2001
All articles are from the St. Tammany Parish Library Newspaper Archives, and Illustrations are not available.
CLUBS
NewspaperJuly 5, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 14 | Section: SLIDELL PICAYUNE
Readability: Lexile: 1160, grade level(s): 10 11-12
REPUBLICAN WOMEN
Slidell Republican Women's Club recently recognized Anne Flotte and St. Tammany Clerk of Court Malise Prieto.
Flotte and Prieto were the guest speakers at the meeting, discussing their respective campaigns for office.
Flotte was elected the St. Tammany Parish School Board, serving from 1970-76. Her campaign was a grassroots effort conducted door-to-door and at small community meetings, she said.
Flotte recently was recognized by the Slidell Commission on the Arts for more than 30 years of service to the Slidell arts community and, specifically, for all the work she has done in conjunction with the Slidell Symphony Society.
Prieto has been St. Tammany's Clerk of Court since 1995. Though her initial campaign was a grassroots effort, her re-election campaign was much more intensive, including print and cable advertisement and attendance at many functions throughout the parish. She also did a lot of "door-to-door walking," she said.
Prieto is a member of the Republican Professional Women of St. Tammany, Northlake Rotary Club, St. Tammany Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, St. Tammany Genealogical Society and the Covington Bar Association.
COMMUNITY REPORT
NewspaperSeptember 20, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 16 | Section: SLIDELL PICAYUNE
Readability: Lexile: 1240, grade level(s): 11-12
REPUBLICAN WOMEN
Kelly Ward will be the featured speaker at the upcoming meeting of the SlidellRepublican Women's Club. The meeting will be held Sept. 28 at 10:30 a.m. at Day Jevu Fine Foods and Spirits, 126 Robert St., Slidell.
A broadcast journalist, Ward will speak about her work in Washington, famous people she has interviewed and the work of the Heritage Foundation.
Ward is a producer/director at WYES-TV Channel 12, where she currently is producing a documentary, "Gulf Coast Memories," about the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She also is director of "Informed Sources."
Rally to protest remapping plan - Dont slice Slidell, opponents plead
NewspaperOctober 3, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Author: Paul Bartels St. Tammany bureau | Page: 01 | Section: METRO
567 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1370, grade level(s): >12
Political and personal friends of state Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell, are planning a rally today to protest a legislative reapportionment plan that would strip Schedler’s district of much of the Slidell area.
The protest, being organized primarily by the Slidell Women’s Republican Club, is set for 1:30 p.m. in front of Schedler’s office in the Slidell Factory Outlets mall off Old Spanish Trail and Interstate 12.
"Slidell area residents are opposed to this," club President Laura Leonard said Tuesday.
The rally is part of a broad effort by Slidell area public officials and many of Schedler’s constituents to keep Schedler from losing the southern half of the city and unincorporated areas to the south, including Eden Isles, and the Military Road area to the east.
Under a plan the Legislature is expected to consider in a special session beginning Monday, those areas of Schedler’s 11th District would go into the 1st District of Sen. Lynn Dean, R-Caernarvon, who represents St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.
Both Schedler and Dean strongly oppose the plan, although both realize that Schedler will have to lose some of his overpopulated district and Dean will have to gain some constituents for his underpopulated district.
They are hardly alone in their opposition. Several opponents said the proposal would require crossing both the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain to pull part of southeast St. Tammany Parish into Dean’s district and contended that this defied logic and the principle of community of interest.
Slidell City Council member Pearl Williams is sponsoring a resolution of opposition that’s expected to be seconded by the other eight council members at next Tuesday night’s meeting.
Williams and others say it makes no sense to split a small city such as Slidell virtually in half.
"If someone comes in from south of the lake, we’re going to lose some clout," she said.
Slidell Mayor Sam Caruso and some council members are also contacting municipal and parish officials throughout St. Tammany to enlist their support in the fight against the proposal as it pertains to Schedler.
City Council President Jack Cerny fired off a letter Monday to Sen. Chris Ullo, D-Marrero, chairman of the Senate reapportionment committee, saying he’s "quite disturbed" by the prospect of "the division of the Slidell area."
"While I have the greatest respect for the citizens of St. Bernard Parish, I also feel that one senator cannot adequately represent the constituents of St. Bernard and St. Tammany Parish," Cerny said. "I urge you to rethink the matter and give urgent consideration to keep all of Slidell" in one Senate district.
Rep. Pete Schneider, R-Slidell, agreed and urged "the people of the Slidell area" to contact Ullo, Dean, Schedler and Senate President John Hainkel, R-New Orleans, to voice their opposition.
"I don’t think the people of Slidell and St. Tammany Parish want their legislative strength diluted by having a Senate district represented by a resident of St. Bernard Parish," Schneider said.
"There is little in common between the two parishes. I hope the folks of St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Plaquemines will join together in opposition to this plan."
The legislative committees preparing the redistricting measures will present their plans for discussion at a meeting Thursday at 10 a.m.
