Reprint from 
Published Saturday, May 13, 2017
The month of April fooled me! If there were 30 days in April, I must have missed most of them. There was no shortage of events last month. Here is the short run down.
I attended three separate town hall meetings on April 3, 4 and 5 regarding the hurricane protection levee. It was a total team effort to get this tax passed and a huge win for the future of St. John Parish.
On April 6, the St. John Parish United Way held its annual golf tournament at Riverlands Golf and Country Club. There was a huge turnout on a beautiful day.
It was a great feeling to see that the St. John Parish United Way is still on the move and doing good things in St. John Parish.
On April 11, Parish President Robottom and the St. John Parish Council recognized the dispatchers of St. John Sheriff’s Office at the monthly parish council meeting. The dispatchers are recognized every year in April for Dispatcher Appreciation Month.
There is no doubt that this job has the least amount of exposure but tremendous responsibility in dealing with calls for service from businesses, citizens, government entities and other agencies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Ours are among the best.
April 27 marked the historical first night of St. John Parish Citizens Academy.
There are 22 attendees. We have covered a lot of topics in a short period of time.
The officers have done a good job with their presentations and the attendees have been on point with their questions.
We still have much more to share with them.
On April 28, ten members of St. John Sheriff’s Office graduated from the Police Academy that is managed and operated by the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
St. Charles Sheriff Greg Champagne and his staff do a fantastic job preparing officers to becoming state certified.
I am proud to say that St. John graduates took home five of the six awards that were presented at graduation. A press release will be prepared next week regarding the graduates and their awards.
And so far the first week of May 2017 did not disappoint. On May 2 and 3 we had the first annual employee benefits fair at St. John Sheriff’s Office.
Almost every officer attended this event, and there were lots of vendors who currently service our staff. The blood pressure screenings were an eye opener for many officers. They got information about filing a will and even cancer insurance policies. I would like to thank all of the staff that organized this event and the vendors who donated gifts as door prizes for this event. So, as you can see, the past several weeks have been very busy for us!
Oh, and two last things! My wife and I celebrated 27 years of marriage on May 5. I would be lost without her. And congrats to my son Jared who officially graduated from LSU on Friday, May 12.
Life is good in St. John Parish!!