Category Archives: Ascension

ASCENSION PARISH, La. (KLFY)A two vehicle fatal crash on La. 940 west of La. 44 in Ascension Parish has taken the life of 18 year old Aiden Womack of Gonzales, La.

It happened shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, police say.

An initial investigation by State Police revealed that the crash occurred as Womack was operating his Kawasaki motorcycle eastbound on LA 940.

At the same time, police say, 72 year old Hazel Miles of Gonzales, La was traveling westbound on LA 940 in a Ford F-150.

For unknown reasons, Miles failed to yield and began to make a left turn into the path of Womacks motorcycle.

Police say she was then unable to avoid Milesvehicle and struck the passengers side.

Womack suffered serious injuries as a result of the crash and was transported to University Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead, police say.

Miles was properly restrained and sustained minor injuries in the crash.

Impairment is not suspected to be a factor but a toxicology sample was taken from both drivers for analysis.

The investigation is on-going.

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Teen motorcyclist dies after being struck by vehicle in Ascension ... - KLFY

DONALDSONVILLE The Ascension Parish School Board this week approved the apparent low bid of $3.5 million for the renovation of flood-damaged St. Amant Primary School.

Chad Lynch, director of planning and construction for the school district, said the bid, from McInnis Brothers of Minden, came in well under the $4.1 million his office had projected for the project.

Superintendent David Alexander said the St. Amant Primary project is expected to be completed some time in December.

Work on the four other schools that remain closed due to flooding St. Amant High, Lake Elementary, Galvez Middle and Galvez Primary is in the architectural design phase.

Repair work at another school, St. Amant Middle, which received some flood damage but was able to remain open, is out for bid.

In recent weeks, the student bodies of St. Amant High, Lake Elementary and Galvez Primary have returned to their home campuses, where large, temporary classroom buildings have been installed until the school buildings are repaired.

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Galvez Primary School students and faculty returned to their home campus on March 2, in Prai

St. Amant Primary students, who had been attending classes at two host sites, are now reunited at the former location of the River Parishes Community College on La. 22 in Sorrento.

Alexander said it is highly likely that students at the fifth flood-damaged school, Galvez Middle, will be able to return by Monday to their own campus, where temporary buildings have been set up, but the school district won't have the official word on that until the Fire Marshal's inspection, planned for Friday.

In another matter Tuesday, School Board member Robyn Delaney asked that the board's Students and Safety Committee meet to discuss the incident on March 3, when a herbicide being sprayed on sugar cane fields next to Donaldsonville Primary led to a two-hour shelter-in-place order for the primary school, as well as nearby Ascension Head Start and the School Board's central office.

"That school is surrounded on three sides by cane fields," said Delaney. "I want to know if there's more work we can do to make it safe."

DONALDSONVILLE A farmer spraying sugar cane fields with herbicide on a windy Friday mornin

Delaney asked that officials with the Ascension Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security and the Sheriff's Office be invited to the meeting, as well as the administrators of Donaldsonville Primary.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Ascension Parish School Board awards first bid for flood damage ... - The Advocate

Ascension Lutheran Church will be a partner site for Trinity Institutes 46th National Theological Conference on Water Justice from March 22 through 24 at the church, 1600 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks.

The conference will provide guidance for churches and individuals wishing to take unified, faith-based action on the front lines of the water justice movement that assures everyone has access to safe and clean drinking water, particularly the poor and marginalized.

At the conference, activists, scholars, authors and experts will offer guidance on this issue.

Conference participation is open to anyone interested in a practical, theological perspective on water justice and is ideal for seminarians, students and church leaders.

The live global conference will be held at Trinity Church in New York City and webcast across the world. As a partner site, Ascension will offer all aspects of the conference, including on-site reflection groups to help participants explore the issue and what they can do about it.

