RSS Feed

Vanessa Vollmer celebrated her birthday with not only cake, but with an official new title at the Vermilion Parish Clerk of Court’s Office as well.
Vermilion Parish Clerk of Court Diane Meaux Broussard recently named Vollmer the new Chief Deputy Clerk of Court. As it just so happens, the swearing-in ceremony occurred on April 19, Vollmer’s birthday.
“This is something that I will remember forever,” Vollmer said. “It really made it special.”
The Clerk of Court’s Office has been a special place for Vollmer. After all, she has worked in the office for nearly 21 years.
“I have really enjoyed my time here,” Vollmer said.
As for timing, it finally lined up for Broussard to officially appoint someone to the role formerly held by Carlton Campbell, who retired five years ago. Vollmer previously served as Broussard’s administrative assistant.
“Five years ago, Carlton Campbell retired from the Clerk of Court’s office,” Broussard said. “He had been my only Chief Deputy. I took my time to replace him because I knew that person would have big shoes to fill.
“After a long time of observing qualities I was looking for in a Chief Deputy, I appointed Vanessa.”
Vollmer is grateful for the opportunity.
“I am absolutely honored that she would entrust me with this,” Vollmer said.
There is indeed a strong trust between the two.
“Her and I work well together,” Vollmer said.
Broussard shared that sentiment.
“Vanessa and I work very well together,” Broussard said. “She understands my quirkiness.”
While excited, Vollmer said the move did not come without some nervousness. How would others in the office take the news?
“I think they were surprised,” Vollmer said, “but I got a genuine excitement from them. They were happy for me.
“That made me feel really good.”
Vollmer has seen a good amount of changes while with the clerk’s office.
“When I was hired in (July) 2000, I started out working in the Recording Department indexing land records,” Vollmer explained. “At that time, the public was relying heavily on printed copies of the index to do their research, as well as, using microfilm to view documents. In recent years, I’ve become very active in working closely with our software companies to help provide more efficient and convenient ways to do research and view documents. A vast amount of records are now available on computers and can be accessed directly from your home. During the pandemic, we quickly realized how necessary these features would become.”
“As technology continuously evolves, I am dedicated to looking for ways to move the office forward and provide convenient access to the information our office has to offer.”
Vollmer said she is confident the ever-evolving path of the clerk’s office will not be a challenge for the people who work there.
“We have a great staff,” Vollmer said. “The younger group is catching on really fast. We are moving forward and everyone is getting a good grasp of it.”
Vollmer is prepared to do her part.
“This means a lot to me,” Vollmer said. “I am ready for the challenge. I feel like the Clerk of Court’s Office is in by blood now.
“I thank Diane for entrusting me and I thank my coworkers for making this such a good place to work.”

BATON ROUGE — Following months of sustained improvement in COVID hospitalizations and an increase in the supply and availability of vaccines, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that some mitigation measures will be eased and, starting Wednesday, April 28, the statewide mask mandate will be lifted.
Mask policies in Louisiana will be set by local leaders and business owners. Under the Governor’s new public health order, masks will still be required on public transit and in state government buildings, K-12 schools, early childhood education centers, colleges and universities, and healthcare facilities.
More than one in four Louisianans are now fully vaccinated, including two-thirds of those 65 and older. The state of Louisiana joins the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal and medical officials in recommending that people wear masks in public or when they are with unvaccinated people outside of their households.
All Louisianans 16 and older have been eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine for more than a month and Louisiana was one of the first states to broaden vaccine eligibility to the full population. The three safe and effective COVID vaccines are widely available in Louisiana.
“Many Louisianans have been wearing masks for more than a year now and the statewide mask mandate has been in place for nearly 10 months. We know masks work – the science is clear and we’ve seen the positive impact in our own state. It’s intuitive for people to protect themselves with masks in higher risk situations, and this important mitigation measure should continue. But we have many more tools for slowing the spread of COVID than we did even a few months ago, including better treatments and, most importantly, several highly effective and safe vaccines,” Gov. Edwards said. “I want to be clear: this is not the end of wearing masks in public, as COVID-19 and the spread of variants are still a real threat in our communities. Louisianans should respect each other and businesses and places where masks will be required as we move into a new phase of slowing the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. I will continue to wear a mask in government buildings and in public, especially when I do not know if someone around me has been vaccinated, and I encourage everyone to do this as well.”
The order the Governor signed Tuesday also eases restrictions on live music and allows some businesses, like salons, to re-open their waiting areas. Outdoor events will no longer have crowd limitations.
Social distancing and masking are recommended by both the state of Louisiana and the CDC.
Lifting of the mask mandate does not affect the COVID-19 liability protections that were enacted by the Louisiana Legislature which require businesses and schools to follow the recommendations of state and federal health authorities, all of which recommend continued mask wearing.
For theaters, event spaces, festivals and fairs and other outdoor events, there will be no limitations on outdoor capacity. Indoors, a facility may choose to operate at 75 percent capacity while enforcing six feet of social distancing or at 100 percent capacity with masking required and enforced.
For indoor sporting events, capacity is limited to 75 percent of capacity with social distancing, or 100 percent capacity if a mask mandate is enforced at the venue. Capacity will not be limited outdoors.
For live music, new regulations will require 10 feet of space between the stage and the audience and crowds must be seated. Bars will still only be open to those 21 and older.
State agencies may choose to opt-out of the mask mandate for state-owned buildings in writing to the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and also must inform people entering the building that masks are not mandatory. All state agencies in the Governor’s cabinet and under the Governor’s authority will keep their mask mandates.
The Department of Health additionally will issue a state health officer order that will mandate masks in all health care facilities.
Additional details for businesses about COVID-safe operations are posted on OpenSafely.la.gov.

