With two “big ticket” political races on the bal-lot – for U.S. Senate and for district attorney (DA) for the 22nd Judicial District – lo-cal voter turnout for this Sat-urday’s Dec. 6 run-off elec-tion is expected to be 50-55 percent, St. Tammany Par-ish Registrar of Voters M. Dwayne Wall said. Polls open for the election at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Wall bases his prediction on the large numbers who turned out during the Nov. 22-29 early voting period to cast their ballots in advance of Saturday’s election. A total of 17,238 ear-ly ballots were cast by St. Tammany registered voters, even though the normal sev-en-day early voting period was shortened by two days because of the Thanksgiving holiday and the state’s ob-servance on the Friday fol-lowing of Acadian Day, Wall said. With that kind of inter-est, he expects about the same level of turnout as was seen in the Nov. 4 primary, which overall in St. Tammany was 52.5 percent. There are 163,099 regis-tered voters in St. Tammany. In the U.S. Senate race, veteran Democrat incum-bent Mary Landrieu, of New Orleans, is facing challeng-er U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. Closer to home, it’s the district attorney race that is capturing voter attention, as former federal prosecutor Warren Montgomery vies with Brian Trainor, an attor-ney on leave as chief deputy for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Also on the ballot is the run-off for the District 1 seat on the state Public Ser-vice Commission (PSC) and municipal races in Folsom, Abita Springs and Pearl Riv-er.

Senate Race Landrieu, who has held one of Louisiana’s two U.S. Senate seats for 18 years, got 42.08 percent (619,379 votes) of the statewide vote on Nov. 4, followed closely by Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, with 40.97 percent (603,032). Garnering 13.76 percent of the vote in the primary was Rob Maness, a Tea Party Re-publican from Madisonville, who has endorsed Cassidy over Landrieu. Both Cassidy and Ma-ness attacked Landrieu dur-ing the lead up to the prima-ry election for her support of the policies and programs

of President Barack Obama, and Cassidy continues to make that his focus. Landrieu, who has cam-paigned based on her experi-ence and her ability to help Louisiana as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, is now trailing in most polls, as Louisiana voters seem ready to follow the nationwide trend established on Nov. 4, when the GOP took control of the U. S. Senate. The out-come of that election, which gave the Republicans their largest majority in the Senate since World War II, has neu-tralized much of Landrieu’s campaign rhetoric, since she will lose her powerful chair-manship in January when the new majority takes office.

22nd JDC DA While the Landrieu-Cassidy ads are clogging the airwaves and dominat-

ing robo calls to voters, it is the DA race – to see who will succeed Walter Reed, 22nd JDC district attorney for St. Tammany and Washington parishes since 1984 – that seems to be generating the most discussion among local voters. Reed, who is under in-vestigation for alleged mis-use of campaign and pub-lic funds, opted not to seek a sixth term in office. Train-or, of Lacombe, with 38.19 percent of the primary vote in the two-parish district, and Montgomery, of Mandeville, with 25.32 percent, emerged as the leaders in the initial four-man race to determine Reed’s successor. Alan Black, of Slidell, and Roy Burns, of Covington, were also in the running in the primary. Black finished

Thursday, December 4,

2014

141 YearsNumber 7

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Abita Springs •Barker’s Corner •Bush •Covington •Folsom •Lacombe •Madisonville •Mandeville • Pearl River • Slidell

Cook leads

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The ST. Tammany

FarmerSenate, DA run-offs top Saturday’s ballot

What began more than three decades ago as an idea to bring a first-class children’s museum to St. Tammany Parish is now taking shape as many pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together. While the seed for cre-ation of a museum geared to the children of St. Tammany was first planted in the ear-ly 1980s by members of the Greater Covington Ser-vice League, now the Ju-nior League of Greater Covington (JLGC), it wasn’t until early in 2003 that work began in earnest. It was then that development of a chil-dren’s museum was adopted as a signature project of the JLGC, with St. Tammany Parish government lending its support as a partner in the project later that year. Fast forward 11 years, during which time baby steps were gradually taken to move the project along, and it is now clear that the dream will become a real-ity within the next several years. With incorporation as the Children’s Museum of St. Tammany (CMST) es-tablished in 2011; a place to call home set aside on prop-

erty that is part of the par-ish’s planned Cultural Arts District near the Interstate 12 and Louisiana 21 inter-change; and a contract in place with an exhibit design

firm, the CMST is moving full steam ahead. “We hope to break ground within the next three

