Zachary Post • Tuesday, January 27, 2015 • Vol. 10, No. 4 • Published Weekly • Circulation 16,000 • zacharypost.com © 2015

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See VOTERS’ QUESTIONS on page 4

The Post is the place for Zachary news.

Proud to be Zachary’s only locally owned, managed and staffed newspaper.

Zachary area runners were among the 8500 nationwide athletes to participate in last weekend’s Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge. Dozens of Zachary youth participated in the kids marathon, while dozens more ran the 5k and the “quarter” marathon. The Zachary Post congratulates these runners and would like to especially recognize the local athletes who ran and finished the half (13.1 miles) and full Marathon (26.2): Charles Anderson, Quinten Lynn, Dewey Coulon, Tamara Dayton, Robert Broussard, Jennifer Reitzell, Jenni-fer Havard, Adonica Duggan, Mandy Lea, Dawn Mock, Tommy Williams, Heidi Williams, Michael Thibodeaux, Kristy Barbe, Joel Carter, Daniel Forman, Anthony Skufca, Brad-ley Tate, Patrick Oglesby, Melanie Anderson, Lisa Causey, Mimi Bennett, Adam Lea, Suzanne Vaughan, Ginger Deroche, Marion Claeboe, Hunter Bertrand, Clancy Kadrmas, Matthew Jones, Margaret Graves, Kayla Mehn, Christopher Avants, Brandon Graugnard, Sheila Gross, Jason Moore, Joel Horn, David Gordon, Tiffany Thomas, Melissa Whit-taker, Sheri Wroten, Patrick Holmes, Heidi Holmes, Sheletha Hamilton, Paula Vallotton and Jodi Knight.

Team Zachary Runs Strong at Louisiana Marathon

School Officials Answer Sales Tax Increase Questions at Town HallBy Jen Bayhi Gennaro

Superintendent Scott Devillier hosted a town hall-style meeting on Tuesday, January 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Northwestern Middle School. About 100 were in attendance, including teach-ers and administration, as well as concerned citizens. He and Dr. Mi-chelle Clayton answered questions that had been posted on Facebook, as well as permitted questions to be submitted via text message or bal-lot throughout the over three-hour meeting.

Devillier began by thank-ing members of the School Board and Administration that had spent countless hours putting this presen-tation together. “We do want to an-swer your questions and make sure that you have the information you need, because the vote is March 28.

To make that decision as a citizen of Zachary, you have to be an informed voter.”

The questions, presented via slide show, were grouped into the categories of Resources, Academ-ics and Operations. This slide show is available for download at the School Board’s Facebook page.

The first questions pertained tothe amount of tax and the expected revenue. If the full cent tax is ap-proved, it will generate an approxi-mated $4.5 million in annual reve-nue, three-fourths cent will generate $3.375 million, half-cent will gener-ate $2.25 million, and if the quarter-cent tax is approved, that will gener-ate $1.125 million annually. “If the board decides to collect 1 cent and it’s actually more sales tax than the school system needs to operate its general fund budget, then the board

can vote four times a year to adjust that rate,” Devillier said. A com-ment was later submitted from the audience: “I can’t think of a single government entity ever voluntarily repealing a tax,” it read. “All I can do is to ask you to trust us,” Devil-lier said.

“I will come up with a plan. When we make a budget every year, the budget is of course going to be determined by revenue and expenses. We don’t know exactly what expenses are from year to year depending on mandates and the amount we’ll get from the state per pupil MFP,” Devillier said.

In response to a comment accus-ing the School Board of “presenting a skewed picture of what other dis-tricts pay,” the Superintendent said that ZCSB is currently collecting 2 cents in sales tax—1 cent for Gen-

eral Operations, and 1 cent for Gen-eral Operation/Education Facilities (is not collected on food or drugs). In comparison, West Feliciana col-lects 3 cents, Central collects 2.5, and East Baton Rouge and Baker collect 2 cents as well.

