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CPSO tallies 14 recent arrests (published September 1, 2010)
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The Catahoula Parish Sheriff's Office has made fourteen arrests recently. four
on drug charges and ten on other charges.
Arrested on drug charges were:
- Nasif Johnson of Jonesville, charged with possession of crack cocaine and
possession of drug paraphernalia.
- Frank Shavers of Jonesville, charged with possession of crack cocaine.
- Ernest Ray Griffin of Clayton, charged with possession of marijuana with
intent to distribute.
- Kenzeric Derrell Hollins of Vidalia, charged with possession of marijuana with
intent to distribute.
Arrested on various other charges were:
- Randle Barlow of Gilbert, charged with burglary and criminal damage to
property.
- Martha Dunn of Harrisonburg, charged with illegal use of a weapon.
- Marian Terrell of Jonesville, charged with disturbing the peace by fighting.
- Carrie Cain of Sicily Island, charged with resisting an officer.
- Ben Davis of Jonesville, charged with contempt of court on a warrant.
- Charles Johnson, Jr. of Jonesville, charged with a probation violation.
- Kenneth Mason of Jonesville, charged with phone harassment.
- Rickey Hightower of Monroe, charged with DWI III.
- Anthony Wayne McBride of Harrisonburg, charged with disturbing the peace and
resisting an officer.
- Sean Berry of Montgomery, charged with public intimidation of a police officer
and domestic abuse
battery.
4H’ers spend week at camp (published September 1, 2010)
JPD Blotter
Juvenile disturbance - MLK Dr.
Request for assistance - Fourth St.
Theft - Front St.
Unwanted person - Ninth St.
Disturbance - Division St.
Request for assistance - Division St.
Animal complaint - Mound St.
Request for assistance - Front St.
Animal complaint - Willard St.
Welfare check - Jasmine St.
Theft - Division
Suspicious person - Fourth St.
Welfare check - Fourth St.
Medical - Division St.
Prowler - Tal Gibson St.
Request for assistance - First St.
Burglar alarm - Wedon St.
Request for assistance - Fourth St.
Theft - Levee Rd.
Unwanted person - MLK Dr.
Domestic disturbance - Clara St.
Animal complaint - Willard St.
Request for assistance - Cora Dr.
Request for assistance - E.H. Johnson St.
Request for assistance - Odom St.
Suspicious person - Fourth St.
Disturbance - MLK Dr.
Request for assistance - Monrovia St.
Request for assistance - Cora Dr.
Request for assistance - Division St.
Request for assistance - Red Oak St.
Investigation - Thornton Rd.
Request for assistance - Fourth St.
Traffic complaint - Fairbanks Dr.
Missing person - Troy St.
Request for assistance - Elvira St.
Disturbance - First St.
Medical - MLK Dr.
Disturbance - Willow St.
Theft - Azalea St.
Request for assistance - Joseph St.
Unwanted person - Early Dr.
Unwanted person - Third St.
Traffic complaint - Hwy 124 S
Animal complaint - Fourth St.
Medical - Division St.
Medical - Division St.
Request for assistance - Clarence St.
Fifty-five Catahoula Parish 4-H’ers spent the last week of July at 4-H Camp. Campers spent the week participating in hands-on experiences in one of six
exciting educational tracks:
Outdoor Adventures; Hunter’s Safety Certification; Victory Garden; Explore Louisiana: Wildlife, Wetlands
and You; Food and Fitness; Drama: 4-H Theater in the Woods;
and Get Ready, Get SET (Science, Engineering and Technology). The youth were also involved in many fun recreational activities, including
archery, swimming, volleyball, tubing in the creek, line dancing, arts and
crafts, and martial arts.
Catahoula Parish 4-H’ers camped with 4-H members from Lafayette, St. Landry, Pointe Coupee, Vernon
and East Feliciana parishes.
Three Catahoula Parish students were honored for modeling excellent character
while at camp:
William Crooks, Rachel Eichmann, and Shelbie Tiser. Hailee Hodges places 2nd in the camp archery competition and Austin Reeves
placed 5th in the camp rifle competition. Sidney Spinks qualified to compete in
the Camp Grant Walker Talent Show.
4-H Summer Camp is held every year at Camp Grant Walker in Pollock for 4-H’ers who are ages 9-12. For more information on how your child can be a member of 4-H, contact Paige
Terry at the Catahoula LSU AgCenter Office (744-5442), or visit the webpage at
www.lsuagcenter.com/catahoula.
Was this town in Mexico? No! It was in Louisiana! (published Sept. 1, 2010)
The following article is the third in a five-part series by RIchard Thornton
concerning the Troyville Mounds, once located where the Town of Jonesville is
today.
