A plan to install 14 district councilmen under a proposed new St. Tammany Parish charter was defeated Monday, but the top parish executive would make about $70,000 annually.
The move to install 14 councilmen was defeated by a 7-4 vote of the St. Tammany Parish Charter Commission. The commission last week opted to go with 14 councilmen for the first three years of the charter, but would reduce that number after the 2000 census figures were made available.
In order to arrive at the proper salary for a parish president, the commission chose to go with the average salary of the clerk of court, sheriff and assessor.
Clerk of Court Malise Prieto and Assessor Patricia Core both make $60,000 annually. Sheriff Jack Strain makes $75,000. The average now is $65,000 a year. The salary of those office holders is reviewed by the state in January of each year. As the salary of those offices are increased, so will that of the parish president.
The commission initially wanted to average in the district attorney's salary, but decided against that because he serves two parishes. District attorneys statewide make $98,000 annually.
Gov. Edwin Edwards has appointed state Sen. B.B. "Sixty" Rayburn and Rep. William "Bill" Strain of St. Tammany to the prestigious Louisiana Budget Committee.
Sen. Rayburn, a longtime veteran of the financial wars, will be chairman of this committee, as he has been in the past, with Rep. Strain named to the committee for his first time by the governor.
Rep. Strain will represent the First Congressional District, which includes for the first time St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Plaquemine and parts of Orleans Parish. Chairman Rayburn will represent the Sixth Congressional District which includes Washington, Tangipahoa, St. Helena and portions of East and West Baton Rouge parishes.
Both Rayburn and Strain will be in Baton Rouge this Thursday for the first meeting of the state budget committee.
Plans are being made for Slidell's first "Pet Show" to be held on Oct. 1 at the Slidell High School football stadium at 7:30 p.m. This show is sponsored by the W.S.C.S. of the Slidell Methodist Church and is open to all. Pets will not be judged by breeds or pedigrees but by classes, such as most beautiful, best trained, best groomed, smallest, largest, oldest and most unusual. Rules for entries will be announced later.
Secretary Minckler of the Parish Fair Association says that the amusement features of the fair will be unusually good. Contracts have been made for those features that appeal to the average person in helping to make a day spent at the fair enjoyable. Among them are a balloon ascent and a parachute descent. There will be acrobatic feats, motor domes, bronco riding of the thoroughbred cowboy kind, automobile races by local drivers, etc.
Saturday, there will be an "Old Fiddlers" contest. Some first-class fiddlers have entered, but the contest is still open to anyone who wishes to enter. There will be an old ladies' cotton spinning and carding exhibition, too.
It has been arranged for a demonstration of tractors and there will be an automobile show worth seeing.
A prize is offered by Mr. Minckler for the person exhibiting the most useful homemade implement for farm or household. The prize is a 20-rod roll of 32-inch galvanized wire.
It is now unlawful to discharge firearms within Covington town limits. Read the ordinance in the Council proceedings and take warning. The law will be strictly enforced.
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