“None of those school districts have the property taxes that folks in Zachary pay for school,” the comment continued. The next slide presented current taxes for both Zachary and East Baton Rouge. Zachary collects a 5 mill constitu-tional property tax, which may be used for General Operations; EBR parish collects 5.25 constitutional tax. Zachary collects a 38.2 mill renewable tax for General Opera-tions; EBR’s renewable tax is also at 38.2 mills. Finally, Zachary col-lects 36 mills for its bond debt ser-

2 Zachary POST Tuesday, January 27, 2015

P.O. Box 1637Zachary, LA 70791

Phone (225) 654-0122Fax (225) 208-1165

Email stories and photos to info@zacharypost.com

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Publisher & EditorDaniel Duggan

Graphic DesignerTina Adams

Account ExecutivesGeorgiana Walls

Ashley EvansJamar Franklin

Contributing WritersJames Ronald SkainsJen Bayhi-Gennaro

Glitter EditorCalla Duggan

Fried Food EditorChandler Duggan

Bike Trick EditorCecelia Duggan

Deleting Files EditorColton Duggan

DRY’S

Join the Zachary Community School District for a Black History Month Celebration featuring music, theater, poetry and dance performed by students and community mem-bers. They will conduct their annual raffle of award-winning literary se-lections for children and adults alike.

The event will take place on Fri-day, February 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Zachary High School Visual and Performing Arts Center.

Zachary Community School to Celebrate

Black History Month

The Allstate Foundation is proud to honor the community service of Agent Jack Burk, because when The Good Hands People give back, our hometowns are better, safer places to live. Community involvement is an extension of what our agents do every day- - protecting people and preparing them for the future. In his honor, the Allstate Agency Hands in the Community awarded the Regional Arts Council of Zachary a $1,000 grant for its operational expenses in 2015. Pictured accepting the check are, from left to right, Board members Gary Chaney, newly elected president Thais Perkins, Allstate Agent Jack Burk, Sylvia Wahoske and April Hawthorne.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Zachary POST 3

Mayor Amrhein Offers 2015 State of the CityJanuary 10th, 2015 celebrated the

fourth anniversary of the City of Zacha-ry’s current administration and the close out of another successful and produc-tive year by City employees. January 13th,2015,anequallysignificantdate,ushered in a second term for the current administration, while reinforcing the continued need for positive change and long lasting improvements.

Zachary’s“unifiedcommunity”ap-proach continues to drive accomplish-ments that all have come to enjoy and expect from local government. That cooperation, along with the willingness and motivation exhibited by Zachary citizens, provides the “impetus” neces-sary in achieving the daily results and improvements witnessed city-wide.

Strong professional support was provided by the City’s five electedCouncilmen who have consistently demonstrated exceptional districtwide leadership. They do so through styles as individual and unique as the con-stituents each represents. Messer’s John Coghlan, Francis Nezianya, Brandon Noel, Dan Wallis and Tommy Womack exemplifiedaworkingspiritconsistentwith the achievement of excellent re-sults. I use this means to also welcome new Council members Ben Cavin and Laura O’Brien and thank outgoing members John Coghlan and Dan Wallis for their years of loyal service.

Zachary’s infrastructure improve-ments have, through prioritization, sub-stantially improved over the past four years. If the City is to realize its ultimate potential, these and future projects must continue in order to support the expo-nential growth of Zachary’s population and its economic well being.

While acknowledged as costly

propositions going forward, the City’s cautious approach to “multiple” infra-structure projects have already paid substantial dividends. Among them: sewer rehabilitation work, drainage im-provements, natural gas line rehabilita-tion with enhanced regulator controls and product shipper changes, improved water quality monitoring with plentiful delivery,inadditiontosignificantroadproject work.

Anticipated delays and inconve-nience along primary roads and new construction project routes, while chal-lenging, gave way to improved thor-oughfares while assuring expedited traffic flow and vastly improved roadconditions. The Rollins Road Project completion was realized in Novem-ber, while the new “Montegudo By-PassRoad”officiallyopenedonJanu-ary 15th, 2015. Both projects serve as “models of excellence” in terms of well engineered endeavors and profession-ally completed improvements.

