Daily Archives: March 4, 2017

STILLWATER When Stillwater said arrivederci to downtown restaurant Luna Rossa last year, Ascension Episcopal Church said buon giorno to the businesss wood-fired pizza oven.

The church hopes to set up a food and social ministry by installing the oven at the church office site on Fourth Street in downtown Stillwater.

Reverend Buff Grace said that the church is in the midst of putting a team together to lead the charge to install the oven. There will most likely be a few hurdles to overcome, such as acquiring the proper building permits and making sure the building and oven are in compliance with health codes.

Grace explained that the idea for a pizza oven ministry was inspired by his brother-in-law, Jim Schmitt.

He installed a pizza oven back in the 90s, Grace said. Its been a lot of fun; every time I go over he fires up the pizza oven. He has a flagpole, and whenever the oven is on, he runs a flag up the pole and neighbors know they can bring whatever they want ... Since then weve had a dream of putting a pizza oven in here, and having that space for our congregation and anyone who wants to come in and join us.

It was also through Schmitt that the opportunity presented itself. Schmitt is a collector of antique architecture items, and had arranged to take sconces from the restaurant interior after it closed. He noticed that the pizza oven was still on the site, and learned it might be available.

We talked with the owner and were able to work out a deal, Grace said. It had to be out within a couple of days. We scrambled to get a team to move it out and move it to the church. It was somewhat of a windfall; we didnt have a (project) team together right away, so we wanted to wait until beginning of the new year (to begin planning for the ovens use).

Luckily for Ascension, one of the congregations most recent members is former pastor Bryce Johnson, who spearheaded the installation of a bread oven at United Methodist Church in White Bear Lake.

He has a lot of skills and capacity with this, Grace said. The work that he did was mainly along the lines of bread making. He had done some study in Europe for bread making, so this would be slightly different than what were doing.

Grace said that there has been a large amount of interest from people within the parish.

You say, lets gather a meeting to talk about some of the usual things you would expect in a church, but you say wood-fired oven and people come out of the woodwork, he joked. It stirred up a bunch of interest.

The group discussed the many options for the oven ministry and at this point, plans on an adult fellowship-type of ministry, not that it wouldnt be available for youth and kids, he said. Were seeing that theres a lot of ways to get connected with the church community, and Sunday morning is not necessarily the best avenue for everybody. We think that Christian community is really important, and it doesnt have to be on Sunday morning. This turned out to be a brilliant way to do that.

Grace estimated that the oven might be in use by the end of next summer. He doesnt expect the oven will move far from its current garage location, but hed like to see improvements to the driveway and garage area before everything is complete.

Continued here:

Ascension serves a slice of faith - Forest Lake Lowdown

DONALDSONVILLE In the days leading up to President Donald Trump's first address to Congress, a large contingent from Ascension Parish government that included Parish President Kenny Matassa, seven of 11 Parish Council members and handful of staffers came to Washington hat in hand.

Specifically, they are seeking a slice of the $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that Trump said he'll be asking Congress to supply.

Council Chairman Bill Dawson said Thursday that parish officials believe Ascension's important role in the nation's energy sector should give it a priority for some of those dollars and made that case to new U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R- La., and others in Congress.

"If the Trump administration has an infrastructure bill, we think we should get some priorities because we're carrying the load for the energy in the United States," Dawson said during a council meeting in Donaldsonville. "We have a large section of industrial development here. We don't have the roads, the exit roads. We don't have the supply roads that we need to supply those industries."

Trump hasn't yet offered a lot details about where the $1 trillion will come from or how much will go toward traditional public works projects.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Republican Pennsylvania Congressman Bill Shuster said billions of that investment could come in the form of planned private sector investment, like pipelines, that is being held up by federal agencies.

Shuster chairs the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In late January, Congressional Democrats proposed their own $1 trillion, 10-year infrastructure plan with a focus on major public infrastructure projects but left unclear how it would be paid for as well.

Ascension Council Chairman Dawsonmade the announcement as he and other parish officials recapped the large parish delegation's visit to Washington, D.C., over the Mardi Gras weekend and through the middle of the week. They made the stops on Capitol Hill after a weekend National Association of Counties conference in Washington.

He said the visit with Kennedy was among several with federal agencies that affect the parish and other members of the parish's congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and aides to U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans.

The group also met with U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, who was sworn in to his first term in January.

Matassa said he was able to deliver a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was signed by him and the presidents of four other parishes in the region. In the letter, they indicate their support for construction of the Comite River Diversion Canal, extension of the proposed West Shore hurricane protection levee so it protects St. James and Ascension parishes, and the dredging of Bayou Manchac.