The final decision rests with the full Legislature, which also will redraw the districts for Louisiana’s congressional delegation, the Public Service Commission and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
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Reporter Paul Bartels can be reached at pbartels@timespicayune.com or (985) 645-2854.
Plan to redraw 11th District opposed - Schedler faces loss of part of Slidell
NewspaperOctober 4, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Author: Paul Bartels St. Tammany bureau | Page: 01 | Section: METRO
742 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1220, grade level(s): 11-12
About 100 public officials, Republican activists and just plain folks gathered Wednesday in Slidell to protest a state Senate reapportionment plan that would strip much of the Slidell area from the 11th District, now held by Sen. Tom Schedler.
The gathering was organized by the Slidell Republican Women’s Club in front of Schedler’s office in the Slidell Factory Outlets mall.
Schedler, R-Slidell, and other speakers were cheered loudly.
Some participants, such as Christine Kennard of Oak Harbor subdivision south of the city, carried a sign reading "No #1. Yes #11" -- a reference to the 1st District of Sen. Lynn Dean, R-Caernarvon, and Schedler’s 11th District. Kennard said she and others will be gathering names on petitions opposing to the proposal.
Many members of the crowd also were signing a petition circulating Wednesday.
"We’ve e-mailed everybody," said Jeannie Dillon, who taped to the outer glass wall of Schedler’s office a sign demanding "What is the reason for this? Who will benefit by this? Why is this being done?"
Under a proposed plan, Schedler’s 11th District would lose the following areas to Dean’s 1st District: Slidell below Gause Boulevard, the Eden Isles-Oak Harbor area to the south, the Bayou Liberty area to the west and subdivisions up and down Military Road to the east.
The redistricting plan is being reviewed by a Senate committee headed by Sen. Chris Ullo, D-Marrero. The full Legislature will consider reapportionment of the 105 House and 39 Senate districts in a special session that opens Monday at 5 p.m.
Slidell area Chamber of Commerce board chairman Dave Reed and director Brenda Reine are urging their members to voice their opinions by contacting Ullo.
"We’ve got to hit the ground running and let (legislators) know that we don’t want it and St. Bernard doesn’t want it," Schedler said, urging as many people as possible to attend the committee hearings next week.
"We’ve sat in the back seat long enough," he said. "We’ve paid our dues in St. Tammany. . . . Send e-mails, send faxes, do raspberries on the TV. Do whatever you can."
Schedler and others, including St. Bernard Parish Council members Mike Bayham and Junior Rodriguez, said the core issues are fairness, common sense and the will and interests of the people.
Schedler and St. Bernard officials praised each other’s parishes but agreed their respective constituents have different and even conflicting interests, including sport fishers in St. Tammany and commercial fishers in St. Bernard, that would be difficult to reconcile if the current plan is enacted.
Schedler acknowledged his district, which stretches across south St. Tammany and includes parts of the Ponchatoula-Hammond area in Tangipahoa Parish, is the most populous Senate district in the state and will have to lose roughly 40,000 people.
But until recently, he said, he had assumed he would lose Tangipahoa and his district would be collapsed to the east. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be hit by a ballistic missile from the south shore," he said.
St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis said he and other officials met in Baton Rouge last year to review preliminary U.S. census information and, based on those statistics, it seemed likely that the parish would have two House and Senate seats each within the parish.
"I don’t know what’s happened since that time," he said.
Dean’s current district -- St. Bernard, Plaquemines and pieces of the west bank of Jefferson Parish -- is perfect in terms of population and community of interest, Bayham said.
"Yet, we’re being shifted around like the red-headed stepchild," he complained. "This is gerrymandering at its worst."
The St. Bernard Parish Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday that opposes the redistricting proposal and says Plaquemines Parish does, too.
Bayham and Rodriguez said Dean should speak out more forcefully if he, too, opposes the plan. Slidell Councilman Jack Cerny spoke Tuesday afternoon to Dean and "my understanding of the conversation is that Sen. Dean is as much against this as we are."
But Dean took out a paid newspaper statement Wednesday’s in St. Bernard Parish that is mostly neutral on the proposal but leans in favor of it: "Actually, Plaquemines Parish as now proposed will have three senators, which I think is good because they will now have three votes to pass or defeat laws in the Senate."
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Reporter Paul Bartels can be reached at pbartels@timespicayune.com or (985) 645-2854.
5 finalists named for leadership award
NewspaperOctober 18, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 11 | Section: SLIDELL PICAYUNE
587 Words
The Slidell Republican Women’s Club board of directors recently selected five finalists for the group’s 2001 Superior Leadership Award.
Finalists were selected from a pool of names submitted to the board by the general membership. The winner will be announced at the club’s annual Christmas luncheon on Dec. 7.
"We did not want to restrict the award to a woman, a man, a Republican or a Democrat. . . . We want to recognize a leader in our community who has ‘dazzled’ their peers with their energy, integrity, enthusiasm, creativity and effectiveness," said Christine Kennard, community relations and awards co-chairwoman.
"We want to honor those citizens in our community who promote a positive and creative environment in which those around them can thrive," said Slidell City Councilwoman Pearl Williams, awards co-chairwoman.