Zachary’s proposals for improving the City’s business climate faced chal-lenges of its own during the past year, but emerged stronger from the experi-ence. Partnerships between the City, its Economic Development imperative and the Zachary Chamber of Commerce represent the organized effort necessary for advancing future initiatives which willultimatelybenefit all citizens.To-gether, all of these incentives serve to promote Zachary’s “smart growth” model which continues as the guiding principle for the City’s future success.

The City’s residents and businesses continue to enjoy a very low crime rate. ZacharyPolicearefirmlyreinforcedbythe East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office and its sub-station operation,

located northwest of the City. Various other law enforcement agency profes-sionals and their families have also chosen to call Zachary home. Their ad-ditional “presence”, a highly visible and welcome deterrent also serves to help reassure us all.

The Zachary Fire Department con-tinues to provide excellent City-wide coverage, while also facilitating re-sponse to Fire District 1 which encom-passes the large unincorporated areas located north and west of the City. While their personnel numbers have remained virtually unchanged in recent years, ZFD has clearly demonstrated the ability to handle both responsibilities ef-fectively. The Department continues to maintain its Class II Fire Service Rating withintheCity,aratingbeneficialtoallZachary residents and businesses.

As I’ve stated so often before, the

City of Zachary continues to support and endorse “locally based sports pro-grams” for every child wishing to par-ticipate. Significant site improvementshave been completed at the Zachary Youth Park over the past year, with ad-ditional improvement planned for the future. Aside from the immediate bene-fitsrealizedfrommakingtheParkmorestrategicallyable,saferandefficientarethe economic incentives which continue to make it a “viable” income generator.

In concluding, I would invite all citi-zens to become invested in “our” City. If not already, please consider becoming an ardent supporter, advocate and voice for a better, safer, stronger and smarter community going forward.

Together, “we” are Zachary!

David Amrhein, MayorCity of Zachary

4 Zachary POST Tuesday, January 27, 2015

VOTERS’ QUESTIONS continued from page 1

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vice, which is used for the $129 million construction program. “We are not collecting any more money property tax-wise to operate our system. This construction program was approved in 2003 to build new schools. The issue now is that we have to maintain them,” Devillier said. “I think we’re doing a pretty good job with the money. You have a pretty good product. You have a lot of programs that others don’t,” he said. By law, the funds being generated by the construction prop-erty tax millage can only be used to repay the bonds sold. Bond money millage cannot be used for general operations. Devillier added that 19% of the School Board’s budget comes from property tax, and there are no plans for additional property tax. Zachary already has the high-est property tax rate in the State of Louisiana.

“If EBR is proposing new tax increases and we have a 10 percent cap, how does this effect us?” the next question read. There is a 3-cent maximum allowed by the state con-stitution for school boards, and a 2.5-cent maximum for the city as allowed by the constitution. Neither the city nor the school board affects each other’s maximum. Our sales tax breakdown is 4 cents taxed from the state, 2 cents from the ZCSB, 2 cents from the City of Zachary, and 1 cent for the sewer.

“Are you doing anything about the reassessment of homes in Zach-ary?” one question read. There has been talk of properties in Zachary not being reassessed and paying unequally low taxes, whereas folks

who buy new homes are taxed at current rates. “In the summer, we received a lot of feedback about property assessment,” Devillier said. “I get the little card in the mail and pay it. Other than that, I didn’t know a whole lot more about it,” he said. “Mr. Robertson and I went to theAssessor’s office andvisited with him. I did let the As-sessor know there were some con-cerns in Zachary, and he told me he would look into it. That was in early fall. The Assessor has a tough job, and it’s his job, and we’re go-ing to leave that job to him,” Devil-lier said.

The next question was in re-gards to specifics on how the dis-trict collects and receives sales tax. The sales tax is collected and disbursed to the school board from the Finance Department/Reve-nue Division of the City of Baton Rouge and is recorded monthly. The School Board receives three monthly advance payments of $100,000, $66,500 and $38,000.