Matassa also pressed for Ascension to get a greater share of federal disaster recovery dollars for the March and August 2016 floods in the next round of funding that state officials are pursuing.

"We would like to see some of those funds come directly to the parish, so we can get going and do what we need to do," Matassa said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards has asked for nearly $4 billion to recover from the floods, but Congress has approved about $1.7 billion. In the first batch of funding, nearly $438 million, Ascension has been projected to receive just a small fraction due to restrictions on the money.

Parish officials also used the D.C. visit to air a few grievances, from the slow pace of permitting by the Corps on major drainage projects to how ozone attainment is enforced in the parish.

Dawson also noted that parish officials aired their complaints with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over their response to the August flood and, in particular, the speed with which residents are receiving their insurance payouts under the National Flood Insurance Program.

"People pay their premiums on time. People pay their taxes on time, but they didn't receive their payments on time," Dawson said.

Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave.

More:

Ascension officials visit Washington DC, want piece of Trump infrastructure pie - The Advocate

Last season, the Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Knights finished runner-up in the Virginia Colonial Conference (VCC) and qualified for the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) state tournament for the 12th time in the last 16 seasons as the number seven seed.

The season before that, the Knights finished fourth in the VCC.

Every year, weve improved, Blessed Sacrament Huguenot baseball coach James Poore said. Now, its just a matter of putting it all together. Weve got a lot of guys coming back. Weve got some good baseball players.

Coming into the 2017 season, the Knights lost just two seniors from last years team. Tanner Dobrucky, a second team All-VCC selection also departed for Douglas Freeman.

Among the returning players are Carter Davis, who was a first team All-VISAA selection last season, as well as Coleman Smith and James Heldmann, just to name a few.

James Heldmann had a fantastic year pitching, Poore said. He threw a ton of strikes and didnt walk a lot of people. He pitched really good baseball. Hitting wise, you had Coleman do extremely well. Behind the plate, Carter did extremely well. We hit the ball really well.

As a team, Poore said that they hit at over a .300 average last season.

But, he does want to work on the defense side of the ball.

I think we struggled a bit defensively, he said. Were going to work on that a lot, thats something I really want to focus on.

As far as new faces go, Chris Gupton is one player that Poore feels can make an impact this season for the Knights.

He played basketball and football for us, Poore said. (Gupton) played at Hermitage last year. He played the outfield for them. I havent seen him play much, but watching him play other sports, hes a really good athlete and a really good teammate. I think hell be a perfect fit for the team.

Just like last year, the Knights will face some of the best teams in the area when it comes to private school baseball.

Collegiate, the defending Division-I state champions, Steward School and Trinity Episcopal are just some of the teams that Blessed Sacrament Huguenot will face this year.

Were going to play some good people, Poore said. The reason we do that is because I believe that I have some good kids, some good ballplayers. I think it pays dividends at the end of the year when youre facing tougher teams like that.

As far as what Poore would like to see from his team throughout the season, his mantra is simple.

Ive already told the guys this, but theyre goal should be to win every pitch, to win every inning and do that for seven innings, he said. Everything else will take care of itself.

The Knights begin the year on Mar. 15 against Walsingham Academy at 4:30 p.m.

Link:

Blessed Sacrament Huguenot baseball looking to continue VCC ascension - Richmond.com

ST. AMANT Two Ascension schools will move from their host sites since the August flood to temporary facilities on Mar. 6.

Lake Elementary will move from host sites Duplessis Primary, Prarieville Middle and the old RPCC campus to temporary buildings on its home campus. St. Amant Primary will move its PreK through second grades from G.W. Carver Primary to the old RPCC campus so the entireschool is on a single site.

Both schools have been at their respective host sites since the August flood. Teachers will move their classroom materials over the weekend in preparationfor the start of school on Monday. According to Ascension Public Schools, parents will receive information about schedules, bus and car drop-off/pick-up and classroom locations.

"This is yet another significant step toward our flood recovery, and we are very appreciative of all the hard work of internal and externalpartners that have madethis happen," said Ascension Public Schools Superintendent David Alexander.

St. Amant High School returned to its campus on Feb. 13 and Galvez Primary returned on Mar. 2 After Lake Elementary and St. Amant Primary's move, the last flooded school to leave a host site will be Galvez Middle.

For more flood recovery updates, visit http://www.apsb.org.

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Two Ascension schools to move from host locations following flood - WBRZ