Children’s museum moves one step closer as design phase begins

St. Tammany Parish Rec-reation District 10 (RD10) board members said they were surprised to learn from local newspaper articles that the city of Covington was in negoti-ations with a Madisonville-area program to operate the Covington Recreation Com-plex off the U.S. 190 Bypass (Ronald Reagan Highway) and manage the city’s recre-ational programs. Five of RD10’s seven board members asked for “en-lightenment” from District E Covington City Councilman Rick Smith and Councilman At-large Lee Alexius during a special board session on Nov. 25 called to consider the fu-ture of the legislatively-creat-ed recreation district – includ-

ing the possibility of dissolv-ing the board. Covington is the only municipality on the western side of the parish not served by a tax payer-funded recreation district. The effort to establish a Covington-area district be-gan in 1990, when RD10 was authorized by the state legis-lature. It was put on the back burner in 2004 and the previ-ous board was dissolved after three failed attempts to gain voter approval of a property tax for construction and main-tenance of facilities. At the urging of Covington Mayor Mike Coo-per and other city and parish officials, the current RD10 board was established in the spring of 2012 to determine the funding needed to operate and expand the city’s recre-

ation complex, with the aim of serving residents of Covington and the surrounding area and providing programs and fa-cilities currently unavailable through the Covington Recre-ation Department (CRD) and on par with those sponsored by St. Tammany Recreation District 1 (RD1) in Mandeville and St. Tammany Recreation District 14 (RD14), which serves the Madisonville area and operates the Coquille Park and Recreation Complex west of Covington. When Covington-area voters in May again defeated a property tax proposal dedicat-ed to RD10, the board decided to seek input from parish and city officials before making a decision as to its next step.

Local school children offer their ideas on what they want in a museum, during a hands-on planning ses-sion with the Brooklyn-based design firm Argyle De-sign, which has been hired to come up with a concep-tual design for the Children’s Museum of St. Tammany. The museum is slated for property east of the Nord du Lac shopping center at Louisiana 21 and Interstate 12.

The parish’s Home Rule Charter Review Com-mittee voted Monday to recommend five charter changes in a report that will go to the St. Tammany Parish Council and Par-ish President Pat Brister by April 1, 2015. The council will then consider the rec-ommendations and decide whether to put any of them up for a public vote on a fu-ture ballot. The 11-member com-

mittee was appointed in September to review and recommend changes to the parish’s Home Rule charter, which has not been amend-ed since it became effective in 2000. The recommended changes include giving the council the authority to con-sult with administrative of-ficials at the level of direc-tor and above, rather than the current level of super-visor and above; specify-ing that council subpoenas

be enforced by the 22nd Ju-dicial District Court; requir-ing that candidates for the office of parish president reside in the parish for at least five years immediately preceding qualifying for of-fice, rather than the current three years; making emer-gency ordinances effec-tive from one council meet-ing to another, rather than a fixed term of 30 days; and requiring that candidates