“Do you have an actual quali-fiedpersontoworkonabudgetforthe school system?” read the next question. It was met with some sur-prised laughs from the audience. “Um, I hope so!” said Devillier. The slidepulledupthequalificationsofBusiness Manager Gordon Robert-son, which include 11 years with the school district, 15 years as a business manager in the Ascension Parish School System, 18 years as a legislative auditor, and experience asabankauditorandfinancespe-cialist in the United States Army. Accountant Misty Cook has a B.S. in Accounting from LSU, and over 17 years’ experience, 11 of them with ZCSD.

Another concern was presented about a “possible mismanagement of funds” and advised that the dis-trict should be audited. Further school-specific expenses and a de-tailed breakdown of expenses and revenue were requested.

“Thedistrictmaintainsallfinan-cial records for auditing purposes, and they are available at the main office,”Devilliersaid.Well-knownaccounting firm Postlethwaite &Netterville audits the Board annu-ally, and the ZCSB has received anunqualifiedauditopinion(high-est ranking) for each of the last 11 years. Furthermore, the budget is available online, and the school and district expenses and revenues are available from the business depart-ment. All Board meetings and fi-nance committee meetings are open to the public.

“What will the 2015-2016 bud-get look like with and without the tax?” the next question asked. With the tax, there will be no reduction in force and no cuts in programs. The board would appropriate ap-proximately $2 million to cover the current general fund deficit.With-out the tax, positions will be elimi-nated through attrition, meaning resignations and retirees will not be replaced. Temporary and part time teaching positions will be elimi-nated. Class sizes will likely go up, and so will teachers’ workloads. “I don’t want to see anybody lose their job,” Devillier said. “That all depends on how much health care and MFP are going to affect us. The state right now is in trouble. When we put gas in our cars for $1.99 a gallon, that means the state is going broke. Where do you think they’re going to cut? K-12 and higher edu-

cation are the only two places they can cut, and that’s what’s scary to us,” he said.

The next question submitted read, “According to the numbers that you published indicating rev-enue and expenditures over the last 7 years, you should have an excess of approximately $4.2 million. So where is this $4.2 million?” Devil-lier said there are transfers in and out of the general fund budget. “If we have funds left over, they go into surplus. The budget for the Child Nutrition Program is a dif-ferent budget. We have transferred money out of the general fund and supplemented Child Nutrition from day one.” Transfers out to Child Nutrition total approximately $3.7 million over the past seven years.

Someone questioned what be-came of the $22 million surplus that was available at the end of 2012-2013, and why the administration believes they should grow the cur-rent estimated surplus of $12 mil-lion.

“As a new school district, there was a goal to have 15% in emer-gency funds. In those early years, we had four schools and they were smaller. We had T buildings every-where, and lots of kids coming in. The money was coming in and that surplus money was put to the side. Webanked$14.6millioninthefirstthree years in surplus. After Hur-ricane Katrina, property tax was increasing up to 15% a year. Dur-ing that time we started big projects knowing that at one point we are going to have to spend some money on these facilities. When you are going to bond out money, you need to have the highest rating you can. So when we had this high surplus

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Zachary POST 5

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of money, we had a high bond rat-ing, which allowed us to bond that money at a very low rate. The rea-son we didn’t pull $5 million out of the general fund earlier and move it over is we didn’t want to make any decisions that would affect our bond rate.”

“The board allocated every year $600,000 for computer replace-ments and updates,” Devillier con-tinued. “The only way we replace computers now is if they are dying. Wetrytofindusedcomputers.Wedid that for three years. Well, here comes the state saying that all tests are going to be on computers and you have to have a 5:1 ratio of com-puters to students, and you have to put them in place because test-ing starts this year. Our computers did not have operating systems fast enough to be able to take these tests. We had to allocate the money to put the computers in the classroom, and that’s why that $1.35 million had to be allocated by the Board, because we had to take that test.”