The speakers at this years conference are former California Sen. Barbara Boxer; Maude Barlow, a former United Nations senior adviser; Winston Halapuais, the archbishop and primate of the Diocese of Polynesia and Aotearoa New Zealand; Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist; Christiania Peppard, an expert on the ethics of fresh water and problems of climate change, social justice and sustainability; and Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa.

For information about attending the conference at Ascension, email Stacy Smith at ssmith@alcto.org, call (805) 495-0406 or visit http://www.alcto.org.

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Ascension hosts global water justice conference - Thousand Oaks Acorn

Lego Club

Young builders of all skill levels can take the Lego Challenge or build whatever they like when the Lego Club meets at the Dutchtown Branch of Ascension Parish Library at 10 a.m. Friday.

Legos, along with Duplo Blocks and Mega Bloks for younger children, will be provided. Children should leave their own Legos at home.

Call (225) 673-8699 for details.

St. Elizabeth Hospitals annual Girls Day Out event gets underway Saturday morning in Gonzales. The day of learning, laughing and movement activities for women is slated for 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., with sign-in and breakfast at 7:45 a.m.

Cost is $10 and includes continental breakfast, a coffee bar and snacks. Advance registration is required; visit http://bit.ly/2m6H4Ab. Call (225) 621-2906 for details.

The annual Gonzales Memorial VFW Post 3693 beauty pageant scheduled for Saturday has been moved to the Orleans Room on Weber City Road in Gonzales. The pageant begins at 9:30 a.m. and will advance four queens to the state level in the Buddy Poppy, Junior, Teen and Miss categories.

Contestants may enter the pageant at the door the day of the competition. Entry forms are available at facebook.com/VFWpageant. Call Carrie Person at (225) 715-9120 or email vfwpageant@gmail.com for details.

Battleground Louisiana: Civil War Events and Experiences, a six-week series of readings and discussions, begins March 16 at the Gonzales Branch of Ascension Parish Library.

Programs will be held Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. through April 20.

The series is led by Southeastern Louisiana University history instructor Charles Elliott and is offered as part of the Readings in Literature and Culture series sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Those interested in committing to the six-week program must register in advance at the library or by calling (225) 647-3955. All participants will receive a set of program books to check out, which requires a current library card.

The Donaldsonville Branch of Ascension Parish Library will host a talk and book signing with local author T.G. Joffrion at 6:30 p.m. March 23.

Joffrion will discuss his latest novel, Return to Sender, about military man turned law enforcement officer Travis Gaspards quest to crack a triple homicide in South Louisiana.

Joffrion is a former member of the State Police SWAT team and was voted Trooper of the Year in 1991. His writing is infused with his years of experience in the field and his upbringing in Bayou Country.

Registration is required and space is limited; call (225) 473-8052.

East Ascension High Schools Class of 1977 is celebrating its 40th class reunion at 6 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Clarion Conference Center in Gonzales.

All East Ascension High graduating classes are invited to join in the celebration, which includes food, a cash bar, dancing and music by Kenny Fife.

Cost is $50 per person in advance or $55 at the door. Email trudybates@yahoo.com or l.rhett.bourgeois@gmail.com for details. Registration forms will be emailed upon request.

Contact Darlene Denstorff by phone, (225) 336-6952 or (225) 603-1996; fax, (225) 644-5851; or email, ascension@theadvocate.com or ddenstorff@theadvocate.com. Deadline: noon Monday.

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Around Ascension for March 9, 2017 | Ascension | theadvocate.com - The Advocate

One person was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of breaking into a landmark Jerusalem church and trying to set it on fire earlier in the day, police said, noting that the incident did not appear to have been a religiously motivated attack.

A guard at the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension on Jerusalems Mount of Olives reported that the building had been broken into and damaged, apparently by a fire.

Police confirmed that the door to the church entrance had been broken through and that extensive soot suggested attempted arson.

However, police said it appeared to be motivated by a local dispute. They did not elaborate.

The church, whose 64-meter (210-foot) tower helps to define Jerusalems skyline, is dedicated to the ascension of Jesus to heaven 40 days after his resurrection, even though most Christians believe the Chapel of the Ascension, some 200 meters further west, to be the true spot.