The five finalists are Joan Archer, Deanna Hamilton-Lamz, Slidell City Councilwoman Marti Livaudais, Sue Rountree and Tim Schneider.
Archer is a curriculum specialist for the St. Tammany Parish School Board. She develops programs for at-risk children and conducts staff development sessions that assist teachers in becoming more effective in their classrooms. Her community work includes longtime involvement with both the Leadership Slidell personal and professional development program and Slidell Little Theatre, for which she has written more than $100,000 worth of grants. She also helped to develop the day-care facility at Aldersgate United Methodist Church known as Angels Day Care Program for people with Alzheimer’s, and serves on the Parish Arts Commission.
Hamilton-Lamz is a lawyer who has a special interest in domestic law and is vice president of Safe Harbor for battered women and their children. She also is president of the Slidell Business and Professional Women’s Organization, adjunct professor at Baton Rouge College for Paralegals, a member of the Slidell RepublicanWomen’s Club and an associate member of several Republican women’s clubs throughout St. Tammany Parish.
Livaudais is vice president of Bank One in Slidell, where she is the business banking relationship manager. She has served on the Slidell City Council since 1994 and the board of the Slidell Chamber of Commerce since 1990. Her community efforts involve East St. Tammany Rainbow Child Care Center, St. Tammany Association for Retarded Citizens advisory board and the governing board of the Slidell Heritage Festival. She also is a charter member of Partners for Stennis and past chairwoman of the United Way Campaign for East St. Tammany. She has worked for economic development in the St. Tammany area, both professionally and in her volunteer efforts.
Rountree is a certified public accountant and is grants manager with the St. Tammany Parish government. Her responsibilities include finding and securing grants from federal and state agencies and other organizations as well as administering the money for the parish. She is a member of the St. Tammany Parish Executive Committee and a member and past treasurer of the Slidell RepublicanWomen’s Club. She also is president of the board of the Northshore Unitarian Church, where she is currently leading the team working on the construction of a new facility for that congregation.
Schneider is the assistant principal of Northshore High School and former director of bands at Northshore High. He is a member of the Louisiana Music Educators Association, is serving as its president and has served as its district director for many years. Schneider also is a member of the Louisiana Bandmasters Association. He is a founding board member of the Musical Arts Association of Slidell and is a member of the Slidell Community Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble, as well as being principal trombonist with the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra.
Caption:
Joan Archer
Deanna Hamilton-Lamz
Marti Livaudais
Sue Rountree
Tim Schneider
COMMUNITY REPORT
Newspaper October 25, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 09 | Section: SLIDELL PICAYUNE
REPUBLICAN WOMEN
The Slidell Republican Women’s Club will hold a coffee Friday at 10:30 a.m. Gail Hursey, charter member of The Guardians of Slidell History, is the guest speaker. Hursey leads tours of Olde Towne Slidell and the Slidell Museum. The tours feature residents who are long-term residents of Slidell telling their stories.
Banner program OK'd by council
NewspaperDecember 2, 2001 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Author: Paul Bartels St. Tammany bureau | Page: 01 | Section: SLIDELL PICAYUNE
382 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1500, grade level(s): >12
With two members fighting the proposal every step of the way, the Slidell City Council approved a special promotional banners program Tuesday night after the pros and cons were debated at great length.
The vote was 6-2, with Councilwomen Marti Livaudais and Pearl Williams the holdouts despite Mayor Sam Caruso's strenuous effort to convince them the program would be good for the city.
The proposal by Community Banner Services of Rochester, N.Y., has been a matter of dispute among council members for four months and, at one point along the way, appeared headed for failure.
The company proposed what essentially is a city-business sponsorship of overhead banners, now prohibited except for a handful of special events, that would promote the city in the upper part of the streamer and an individual business at the bottom.
There would be no cost to the city, but the cost to participating businesses would start at $445 a year per banner.
Although Caruso signed a July 17 letter of agreement with the company for a three-year program, he needed Planning and Zoning Commission consideration and council approval to amend the sign ordinance and approve the final contract to implement the plan.
Several council members had expressed reservations about the program, because the city would receive no financial compensation and because some businesses might feel pressured to lease a banner because of city hall's support of the program.
The commission recommended approval of the ordinance change at its October meeting and tacked on a string of limitations intended to answer some of the reservations about aesthetics. Advertising space is limited to "no more than" the bottom of the banner.
Livaudais said company representatives will be carrying a letter from the mayor when they solicit business participation, something she compared to putting "a gun to the head" of business owners to lease one of the banners.
Although no one showed up to speak for or against the proposal at the October commission meeting, Slidell Republican Women's Club President Laura Leonard and past president Catherine Palmer did so at Tuesday's council meeting. The organization has adopted a resolution opposing the plan.
"We deplore the idea of commercial banners flying on our streets," Leonard said. "This city looks beautiful. We don't want to have that changed."
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Reporter Paul Bartels can be reached at
pbartels@timespicayune.com or at (985) 645-2854.