MASKING RECOMMENDATIONS

The Louisiana Department of Health recommends that the public follow the “Two out of Three” rule to keep themselves safe during COVID.
When in doubt about whether to wear a mask at a certain activity where people outside of a person’s everyday household will be present, they can stay safe by:
Making sure everyone around them is vaccinated, or
Maintaining the 2 out of 3 Rule: To lower risk for COVID-19, make sure the activity meets two out of the following three conditions: Outdoors, Distanced and Masked.
Outdoors + Distanced = No Mask Recommended
Outdoors + Not Distanced = Mask Recommended
Indoor + Distanced = Mask Recommended
Residents can call the Bring Back Louisiana COVID-19 vaccine hotline at 1-855-453-0774 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. The hotline can help residents schedule vaccine appointments, find vaccine providers in their area and connect people with medical professionals who can answer vaccine-related questions.

November 12, 1929 ~ April 27, 2021

ABBEVILLE — Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM on Friday, April 30, 2021 at Vincent Funeral Home - Abbeville honoring the life of Raywood Joseph Menard, 91, who died Tuesday, April 27, 2021 at Eastridge Nursing Center. He will be laid to rest at St. Paul Cemetery with Deacon William "Billy" Vincent officiating the services.
He is survived by his wife, Rose Champagne Menard; two sons, Randy Menard and his wife Theresa of Kaplan, and Ricky Menard of Abbeville; seven grandchildren, Nichole Stansbury, Dawn Thibodeaux, Tracy Dore, Randi Menard, Kylie Simon, Vicky Menard, and April Menard; and thirteen great grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Telesmar Menard and the former Velia Marceaux; two grandchildren, Jane Menard and Randy Menard; and sisters, Anite Menard, Eunice Hebert, Viola Bertrand and Amy LeMaire.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at Vincent Funeral Home - Abbeville, 209 S. St. Charles St., on Friday, April 30, 2021 from 9:00 AM until time of services.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Abbeville, (337) 893-4661.

Things went according to plan for the North Vermilion Patriots in the Class 4A baseball playoffs on Monday.
For starters, they won their first round playoff game, beating No. 30 Hunnington 13-0 in five innings.
The No. 3 Patriots will play host the winner of No. 14 Carencro/No. 19 Belle Chassee game. Those two teams played Tuesday night, after the Meridional went to press.
The second round match up is the best two out of three series that will be played this weekend in Kaplan.
North Vermilion head coach Jeremy Trahan was not overlooking its first round game by no means. He is thrilled his team won, plus, Trahan was able to play a majority of his players.
“I hate playing the first round because you never know,” said Trahan. “A couple of years back, we were 27-3 and got beat in the first round. Today, we came out scored early and got a lot of players in. I was able to use it as a bull pen day for pitchers John Touchet and Allen Johnson.”
“We wanted to go into the second round full strength.”
The Patriots used four pitchers. Touchet started and gave up two hits and struck out five in two innings.
With an 11-0 lead, Coach Trahan rested Touchet and put in pitcher Allen Johnson in the top of third inning. All Allen did was strike out all six batters he faced in two innings of work.
Camden Breaux and Braxton Savant pitched the final innings for NV.
The four NV pitchers combined to give up only two hits and struck out 13.
The Patriots scored two runs in the first inning when Tyson LeBlanc hit a 2-RBI home run.
Then in the second frame, they blew it open with nine runs.
NV had three singles, a double and a home run in the big inning.
Dale Martin launched a 3-RBI home run in the inning that made it 9-0.
Top hitters for NV were LeBlanc (2-for-4, 4 RBI), Dylan Naquin (2-for-2 2 RBI), Camden Breaux (1-for-3, 1 RBI,), Martin (1-for-2, 2 RBI), Ethan Frederick (1-for-1, 1 RBI) and Bradley Christ (1-for-1, RBI).