News

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development advises motorists that beginning on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, LA 513 (Oxford Road) at the Kansas City Southern Railroad crossing in the City of Mansfield, DeSoto Parish will be closed.

This closure is scheduled to take place from 8:00 a.m. on November 16th until 5:00 p.m. on November 17th, and is necessary to allow KCS crews to perform repairs to their crossing.

Alternate Route: Detour signage will be in place.

Permits/Restrictions: Total road closure at the railroad crossing. All traffic will need to detour.

This work will be performed weather permitting.

Safety Reminder:

DOTD appreciates your patience and reminds you to please drive with caution through the construction site and be on the lookout for work crews and their equipment.

Area residents should exercise caution when driving, walking, or biking near an active construction zone.

Additional information:

Mayor John Mayweather and the Mansfield Board of Aldermen have announced that the 2021 Christmas Parade will take place on December 11, at 2:00 p.m. Senator Barry Milligan has been invited to be this year’s Parade Marshal.

The lineup will take place at the old Walmart parking lot on Hwy 84 (South Washington Street) at 11:00 a.m., and all units must be in place by 1:30 a.m. The parade will begin promptly at 2:00 p.m. The route will begin there, proceeding to turn onto Kings Hwy. behind Mansfield High School. It will then cut across to McEnery Street, turn left on Washington Avenue, and turn right on Polk Street, ending at Mansfield City Hall.

The DeSoto Chamber of Commerce honored Daphne’s Tamales with a Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening ceremony on Friday, November5. Local officials, Chamber members, friends and relatives were in attendance to wish owner Daphne Hall well with her new business.

Hall began learning how to make homemade hot tamales in her mid 20’s with a fellow employee that happened to be Mexican while she lived in California. She learned how to make her own version of mesa or dough from corn, which is her secret recipe, and where to purchase corn shucks to wrap the finished tamale in for the best price since they are purchased by the case. She makes several different choices of “heat” as far as pepper with mild, medium, and hot available. If you want extra hot, she will do that for special orders. Speaking of special orders, Hall can make tamales out of your deer or wild game, but her regular types are pork, beef, a combination of pork and beef, and chicken.

On Thursday, October 28, the MHS Homecoming Court was formally presented to the Mansfield Community. The annual event that occurs during Homecoming week allowed the audience to view the lovely ladies who represent their classes on the Homecoming Court.

The MHS student body also selects one of the senior escorts as the MHS Gentleman. The winner of this honor for this year was JaMarcia Roberson. (see page 14 for additional MHS Homecoming photos)

Last week, select members of the Bon Chase Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution and Mansfield High School’s JROTC joined together to pay respect to the veterans that are buried at the Mansfield Cemetery. The two groups worked several hours to first identify all that were veterans and their grave locations, then the disbursement of the small United States flags. MHS JROTC instructors are Chief Paul Spencer and SFC Michael Holmes. Rose Mary Martin is the Regent of the DAR Bon Chase Chapter in this area.

If you were not able or didn’t care to early vote, Louisiana voters statewide will go to the polls on Saturday, November 13, from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. to determine the outcome whether the majority are for or against four proposed constitutional amendments.

Amendment No. 1 on the ballot states, “Do you support an amendment to authorize the legislature to provide for the streamlined electronic filing, electronic remittance, and the collection of sales and used tax Levied within the state by the State and Local Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Commission and to provide for the funding, duties, and responsibilities of the commission? (Adds Article VII Section 3:1)

As we all watched in awe of what artist Matthew Yerby was creating we wondered what the finished product would look like. The finished product of the beautiful B52 drew oohs and ahhhs from us all upon its completion, and continues to presently, The following is a post that Yerby made on his Facebook account:

“I arrived in Mansfield, LA too late to make a stencil. The streetlights were too bright to project a 90 ft. image. After free handing the B-52 bomber with sidewalk chalk, I am beyond humbled at the size of our nation’s air destroyer. It’s never been so clear to me why NO OTHER MILITARY wants to pick a fight with us.

Each of my 16 days on this 30 ft. x 90 ft. mural, I had to make something bigger. All glory be to God because this isn’t me. That’s His work through me. I know this because I’ve never been so terrified to begin a freehand project, but there’s something about Louisiana that reminds me of faith.

On October 26, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced he will lift Louisiana’s statewide mask mandate in all settings except for K-12 schools, after sustained improvement across the state in terms of new cases, test positivity and hospitalizations. The Governor’s updated order allows school districts to opt out of the mask mandate as long as they continue to follow the existing quarantine guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better separate exposed students and faculty members from others and avoid outbreaks on campus.

Northwestern State University celebrated their Homecoming Festivities from October 21 through Saturday, October 23. During that time span, events included several induction programs in addition to the half-time presentation of the Homecoming Honor Court.

One of those events on Saturday included the N-Club Hall of Fame induction for the Class of 2020 in Magale Recital Hall. Regina Roe, daughter of Susan and Reggie Roe, Sr. of Frierson, was among eight other honorees in the 2020 Hall of Fame Induction class. She was presented by Lady Demon Track and Field Coach, Mike Heimerman.

On Monday, October 25, the City of Mansfield voted to conduct a community assessment/feasibility study to determine if the city should build its own municipal fiberbased broadband network.

The five-member council voted unanimously to hire Louisiana Connected (www.Louisiana-connected.com ) to conduct the study. The study, which will be done in partnership with Lit Communities, https://litcommunities.net/ will take between four to six months to complete and will include cost estimate for the system’s buildout as well as the areas in town that have Internet deficit.

Mayor John H. Mayweather, Sr., was in full support of the feasibility study. He said conducting a feasibility study is the first step for a partnership with the private sector to provide high-speed and affordable fiber-based broadband to every household and business in the city.