News

During my first six months as Mayor of Mansfield, we hired a full-time Code Enforcement Officer who has been intimately engaged in instituting a comprehensive plan to beautify our city. Pastor Ronnie Morris has worked with several of the council members and community volunteers in their perspective districts in removing trash and debris from ditches and roadways. Community service workers, trustees, youth groups and adult volunteers have all contributed to our clean-up efforts. The city has also purchased another dumpster to facilitate the clean-up efforts, especially with the demolition of dilapidated houses and abandoned, trashed properties. As of today, seventeen dilapidated houses have been removed, several others are in the process of being removed. Twenty-Three properties that had extreme overgrowth have been cleaned. We will purchase one more dumpster in early 2023 to further expand our clean-up campaign in our Mansfield communities.

Sheriff Jayson Richardson would like to announce the retirement of Captain Dean Register from the DeSoto Parish Sheriff ’s Office. Parties have been held, tears have been shed, and Dean and his family are looking forward to a bright future with a little less stress! Goodbye tension, hello Pension!

Dean began his career very early in life. At 15 years old while still in school, it was Mr. M.C. “Buster” Thomas that asked him “What are you currently doing to make your community better?” Dean took those words to heart and joined the Logansport Volunteer Fire Department and EMS, and even worked as a Reserve for the Logansport Police Department all by the time he turned 18 years old. One night while working EMS he received a call that a young man had been shot in a terrible accident, and Dean ended up by the boy’s side as he passed away.

Fighting to keep Louisiana children safe, Attorney General Jeff Landry is calling on Apple and Google to correct their application store age ratings of TikTok – helping parents protect their kids from being force-fed harmful content online.

“Our children are our State’s greatest resources, and I will continue doing everything I can to keep them safe,” said Attorney General Landry. “While our investigation into TikTok continues, the evidence uncovered so far shows that the platform is not safe for minors.”

In a pair of letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Attorney General Landry and 14 of his colleagues outlined the deceptive nature of the current ratings for the social media application. The attorneys general said that – without rating corrections – the states reserve the right to take legal action against the companies for the misrepresenting TikTok, up to and including litigation and civil penalties.

The Joaquin Junior High School One-Act Play “Once Upon a Playground” competed for district honors at Panola College and received first place. Several students also earned individual awards: Best Performer: Lucinda David All-Star Cast: Abi Briggs, Carmella King, Honorable Mention All-Star Cast: Maci Mustard, Addison Raybon Honor Crew: and Savannah Jordan.

Last night, the DeSoto Parish Sheriff ’s Department received a call from a resident who was in fear she had been scammed. DPSO wanted to share the details of that call, and what you should do if you feel you have been victimized.

For the first time ever, the Griffins have made it to the Super Dome. They would face Lutcher who unlike North DeSoto would be trying to win their ninth state championship. It was set to be a great game.

STAY IN THE KNOW! With over 7,000 active users, the DeSoto Sheriff App has been a huge success in getting information out swiftly to our residents! If you don’t have it yet, download the free App in your App Store today! Just search for “DeSoto Parish Sheriff” and be sure to enable Push Notifications to get Severe Weather and Closed Roadway Alerts!

Before the December 10 election, challenger to Alice Hamilton Thomas’s seat, Jim Veuleman, planned to drop out of the DeSoto Parish School Board’s District 5 seat. The timing of the withdrawal was difficult to enforce since the deadline had passed. Even though Veuleman’s name was still listed on the ballot, Ms. Hamilton was the victor with 139 votes (66%) to Veuleman’s 71 votes (34%). The Enterprise apologizes for any confusion that the withdrawal of Veuleman’s candidacy caused, and congratulate Ms. Thomas on her victory.

The week of November 27th through December 3rd was a jam-packed one for the Joaquin Volunteer Fire Department with 7 separate call-outs and the annual JVFD Christmas Banquet. Here’s a summary of the week’s events.

Starting off with Monday morning, there was a call regarding a man suffering from a weak pacemaker on County Road 3620. A few minutes after receiving the page the JVFD was told to cancel their response.

Also coming in on Monday was a call to assist an elderly female who was unable to get out of her bathtub, and was starting to feel numbness in her legs on FM 3082. The EMR team and Allegiance EMS responded to remove the patient from the tub and she was transported by ambulance to a nearby ER to be checked out.

Following a recent meeting with the regional directors of the Governor’s Office of Rural Development, Gov. John Bel Edwards is encouraging rural communities to reach out to the Office for help taking advantage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Justice40 initiative.

“Louisiana’s rural areas are the lifeblood of our state, and I have tasked my administration with doing everything we can to revitalize these communities,” said Gov. Edwards. “More resources are available for rural communities now than ever before and our Office of Rural Development is here to help local communities access those federal dollars.”