Christwood Retirement Center, located on Louisi-ana 21 south of Interstate 12, is refinancing $40 million in bond indebtedness to lower its financing costs and free up capital to build the first phase of a specialized resi-dential facility for Alzheim-er’s, or memory care, pa-tients. The bonds will be issued through the St. Tammany Public Trust Financing Au-thority, a public trust creat-ed under state law in 1979 to approve financing for facili-ties that serve public purpos-

es within the parish. The au-thority held a public meeting at Christwood on Oct. 14 to authorize the refinancing. According to Christ-wood’s Executive Director Rev. Steve Holzhalb, refi-nancing its outstanding bond indebtedness will allow the organization to reduce its borrowing costs by taking advantage of current low in-terest rates. At the same time, the re-financing will free up about $5 million in new capital that will be invested in two new Alzheimer’s “neighbor-

hoods,” containing as many as 28 residential suites. Each neighborhood will be a self-contained environment that is specially adapted to the residential and treatment re-quirements of Alzheimer’s patients, Holzhalb said. Groundbreaking on the new facility, which even-tually could double in size to 56 suites, is expected by next summer. The Alzheim-er’s neighborhoods will add a new dimension to the 125-acre community, which currently offers independent

50-55 percent turnout predicted in St. Tammany

by Susan Sheehan

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Before the feast... Local running enthusiasts and their sup-porters started Thanksgiving Day off right at the Northshore Turkey Trot, a one-mile and 5K run at the Terra Bella subdivision in Covington, where they burned off a few calories before sitting down to their Thanksgiving feasts and supported a good cause. Offering encouragement to the participants were sisters Morgan and Madison Evans, whose homemade signs were a big hit. The local Turkey Trot honors Vince Lombardo, a nonsmoker and 18-year lung cancer survivor who succumbed to the disease in 2004, and proceeds benefit the M.D. Anderson Network. (photos by McKenna Sheehan)

Kids of all ages had the chance to explore their favorite things on wheels at the recent Touch a Truck event, a fundraiser for Northshore Families Helping Families. Jeeps, bucket trucks, emergency vehicles, tractors and more became playground equipment for discovery, like this fire truck that Liam Bearden enjoyed. (photo by Delaney Sheehan)

Touch a truck...

RD10 questions city’s discussion with another recreation district by Polly H. Greene

(continued on 3-A)

Christwood frees up bond moneyto build specialized memory units

(continued on 3-A)

Charter panel endorses 5 changes, others still under discussion by Bill McHugh

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From page one…

At the Nov. 25 special board meeting, RD10 board member Paysee McWilliams said he was dismayed to learn that Cooper – without consulting or informing the board – had been authorized by the Covington City Coun-cil on Nov. 18 to contin-ue negotiations with RD14 to take over operation of the Covington Recreation Com-plex. McWilliams said board members were getting con-fusing signals. In June, Coo-per discouraged them from going forward with another tax proposal for RD10, while District 1 Parish Councilman Marty Dean, who represents the Covington area, encour-aged them to “try again.” After reading in lo-cal newspapers that the city was in discussion with Coquille, “it was like wow. We haven’t been told about this,” McWilliams said. RD10 Chairman Trey Blackall agreed. “This board has worked hard on this issue for the past two years. I have to ask, why?” McWilliams said he asked Cooper why RD10 was left out of the conversa-tion, and was told that, after four failed attempts at pass-ing a millage to support a Covington-area recreation district, the mayor could not support going to the voters again. Covington is a major player in this proposition, McWilliams said. “If we don’t have the city’s support, we have no shot of trying to pass a tax. We’ve sat dormant since the issue failed. Should we fold now or try to meet again with parish officials?” McWilliams also said he questioned if it was legal for RD14, which is supported by property taxes approved by voters living in the RD14 ar-ea, to operate facilities out-side its district. Cooper told him it is legal through a co-operative endeavor agree-ment.