The Church of the Ascension on Jerusalems Mount of Olives. (CC BY-SA 2.0 Alistair/Wikimedia)

There have been several attacks on churches in recent years.

The Church of the Dormition on Mount Zion has been attacked on several occasions by vandals.

In June 2015, the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes sustained major damage after an arson attack by Jewish extremists.

The latter in Tabgha on the Sea of Galilee reopened last month.

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Suspect detained for fire at Jerusalem's Ascension Church - The Times of Israel

ST. AMANT Two Ascension schools displaced from the historic August flooding finally movedfrom their temporary sites Monday morning.

Lake Elementary moved from host sites Duplessis Primary, Prarieville Middle and the old RPCC campus to temporary buildings on its home campus. St. Amant Primary movedits PreK through second grades from G.W. Carver Primary to the old RPCC campus so the entireschool is on a single site.

Both schools have been at their respective host sites since the August flood. Teachers movedtheir classroom materials over the weekend in preparationfor the start of school on Monday.

"This is yet another significant step toward our flood recovery, and we are very appreciative of all the hard work of internal and externalpartners that have madethis happen," said Ascension Public Schools Superintendent David Alexander.

St. Amant High School returned to its campus on Feb. 13 and Galvez Primary returned on Mar. 2.

The last flooded school to leave a host site will be Galvez Middle.

For more flood recovery updates, visit http://www.apsb.org.

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One Ascension school returns, another moves to temporary site after flood - WBRZ

Ascension [Free] is one of the best deckbuilding games on the App Store, and a game I've personally played for many, many hours, and now it's getting ready to get another expansion called Gift of the Elements. Even though the announcement is for the physical version of the expansion, all Ascension's expansions end up in the digital version of the game too. Gift of the Elements is a gift of sorts to fans of the game because it brings back the two most-requested game mechanics from earlier expansions. The first one is Events, first introduced all the way back in Storm of Souls. Events have an immediate impact on all players the moment they're revealed in the center row. The new Events will be more impactful than the original ones.

The expansion is also bringing back Transform; events aren't considered to be in the center row this time around, so you'll have to pay the transform cost to acquire them. Gift of the Elements is also adding two new mechanics to the game; Infest allows you to force your opponent to draw useless Monsters instead of their strong cards, and Empower allow you to banish a player card when you acquire it, the first time that the game allows you to banish a played card. Plenty of new ideas in a game that hasn't stopped expanding.

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The Great Card Game 'Ascension' Getting Another Expansion Called 'Gift of the Elements' - Touch Arcade

Kate MacArthur, the executive director of the Zachary Chamber of Commerce, has been named president and chief executive officer of the Ascension Economic Development Corp.

She replaces Mike Eades, who left the AEDC in November after 7 years to take over as director of economic development for Lexington County, South Carolina.

MacArthur has been head of the Zachary chamber for four years. Before that, she spent five years as director of business intelligence for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, recruiting and retaining businesses in the nine-parish metro area. MacArthur also has served as the director of marketing and existing industry for the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. in South Carolina and as a business analyst for the Area Development Partnership in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

MacArthur, who is from the Philadelphia area, earned a bachelors in East Asian studies with a specialty in International Affairs from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and a masters in economic development from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

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MacArthur leaving Zachary Chamber to head Ascension Economic Development Corp. - The Advocate

St. Louis Business Journal

Ascension's Tersigni, others cited in WSJ study on high pay at ... St. Louis Business Journal About 75 percent of the nonprofits that provided million-dollar compensation packages worked in the health care industry. Nonprofit salaries for healthcare executives on the rise | Healthcare ...Healthcare Dive all 3 news articles »

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Ascension's Tersigni, others cited in WSJ study on high pay at ... - St. Louis Business Journal

Brandie Richardson

March kicks off Women's History month, a month long dedication that highlights the importance of women in history and society. In the spirit of this annual celebration, the LSU Women's Center is hosting their fifth annual Esprit de Femme Award Sunrise Celebration.