Richard Thornton is an architect and city planner, with a very broad range of
professional experiences. His practice is concentrated in the Southern
Highlands of the United States, but has done some work in other parts of the
nation and in Sweden. He has been the architect for many varied types of
projects such as active/passive solar houses, townhouses, apartments, community
shopping centers, local government buildings, fire stations, police stations,
restaurants, retail shops, medical offices, office buildings, wineries, cheese
creameries, veterinary facilities, horse breeding farms, multi-block downtown
historic preservation projects, Civil War battlefield preservation and urban
plazas. He has been a guest lecturer at several universities and colleges in
the Southeast, and won several historic preservation and urban design awards.
In 2009, he was the architect for the construction of Oklahoma's first
state-funded memorial for the Trail of Tears, at Council Oak Park in Tulsa.
Although as explained later, this may be a town visited by Hernando de Soto in
1543, there is no way of knowing for sure without more archaeological
discoveries at the site. Until then we will just call it Troyville, although
obviously, this was not the name used by its citizens.
Archaeologists currently believe that Troyville was founded around 400 AD. The archaeologists in Louisiana are still not sure if it was a ceremonial center
or a town.
However, the size of the site, the number of public structures and the longevity
of the occupation certain suggest that it was a very important town of regional
importance.
The Native peoples of the Black River and Ouachita Basins may have practiced a
pattern of land use like the Okonee-Creeks of northeastern Georgia and the
western North Carolina mountains.
The elite lived in small fortified towns containing multiple mounds. The yeoman farmers lived in dispersed farmsteads and small hamlets. Unlike many
of the
“Mississippian” provinces, the Okonee did not farm communally. Each household or extended family had its own farm – like the Anglo-Celtic settlers later came into their homeland.
The landscape around Jonesville, LA varies from level to gently rolling. The soil is alluvial; an accumulation from millions of years of sediment being
washed down from the Southern Pl
ains. Almost any location along the rivers would have been conducive to
cultivation with stone and bone hoes.
Therefore, there was no agricultural reason for concentrating population at
Troyville.
Being near or at the confluence of several rivers, the site would have been
ideal for commerce and the administration of a province.
Troyville’s assumed beginning is about a century after the founding of the town at
Marksville, LA.
The oldest layers of the soil under the town site contained some artifacts that
appear to either been exported by the Hopewell Culture of southeastern Ohio, or
imitations of artifacts produced by the Hopewells. Marksville also contained
Hopewell-like artifacts in its oldest strata.
As the two towns matured, the cultures of both became increasingly different than Hopewell ceremonial centers.
The Hopewell people did not live in towns at all. Archaeologists currently believe that most Hopewells lived in transient villages
on terraces over-looking rivers. In fact, the Hopewells may have changed
dwelling locations seasonally, just as the Potawatomi and Chippewa formerly
did.
This brings up one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Louisiana
Woodland-Sedentary period town sites.
Not only were they towns - unlike the ceremonial centers in the Midwest and
Southeast of the era, but they were continuously occupied for many centuries
after the ceremonial centers were abandoned.
Apparently, the Native people of Louisiana found a means to feed themselves that
did not exhaust local ecologies.
Marksville was occupied until the late 1500s when apocalyptic plagues hit the
Southeast.
The official lifespan of Troyville is currently set at 400 AD –1100 AD. However, the upper levels of the mounds were long destroyed when professional
archaeologists first were able to examine them.
The upper levels of such structures would have contained the most recent
artifacts.
Archaeological studies of Troyville are so incomplete, that it really is
impossible to state with confidence the actual dates of occupation.
Troyville could possibly be the same age as Marksville or older.
Louisiana archaeologists currently believe that the Great Mound and central
plaza were begun arou
nd the year 700 AD. An “urban renewal program” was evidently carried out prior to the construction of these major
architectural features.
Many buildings were razed and the form of the town changed from being
semi-circular to rectangular.
Most buildings after 700 AD were rectangular. Almost all of the mounds were
rectangular.
The many changes in Troyville may represent the arrival of a new elite, or
possibly even a ethnic change.
The creation of a large, rectangular plaza surrounded by pyramids certainly is
reminiscent of some of the major cities of the
Central Mexican Highlands, such as the Zapotec capital of Monte Alban. (See the
Examiner series on the Mesoamerican civilizations.)
This town plan concept was not traditional to what is now northern Louisiana. A
typical settlement in Archaic or Woodland times would have been circular or
semi-circular.
In Part Four will examine the site plan and architecture of the Troyville
Archaeological Zone.
CPSO Blotter
Unlock vehicle - Jonesville
Medical - Starter Rd.
Medical - Hwy 8
Break-in - Hwy 15
Phone harassment - Hwy 84
Damage to property - Church Rd.
Family dispute - Powell Rd.
Welfare check - McGuffee Bend Rd.
Missing person - Hwy 126
Alarm activated - Hwy 425
Grass fire - Thomdpson Rd.
Possible stalking - Sicily Island
Trespassing - Powell Rd.
Medical - Brown Rd.