Cooper told the coun-cil on Nov. 18 that he began negotiations with RD14 af-ter the RD10 millage propos-al was defeated last spring and after the city’s director of recreation resigned, leav-ing CRD with a one-person staff. As part of that discus-sion it was also noted that he had recommended inclu-sion of an extra $200,000 in his 2015 budget propos-al to pay for upgrades for the Covington Recreation Com-plex in order to bring the ball fields and other structures up to RD14’s standards. Several council mem-bers complimented Cooper for initiating the negotiations with RD14 as they went on to approve the city’s 2015 budget, which totals $23.5 million. The spending plan al-so includes a $180,000 allo-cation projected to cover a $15,000 per month payment to RD14 for management of the city’s current youth rec-reation programs, includ-ing football, baseball and softball, although that fig-ure was not specifically dis-cussed during an October council work session on the recreation budget or when the budget was approved on Nov. 18. Alexius told The Farm-er after the Nov. 25 RD10 board meeting that the $180,000 projection for pay-ment to RD14 was not a firm figure and could be revised downward during the nego-tiation process. “We’ve got to pay some-one to run (CRD), wheth-er we fill the CRD director’s job or let RD14 run it,” Smith said to the board members. “RD14 will have the ulti-mate say in the decision. We could be in for a surprise, but it seems they can provide us with a better product for less money.” “The horse ran four times, and it never got out of the gate,” Smith said of the failed tax proposals. “Do we

run him again or take him out of the race?” RD10 member Baldwin Brown asked if RD10 could be given the funding allocat-ed in the city’s 2015 budget to run programs at the recre-ation complex. “If we had some funding, we could earn some credibil-ity and go from there,” Bald-win Brown said. “We can’t compete with RD14. Not yet, but if we had some fund-ing to make some advances, we could be a real rec district and show voters that RD10 works.” Board member Chris Brown pointed out that the mayor’s plan does not in-clude children living along Penn Mill Road and north of Covington, including the Lake Ramsey area. It also doesn’t address RD10’s pro-posal to enter into an agree-ment with the Covington Youth Soccer Association, a nonprofit group organized in the early 1980s, to operate their fields and support their effort to provide youth soccer programs in the Covington area. Alexius, who is chair-man of the council’s Finance Committee, told RD10 board members that he, too, had been left out of the negotia-tions with RD14. “I knew nothing about this whole process, except seeing a piece of paper with a breakdown of numbers,” Alexius said, adding that an-other meeting between the city and RD14 will be held sometime this month. “Keep RD10 on track. Do I want RD10 to dissolve? No. This is a good group.” After nearly 90 min-utes of discussion, the board approved a motion request-ing to be part of the discus-sion between Covington and RD14. They agreed to meet on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, to reassess RD10’s future. The meeting will be held at City Council Chambers, 222 Kirkland St., at 6 p.m.

Children’s

The St. Tammany Farmer, Covington, Louisiana, Thursday, December 4, 2014 -3-A

RD 10

years,” Lisa Barnett, pres-ident of the CMST Board of Trustees, said. “It’s been a long process, but we are on target with regard to the timeline for emerging mu-seums from start to finish.” Most recently, CMST contracted Brooklyn-based design firm Argyle Design as exhibit designer for the 20,000-square-foot interac-tive museum. Argyle De-sign representatives pre-sented conceptual designs for the museum to the board in late September, when they also brainstormed with about 60 local children to gain their insights. “They met with five groups (of children) rep-resenting third-sixth grade public, private and paro-chial (schools) and home-schoolers,” Barnett said. “These kids gave clever in-sight and invaluable feed-back as they created their own museum floor plans.” Following the Septem-ber meetings, Argyle re-fined its concepts and then shared those with CMST representatives via a web conference on Nov. 17. In addition, CMST has en-gaged local architecture firm Fauntleroy Latham Weldon Barré to facilitate

the design process. “We expect to have a final concept to unveil to the community in conjunc-tion with ‘Celebration’ in March,” Barnett said, re-ferring to the fundraising gala presented by CMST each year. This year’s event, Celebration: A Trea-sure Odyssey, is planned for Sunday, March 8, 2015, at the Castine Center in Mandeville. Originally slated to be built on land near the Tammany Trace Trailhead at Koop Drive in Mandeville, it was announced in Febru-ary 2013 that the museum will instead be built at a par-ish-planned Cultural Arts District (CAD). The CAD is planned for a tract of land near the northeast quadrant of I-12 and the LA 21 in-terchange, adjacent to the Nord de Lac shopping cen-ter and the Tchefuncte Riv-er. In addition to the CMST, the property is slated to in-clude a performing arts fa-cility, amphitheater, nature trails and other amenities. Argyle estimates a year-long design process, Barnett said, which will be followed by design work on the actual facility. After that, “there will be addi-