Established in 2009, the Esprit de Femme Award is an annual acknowledgement of eight women and one man who has made remarkable strides towards the advancement of women in Louisiana.

Each fall the LSU Women's Center calls for nominations for anyone who wants to nominate someone in the community who has made advancements for women in the state. On average, the center receives between 25 and 30 nominations a year.

"We are looking for honorees who are trailblazers and/or who have made strides in advancing the status of women in Louisiana," said LSU Women's Center Director Summer Steib.

This year two extraordinary women from Ascension Parish, Tanya Whitney of Sorrento and Alsie Dunbar of Gonzales, are among those being honored at the celebration later this month.

"Ms. Whitney is an American hero and trailblazer for women in the military," Steib continued. "She is a decorated veteran who dedicated much of her life to serving our country. Even though she has retired, Ms. Whitney continues to support women veterans in Louisiana and across the country through her continued service."

This is the first award of this nature that Whitney has received and she said she is very honored to be recognized for the work she does with the Women Veterans of Louisiana, where she focuses on showcasing the work women have done in the military for our nation.

"This was a surprise, I didn't even know I had been nominated," the Sorrento resident said. "When you look at some of the past nominees and what they've done, I didn't really think I fit in that grain, but someone thought I did."

Whitney served nearly 30 years in the Army, where she retired in 2010 as a Master Sergeant. She is involved in many organizations and holds leadership positions such as in the VFW Post 3693 and the Women Veterans of Louisiana. She presents numerous educational workshops to schools and organizations in the state promoting the service of women in the military and in the aeronautical fields.

"A lot of it is bringing to the public to those who don't have a real grasp of how women serve in the military and how they have served," Whitney said. "To show that they have always been an integral part of the military, just like any other minority they have not got the recognition they should have in the past. We are trying to bring that to the forefront."

Dunbar, who has more than 18 years in the chemistry industry as a scientist and engineer, was nominated for her efforts in exposing young girls to the sciences, technology, engineering and math through her STEM GEMS Mentoring Project, which she feels is the biggest accomplishment she has achieved towards progressing women and young girls in the state.

"Being a female and a minority in undergrad and in the petrol-chem industry, there weren't a lot of my counterparts that looked like me, that's why I formed STEM GEMS," Dunbar said. "I wanted to reach back and tell young girls it's ok to be unapologetic for being brilliant or being strong or being yourself. There are no glass ceilings."

Dunbar has received the Greater Baton Rouge Business Reports Top 40 under 40 award, a proclamation from the City of Gonzales declaring Sept. 8, 2015, as STEM GEMS Day in the city and will receive a Key to the Parish later this month. She also received the Employee Performance Plan from Motiva Enterprises, which is the highest honor an employee can receive because it is merit based and voted on by majority stake holders.

"Ive gotten awards over the years, but this means a lot because it's sending myself a message that I'm doing the right thing and impacting the lives of others, especially women and young girls," she added. "There are some heavy hitters who have this honor. It solidifies that there is nothing wrong with being a women and being a pioneer in an industry or in your community."

"Ms. Dunbar was nominated multiple times this year and the selection committee was impressed by her STEMS GEMS initiative," the Women's Center Director added. "In addition to her work mentoring girls in the STEM fields, Ms. Dunbar is active in many community endeavors that support and advance women."

Others receiving this year's award includes Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, former College of Fellows of the American Theatre Dean Gresdna Doty, the first African American female to graduate from LSU in chemical engineering Del Dugas, Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success Sandra Yancy McGuire, Bengal Belles President Aimee Simon, Founder and President of CPEX Elizabeth "Boo" Thomas and Channel ZerO Group managing partner Calvin Mackie.

The 2017 Espirit de Femme Award reception will be held March 30 at Boudreaux's in Baton Rouge.

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Two Ascension residents honored with prestigious award - Weekly Citizen