bret Sandel and Thomas Cole Ryder are excited the start their new adventure and plan on making a lot of great changes in order to better serve the community.

R & R plans to expand inventory and to also add A Gray & A Girl Boutique to the location.

They assure the public that they will continue having top-quality crawfish. “Next season, we will continue serving the same great-tasting crawfish and expand our menu items!” they shared.

The pair look forward to serving the community and providing “a true One Stop,” they said. “We can’t wait to see you there!”

Best wishes to Sandel and Ryder in their new endeavor.

Brandon Brown Arrested 

Wednesday afternoon, July 7, the Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Tactical Narcotics Team, Detectives, Deputies, along with Sheriff Aaron Mitchell executed a search warrant at the home of Brandon Keith Brown, age 32, at 75 Conour Lane in the Lewing Town area of Many.

T.N.T. Agents have been investigating Brown’s illegal narcotic activity for a few months following the receipt of anonymous tips and complaints to the Sheriff’s Office from citizens of Sabine Parish.

Deputies seized suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia from Brown’s residence, as well as his 2001 white Ford F150 4×4.

Brown was arrested and booked into the Sabine Parish Detention Center for three counts – Distribution of schedule II (Meth), Possession of schedule II (Meth), and Possession of drug paraphernalia. No bond has been set at this time.

Sheriff Aaron Mitchell continues his pledge into his second year in office to investigate and arrest illegal drug dealers throughout Sabine Parish.

A special thank you to Detective Wade Seegers for the above information.

I have been a journalist for more than 60 years and have never had a government agency charge me for supplying information. I have had agencies that did not want to give me information but, in the end, they did and never charged. 

I have always found that government agencies that responded within the law and had nothing to hide responded quickly and completely. In fact, at times, some agencies provided additional information that was not even requested.

All persons have a right to be provided information from government agencies. And by law all agencies have the responsibility to provide that information. Charging a big fee is often a deterrent used by an agency to prevent the free flow of information.

District Attorney Don Burkett has been an elected official who has always taken care of business. He has always responded quickly on all items requested and has always been open and above board.

Patricia Rains, mentioned in one of this week’s articles above, said she sent Mr. Burkett a copy of her letter. We will follow up with Mr. Burkett on it and report his comments in next week’s Observations.

It will be interesting to see if the Tourist Commission does the right thing and gives Ms. Rains a refund for being overcharged or whether she will have to take legal action.

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