Medical - Bushley St.
Threats - Enterprise
Unknown person in driveway - Hwy 915
Grass fire - Owens Rd.
Disturbance - Hwy 124
Coroner call - LaSalle General
Simple battery - Davis Rd.
Kids on ATVs - Boothe Rd.
Shot dog - Poole Rd.
Dogs at large - Montpelier Rd.
Disturbance - Ponderosa Rd.
Hay on fire - Owens Rd.
Speeding - Elam Rd.
Family dispute - Starter Rd.
Disturbance - Ramsey Rd.
Threat - Lakeview Rd.
Damage to property - Hwy 3037
Child abuse - Hwy 913
Unwanted person - Powell Rd.
Alarm activated - Bill Rd.
Domestic - Brown Rd.
Prowler - Woddmen Rd.
Domestic disturbance - Hwy 1207
Harassing calls - Powell Rd.
Wreck - Rock Rd.
Wreck - Hwy 3101
Damage to property - Rock Rd.
Domestic disturbance - Hwy 15 S
Disturbance - Poole Rd.
FIghting - Earl Rd.
Wreck - Hwy 8
Domestic disturbance - Monroe St.
Alarm activated - 8th St.
Identity theft - McDowell Rd.
Kidnapping (civil) - Troy St.
Theft - Nelsonville Rd.
Medical - Division St.
Disturbance - Deville Dr.
Drug activity - Sandy Lake area
Domestic dispute - Ashley Rd.
Election Day results (published September 1, 2010)
Catahoula Parish voters who turned out to vote last Saturday mirrored the rest
of the state with their selections for congress.
For U.S. Senator in the Democratic Party, Charlie Melancon received 52% (199 votes) of Catahoula votes, while Neeson Chauvin, Jr. received 28% (109
votes), and Cary Deaton received 20% (75 votes). Statewide, Melancon received
71%.
For U.S. Senator in the Libertarian Party, Randall Todd Hayes edged Anthony
Gentile by one vote in Catahoula. Hayes received five votes, while Gentile only
received four. Statewide, Hayes received 62%.
For U.S. Senator in the Republican Party, Catahoula gave 85% (158 votes) to
David Vitter while Chet Traylor received 11% (20 votes), and Nick Accardo
received 4% (7 votes). Statewide, Vitter carried 88%.
For U.S. Representative, 5th Congressional District, Republican Party, Catahoula
voters chose Rodney Alexander with 90% (163 votes) while Todd Slavant received
10% (19 votes). Alexander carried the district as a whole with 89%.
Spinks announces candidacy for School Board (published September 1, 2010)
I, Justin B. Spinks, would like at this time to announce my candidacy for
Catahoula Parish School Board member of Dist. 9.
I would like to tell you a little about my self. I am the fire chief of Parhams
Volunteer Fire Dept. and a Fire Dist. 2 Volunteer Board Member. I am a Monterey
Volunteer Water Board member. I was one of 12 men of Catahoula Parish voted by
friends and family Man of Catahoula in 2007 and put in the Men of Catahoula
Calendar for it. I was on the Jonesville School Leadership Board in 2006
for one year. I am a deacon at the Parhams Baptist Church and song leader. I am
a Master Mason in Harrisonburg lodge 110 and
Sicily Island lodge 312, both in Catahoula Parish. I am a Monroe Barak Shriner
and Barak Shriner Clown, AKA Wrangler, your home-town
rodeo and circus clown. I graduated in 2000 from Block High School in
Jonesville. I have volunteered with Catahoula Parish Homeland Security
for 10 plus years. And I’ am the vice-chairman of the Office of Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Committee. I volunteered with Red Cross for three years from 1993 to 1996. I have worked for Catahoula Corrections for nine years, and I
volunteer for the Catahoula Parish Sheriffs Office as a deputy.
And now I, Justin B. Spinks, at this time, would like nothing more in my life
than to be your new School Board member, to represent Dist. 9 in updating every
way we can, to keep the Larto School open for the next four plus years , and to
help any way I can with the other schools in Catahoula Parish to keep them open
and up to date as well. I will work with
you and for you in everyway I can. We will work though
and solve problems together.
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Also, I would like to make mention, as you may are may not know, I have and have had family employed with the Catahoula Parish School System for years. Some
have even retired form teaching and coaching. My mom, Cindy Spinks, and
my dad, J.H. Spinks, are both bus drivers for Catahoula Parish in the Jonesville
Schools.
If elected, Dist 9 voters and nonvoters, my mission is to make sure we have teachers in our
schools to prepare all students to be responsible citizens and afford them the
opportunity to acquire the skill, knowledge, and abilities necessary to make
informed decisions that lead to meaningful success and productive lives.
With all this said, I Justin B. Spinks, am asking the voters of Dist 9 to please
elect me, Justin B. Spinks, your next Catahoula Parish School Board Member of
Dist 9.