This Saturday, May 2nd, Blackwater United Methodist Church on Blackwater Road will hold a church-wide garage sale. The sale will take place in the gym and will be open from 8 AM to 2 PM. There will be a wide assortment of items to choose from, and all proceeds will go to benefit children’s ministries in the church.

There is not much question that Central Middle must be replaced, and the half cent sales tax in Proposition One in Saturday’s election will solve that problem.  Proposition Three is a tax to build an elementary school, and here is why it needs to be built:

The School System currently rents the former Starkey Academy as well as many temporary buildings located at all of our elementary schools.  That the children are in less than ideal learning conditions in these leased facilities is the first problem.  In addition, the annual rental cost of these buildings and furnishings is projected to be over $800,000 per year by 2011, the year the new elementary school would open.  This annual expense will continue until a new school is built.

This weekend, May 1-3, St. Alphonsus will be having their parish fair on the Church and School grounds. The Festival of Two Rivers will begin Friday night at 5:00 pm with a crawfish boil. Tickets for the crawfish boil are $15 and can be bought in advance at the church office. Each day the fair brings midway rides, game booths, fun and lots of delicious food. Other exciting items are as follows: Friday night from 7:00 pm-10:00 pm Briggs Brown and the Bayou Cajuns will be the entertainment. On Saturday the fun and games begin at 11:00 am. The St. Alphonsus School talent show will take place at 12 noon. From 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm BINGO will be played in the school cafeteria. Then sit back and enjoy the band Onion Loaf from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm. The night ends with Carbon Copy on the stage from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm. The rides, fun, games and food continue on Sunday morning at 11:00 am with a BBQ chicken dinner. Tickets for the dinner can be bought in advance at the church office. The afternoon performances consists of dance presentations by COPA and Legworks by Terri. The afternoon entertainment will be Run Jane Run from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm and BINGO will be in the cafeteria. The festival will close at 5:00 on Sunday evening.

If you would like to purchase ride bracelets for all the great rides please come by the church or school office or at the festival Friday night from 5:00 – 11:00 pm. The Friday night only bracelet is $22 and it allows you to ride any ride from 5pm – 11pm Friday only. The “all you can ride” bracelet is for all weekend (Fri., Sat., and Sun.) and is $50 for grades Pre-K and K and $55 for first grade and up.

Thank you to all the sponsors and donors of the festival including the Central Fire Department, Central City News, Bayou Apparel, East Baton Rouge Parish EMS, EMCO, Empire Scaffolding, First Student, Dennis Stewart Waste Services, Kristenwood, M4 Transportation, Phillips Electric, Parish Home Center, PODS, Redemptorist High School, Ted Hebert LLC, and Templet and Templet Welding.

Please come out and join the fun this weekend at St. Alphonsus. For more information please go to the church website at http://www.st-alphonsus.net or call 261-4650.

For the second time this season, the Central baseball team found themselves splitting one game between two days as their gamer against Denham Springs was postponed after the eighth inning due to darkness. The two teams left the Central baseball field with a tied score of 7-7 after 8 innings of play. The game resumed Wednesday afternoon, at which point Denham edged past Central with one more run to finish the game 8-7. This puts Central’s season record at 20-12-1, 10-4 in district play. Central will play their final regular season game tonight at 5:30 at Catholic High School.

The Central Private Rebels completed a two game sweep of the Centreville Academy Tigers last Thursday night to advance to the second round of the MPSA state playoffs.  The visiting Rebels used a six run sixth inning to catapult to the victory. After scoring single runs in the second and third innings on RBI singles by designated hitter Travis Rose and a blast by Thomas Bourgeois to take a two run lead, the Rebels surrendered a solo shot by Brad Jelks that narrowed the lead to a single run. The huge sixth inning began with a double by catcher Brennan Courville and successive singles by Seth Stevens, Perkins, an error by the Tigers and then three straight hits by Rose, Chase Metz,and Gage Wilkinson.  Jacob Fryoux also drew a walk and scored in the inning. The Tigers threatened again in the sixth.  After a walk and a base hit to start the inning, Jason Young entered  and after giving up a run scoring single he  was able to shut down the Tiger attack and secure the save.  Taylor Ort got the win for CP and struck out six on the evening. The hitting stars for the Rebels included Bourgeois, who was two for three with his league leading eleventh home run.  Perkins had two hits for the game and scored three runs.  Logan Lewis also had two hits and scored two runs.  Rose joined the hit parade with two hits and 2RBI.
The win puts the Rebels into the second round of the playoffs.  They will host the Simpson Academy Cougars at Rebel field on Tuesday night.  The Rebels are in search of their fifth consecutive state championship.

Central voters go to the polls this Saturday to decide whether to support the Central School System with additional sales and property taxes.  How do these proposed taxes compare to the very successful neighboring school systems of Zachary & Livingston Parish?

Livingston has a 2.5% sales tax and an 85.35 Mill property tax.

Zachary has a 2% sales tax and a 79.20 Mill property tax.

Central currently has a 2% sales tax and 43.5 Mills of property tax.

If all three propositions on the ballot this Saturday pass, Central will have a 2.5% sales tax and 67.10 Mills of property tax.  Central would then also have safe, quality school buildings in which to educate the children of this community.  We would also have the lowest taxes of these three school systems and arguably the best schools in the greater Baton Rouge area.

These statistics come directly from the 2007/2008 audited financial statements of these school systems.

Tonight (Wednesday), Wayne Watson will appear in concert at Zoar Baptist Church on Hooper Road. The concert is free and open to the public, so feel free to come enjoy great music and fellowship. For more information, contact the church office at 261-3434.

Magnolia United Methodist Church, located at 16024 Greenwell Springs Rd., is having a church-widegarage sale. The sale will take place Friday, May 1 from 7 am to 2 pm and on Sat, May 2, from 7 am to noon. There will be a large selection of items to choose from. Also that Saturday, they will be holding a bake sale as a second fundraiser. For more information, contact the church office at 261-2789.

Do we need all three propositions on the May 2nd ballot?

Proposition Three builds an elementary school, eliminating the need to lease Starkey Academy and many T-Buildings.