tional time allowed for con-tinued fundraising and for the building to go up,” fol-lowed by nine months for the fabrication and installa-tion of the exhibits, Barnett said. While Barnett said it’s too soon to estimate a com-pletion date, she said the CAD is scheduled for land clearance, prep and start of infrastructure in early 2015. The progress on the CAD received a boost in October, when it was an-nounced that the state Bond Commission agreed to a $125 million new project spending list submitted by the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal, which in-cluded a $6 million line item associated with the St. Tammany CAD. “We will move as steadily and quickly as we can to complete this proj-ect,” Barnett said. In addition to Barnett, the CMST Board of Trust-ees includes Al Aparicio, Ann Habisreitinger Bar-ré, Phyllis Distefano, Re-becca Dougherty, Jules Guste, Kristi Hart, Antonio LeMón, Leslie Martin, Van-essa Mayfield, Paul Myers, Ryan Myers, Karen Reisch and Leigh Anne Wall.

third overall, polling 20.03 percent. Burns got a total of 15,612 votes (16.46 percent). The run-off race be-tween the two DA candidates has become testy, with both candidates inundating voters with direct mail claiming the other is not qualified to be the area’s top prosecutor. Trainor, who earlier in his career spent eight years as an assistant DA in Reed’s office, has held the upper hand in fundraising since day one, according to required campaign financing reports filed with the Louisiana Eth-ics Administration. Through the Oct. 5 reporting date, Trainor listed contributions of $328,000, compared to Montgomery with $67,525. Reports filed since then show that Trainor has col-lected just shy of $161,000 in cash, checks and in-kind contributions, bringing his total to just below the half-million dollar mark. Mont-gomery, on the other hand, has added slightly more than $47,500 to his coffers since Oct. 5 and has reported loans to his campaign of $35,000 and $25,000, bringing his to-tal to $175,025. For the candidates’ full campaign financing re-ports, including lists of do-nors, visit www.http://ethics.

la.gov/EthicsView-Reports.aspx?Reports =CampaignFi-nance. Both candidates have garnered a number of en-dorsements. Burns an-nounced just days after the Nov. 4 primary that he was backing Montgomery, while Black eventually endorsed Trainor, after reconsidering an initial indication that he would be willing to endorse Montgomery. Also backing Trainor are state Reps. Greg Cromer and Kevin Pearson, both of Slidell, Sheriff Jack Strain, Coroner Dr. Charles Pres-ton, Slidell Mayor Freddy Drennan and other eastern St. Tammany leaders, includ-ing District 13 Parish Coun-cilman Richard Artigue.

Other races • Voters Saturday willalso be casting ballots in the run-off for the District 1 PSC seat, which pits incumbent Eric Skrmetta against Forest Bradley Wright. Both are Re-publicans. Wright finished first in the three-candidate prima-ry, with 38.46 percent of the vote district-wide, followed closely by Skrmetta with 36.95 percent and Allen Le-one with 24.58 percent. • In the village ofFolsom, voters will de-

