News

It’s that time of year. The deciduous trees are putting on their leaves. The oaks and pines are producing copious amounts of pollen. Live oaks are shedding leaves to put on new growth. Spring-blooming bulbs, trees and shrubs are starting to come life, and a great deal of our fruiting trees and shrubs are flowering.

WEST MONROE, La. – Culinary or kitchen hacks are shortcuts that make meal prep easier. You may have some great tips that you use to save time and make meal prep and clean up faster. With the busy schedules of today’s world, we can all use a little time saving techniques. Incorporating some useful hacks into your meal planning and preparation can help you get healthy meals on the table quicker than you could run down to pick up fast food. That’s a win on many levels. You get healthier meals. You save time and money. You also get an opportunity to share family meals with less stress. The most effective kitchen hack is preparation. If you don’t plan meals; stock your pantry, fridge, and freezer; and thaw foods ahead of time, it will be difficult to quickly prepare meals no matter how many hacks you may know. So, our first hack is a tip for thawing meats safely. If you plan ahead and put meat in the refrigerator to thaw, you never want it to drip or leak onto other foods. Using a thawing basket in your refrigerator can help prevent that and make it easier to keep foods separate. You can use any type of solid basket or tray that will contain spills. I like clear containers so I can easily see what is in the basket. Keep the basket on the lowest shelf of your refrigerator.

The General Trass Symphony of Soul Marching Band is entering a new phase as they are now incorporating elementary students into the program. This evolution occurred after the pandemic when the program came to a standstill for a year.

Early voting for Republican and Democratic presidential primaries for the fall election has concluded in the parish. Renee Jones, registrar of voters, said there were 99 in-person early votes cast and an additional 94 mail-in ballots received by her office.

Last week at the Town of Lake Providence’s finance committee meeting, Mayor Bobby Amacker discussed with committee members the process of getting the town’s one cent sales tax renewal for street improvement on the ballot this fall.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Lake Providence Watershed Council, along with the East Carroll Bass Club, teamed up early this year to create habitats for fish in Lake Providence using recycled Christmas trees. The goal is for the habitats to provide ideal protection for small fish and to attract larger fish such as crappie, bream, and bass.

The East Carroll Parish Hospital has announced that the Family Medical Clinic (FMC) has received their medicaid ID number for their FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) status, and soon the reimbursements, going back to August 2023 when the clinic opened, should start coming in. So far, the FMC is owed $85,000 by the medicaid reimbursement system. The typical reimbursement time period is about two weeks for medicaid to pay if there is a clean claim with no outstanding documentation needed due to the fact that payments are made electronically.

A few local residents noticed water leaking around the newly constructed weir in the Tensas Bayou after Lake Providence received several inches of rain last month. According to police juror Roger Clement, the problem has already been resolved. The weir, which had been built and not updated since the 1970s, is a critical piece of infrastructure that helps control lake levels. The police jury used state funding managed through the La. Department of Transportation and Development to construct the much-needed new weir.

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In last week’s edition, East Carroll Banner published a picture of students of the month at Southside after they chose books from the new book vending machine. We neglected to list the students of the month who were not able to be in the picture.