“What are specific mandates,both state and federal, that have been issued?” the next question read. In addition to the computers, the big one is the employer-mandated re-

tirement, which costs $4 million a year. “In 2003 when we started, we had no retirees. We had zero cost. In 2008 it started to grow once we started having a few people retire, costing $85,695 that year.” It’s now grown to approximately $450,000 for the current year, and that is to pay for retiree’s health insurance, “and it’s only gonna grow,” he said. The Board has decreased the shared amount from 75/25 to 68/32.

National Board Certificationmandated supplements run the dis-trict $5,000 per employee. “Ini-tially, the state was paying for that mandate, then the state said you have to continue to pay the stipend but we don’t have the funds for it, soyouhavetofindaway,”Devil-lier said. The extended sick leave mandate for full time employees—up to 90 days additional sick leave at 65% of pay—is a wild card for the district. “How do you budget for that? You don’t know who’s gonna get sick,” Devillier said.

LEAP test remediation is anoth-er mandate. If students don’t pass the LEAP test—and we don’t have many—the state mandates you have to provide remediation, and the state no longer provides money.

Finally, Compass Stipends are ad-ditional stipends that are given to teachers that receive high ratings.

Next up were questions regard-ing the Minimum Foundation Pro-gram ad grants. “What are declin-ing revenues, and how much are our schools bringing in from grants?” Devillier explained we don’t get many grants, because they are cat-egorized for low-performing dis-tricts and high-poverty ones, and those aren’t us. MFP is the amount the state gives per student, which is $3855. That amount included an annual 2.75% increase prior to 2009 to take care of rising expenses and increasing costs. Since then, there has been an elimination in that in-creased funding, while the state has continued to mandate programs.

“What do teachers make, and why have you continued to give raises?” one question asked. The new teacher starting base salary is $46,722.Afterbenefits,suchasre-tirement, Medicare, insurance, etc., are factored in, that amount totals $72,282. In contrast, the base sal-ary in 2003 was $27,776, which amountedto$41,803withbenefits.“That is one heck of an increase for base salaries!” the comment read.

Along the way, there have been School Board raises, governor’s raises and MFP raises.

Dr. Michelle Clayton took the podium and addressed the question of whether or not all ZHS students will have laptops. She explained that while that was the plan, the budget got tight. They switched it to all 12th graders only will have laptops. “We need kids to have that experience,” she said. “It’s our desire to have our kids be able to compete.” She said Ascension Par-ish and Central are doing a 1:1 ratio in grades 5-12.

Clayton also addressed con-cerns that there are too many an-cillary programs. “When my kids were young, we took them to pri-vate music lessons that we paid for ourselves,” the commenter wrote. “It’s great if a parent can offer those opportunities, but with 48% of our students free or reduced lunch, it’s a stretch for parents. It has always been our goal to provide equity in the educational program,” Dr. Clayton said. “They don’t know if they are musically inclined unless they are exposed, and we want to

6 Zachary POST Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Births • Engagements • Weddings • Awards Obituaries • Anniversaries • ReunionsMilestones

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WHAT A RELIEF!

Kyle and Kiley Lindow of Parma, Ohio (formerly of Zachary) are happy to announce the birth of their beautiful daughter, Shelby Rae Lindow. Shelby was born December 29, 2014 at Fairview Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. She weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce and was 18.25 inches long.

She was welcomed by her grandparents Danny and Patty White of Zachary, Dan and Kathy Lindow of Monroe, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her family is patiently waiting for her to move back to Zachary!

Shelby Rae Lindow

Jeremiah and Summer Russum are proudtoannouncethebirthoftheirfirstchild, Hayes Kennon.

Hayes arrived on December 18, 2014, at Lane Regional Medical Center. He weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 21 inches long.

Proud grandparents are Greg and Mona Laurent, of Central, and Gordon and Diane Chustz, of Ventress. Also the late Ken and Carolyn Russum.

We wish to thank Dr. Nikki Gau-treaux and the staff of Lane Regional Medical Center for their wonderful care and delivery of our baby boy.

Hayes Kennon Russum

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 Zachary POST 7

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TAX DISCUSSION continued from page 5

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provide them with an opportunity so that by the time they are in high school, they can perform in Carn-egie Hall like some of our students have done before.”