cide between Bettye Mizell Boggs and Donald Burris as to who will succeed one-term Mayor Phillip Bickham, who opted not to seek another term in office. Boggs finished first with 47.26 percent of the vote in the primary. Burris got 34.25 percent, and a third candi-date, Fritz Cassidy, received 18.49 percent. •PearlRiverisalsodes-tined for a newcomer in its mayor’s office, with Clay Harper and David McQueen in the run-off. Harper lead in the primary with 37.87 per-cent, followed by McQueen (30.67 percent), current may-or James Lavigne (26.43 per-cent) and Claud Stucke (5.03 percent). Also in a run-off in Pearl River are JJ Jennings and Matthew McQueen for po-lice chief. Three of the five seats on the Pearl River Board of Aldermen were not decid-ed in the primary election, as only two candidates re-ceived the minimum needed for election. Still in the run-ning are David McGregor, Virgil Phillips, Lora Cutrer, Jacob de Bram, Betty Hodge and Terry Crawford. (St. Tammany Farmer reporter John H. Walker con-tributed to this report.)

Christwood

for Parish Council reside in the parish for two years and in their district for one year before running for of-fice, rather than the current requirement of one year of both parish and district res-idency. All but one of the rec-ommendations were ap-proved by unanimous votes after little discussion. The exception was the recom-mendation on how coun-cil subpoenas should be en-forced, which the group de-bated for more than an hour before finally approving it on a split 8 - 3 vote. However, the group was still not satisfied with the part of the charter that defines the scope of the council’s subpoena power and decided to take anoth-er look at that provision at a future meeting. There was also discus-sion of Article 3 of the char-ter, which deals with the Executive Branch, includ-

ing two changes suggest-ed by District 11 Council-man Steve Stefancik. One would ensure that the par-ish president is the highest paid parish official, other than those whose compen-sation is governed by state law, and the other would simplify the process by which the authority of the parish president is hand-ed down through a chain of command when the presi-dent is not available to ful-fill his or her obligations. As time was running short, the group put off further discussion of those propos-als until a future meeting. When the meeting was opened up to public comment, Lacombe resi-dent Kort Hutchison asked whether the group would recommend setting term limits for Parish Council members and allowing the council to appoint its own legal counsel rather than being required to use the

District Attorney’s Office. Committee chair Mi-chele Blanchard replied that while both topics had been discussed and there were no pending motions on either one, the subjects could still be discussed at future meetings. That prompted committee mem-ber Jeannine Meeds to tell the group that her research indicated that term limits were “overwhelmingly fa-vored by the voting elector-ate.” Meeds has tried to get the committee to recom-mend that term limits for Parish Council members be put to a public vote, but has been unsuccessful so far. The committee’s next meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, in the Parish Council Chambers at 21454 Koop Dr. in Mandeville. A com-plete list of the group’s meeting dates can be found at www.bit.ly/1yuvOMZ.

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living, assisted living and skilled nursing care options. If the state bond com-mission approves the bonds as expected, they will go to market by the end of the year, according to Hol-zhalb. The Public Trust Fi-nancing Authority is com-prised of the mayors of

Slidell, Covington and Mandeville, as well as two city council members from Slidell, Mandeville and Covington, Council-man At-large Lee Alexius explained at the Nov. 18 Covington City Council meeting, when he intro-duced a resolution support-ing the authority’s approv-

al. The authority approved the issuance of bonds in 1995 to begin the construc-tion of Christwood, Alexius said. The municipal repre-sentatives, as members of the authority, assume no fi-nancial obligation in con-nection with the issuance of the bonds.

The St. Tammany Hospital Guild (STHG) has awarded five fall scholarships to St. Tammany Parish Hospital (STPH) employees. Scholarship recipients include Staci Jones, RN, 4 South, who is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in nursing from SLU; Jennifer Koch, LPN, 2 North and 2 West, who is pursuing her RN degree from Excelsior College; Lacylynn McGehee, RN, endoscopy, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing at ULL; Ginger Taylor, cancer center medical assistant and phlebotomist, who is working toward her RN degree at Delgado Community College; and Blake Warner, LPN, ICU, who is pursuing his RN degree from Excelsior College. Pictured from left are STHG members Judy LaCour and David Brumfield; scholarship recipients Jones, Taylor, McGehee, Warner and Koch; and STHG members Julie Morse and Ron Rome.