The questions turned to Ath-letics budgets, and Devillier said again that all budgets are public re-cords, and the Athletic Director can answer questions about that budget. Each sport has its own operations costs, and Zachary does not give funding for sports outside of the fa-cilitiesandstaffingstipends.

“What is the amount saved on havingaturffootballfieldversusagrassfield?”Devillierbeganhisan-swer by clarifying that it’s not just afootballfield,it’samulti-purposefield,asitisusednearlyeverydayfor other reasons besides football, including P.E., soccer and band. To repair the current fieldwould cost$30,000-$40,000, and will need re-placement in the next two years. At an estimated $325,000-$425,000, a new grass football field would becheaper to install, but would only be used for football games. “You’d have to provide a field for prac-tice,” Devillier explained. The an-nual maintenance cost of the grass field is $80,000, with $45,000 ofthat used for the mower. On the other hand, the cost of a multi-pur-pose synthetic surface is $500,000-$600,000 and over $1,000,000 with track included and comes with an

8-year standard warranty, although the current synthetic field failedin less than seven years.The fieldwould have greater longevity of surface, and be functional for mul-tiple uses. No decision has been made regarding replacement, but if it is to be replaced, Devillier said the money would come from the General Fund that funds teachers’ salaries and day-to-day operations.

One commenter called Devillier hypocritical because he doesn’t live here in Zachary and pay the sales tax. “I’ve been here since the be-ginning, since 2003,” he said. “I’ve been hired to do the one thing I love doing, which is to provide the best education for students, and I’m committed to doing that,” he said, as the audience broke out into ap-plause. “Zachary has been commit-ted to their schools each and every day. We cannot rely on the state or federal government for where this district will go. You, the people of Zachary, started this district. Only Zachary can control its destiny. And you have to trust the people who run your district,” he said emphatically, as the audience applauded again.

If the proposed one-cent sales tax is approved by voters on the March 28 ballot, Zachary will not only have the highest property taxes in Louisiana, but also the highest sales taxes in the country for a mu-nicipality. Currently, Chicago, Ill. and Montgomery, Ala. have the na-tion’s highest sales taxes at 9.75%.

Urgent Blood Drive this Friday at LaneThis Mardi Gras season United

Blood Services wants to laissez les bons temps rouler with you by asking you to donate blood to help save lives! While you enjoy your la galette des rois (King Cake) and catch many doublons, UBS will be working hard to ensure there is blood for you and your community.

Donors this Mardi Gras season will receive a special Mardi Gras long-sleeve shirt and a chance to reign in Mardi Gras at one of New Orleans’ biggest bal de Mardi Gras: Orpheus-capade Ball hosted by the Krewe of Orpheus. Donors who donate Janu-ary 18th through February 1st will be entered to win a New Orleans Mardi Gras Ball package: two night hotel stay at the New Orleans Marriot along with two tickets to attend the Krewe of Orpheus Orpheuscapade Ball featur-ing special guests Dierks Bentley and Casey James. The Krewe de Orpheus ball is on Monday, February 16th from 7 p.m.-3 a.m. (Winner will be drawn on February 2nd.)

Donors have the opportunity to do-nate this Mardi Gras season at:

Lane Regional Medical Center –

Friday, Jan. 30th from 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in the Staff Development Room.

United Blood Services always needs all blood types in order to prevent any blood type shortages from occurring. Donors are asked to inquire with a Unit-ed Blood Services staff member regard-ingqualificationstodonateDoubleRedCells.

To make an appointment to donate, go to www.bloodhero.com. Donors can also visit www.unitedbloodservices.org the day of their donation and click on the “Health History Questionnaire.” This allows donors to complete the interview portion of their donation on-line. Make sure to print your “Fast track donation ticket” and bring it with you on the bus to save time, as well as lives.

Volunteer blood donors must be at least 16 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. Addition-al height/weight requirements apply to donors 22 and younger, and donors who are 16 years of age must have signed permission from a parent or guardian. Donors receive a free cholesterol test. A photo ID is required to donate. For more information, call 877-UBSHERO.