Q&A with Nick Porto

Age: 75
Native of Donaldsonville

What are your hobbies Mr. Porto?

To keep myself busy when things slow down some are going to the workshop. It is inviting where I make small wooden trinkets and during the winter months I enjoy deer hunting.
 

Name:  Breanna Bernard
Age: 11
Class: Mrs. Lorraine Delatte-Homeroom teacher
School:  Ascension Catholic Elementary School
Grade:  Fifth
Family:  Mark and Cheryl Bernard
Hometown: Donaldsonville
Extracurricular: Member of the fifth and sixth grade quiz bowl team
Interests:  Reading, writing stories, riding my horse, and dancing
 

THE ISSUE
The main issue at hand is that we have a business that is open 24 hours in our
Neighborhood. The fact that the Laundromat is open 24 hours a day unattended allows opportunity for vandals, drug dealers, vagrants and other suspicious characters to have a place to hang out when the rest of the town’s businesses are closed. This facility also brings with it certain individuals who do not seem to care that this Laundromat is surrounded by residential homes and while the individuals are washing clothes the tendency to play excessively loud music, trash our neighborhood with litter and use our properties as port-a-lets is supposed to be tolerated by the home owners. The right to quality of life is for all, not just the business owner who stands to make a small profit from this business.
The problem is occurring at the corner of St. Patrick Street and Iberville Street, which resides in the Donaldsonville Historic District.
 

This is the first year of the Future Leadership Ascension Program.  The program was started by a group of leaders who are currently in the Leadership Ascension Program sponsored by the Ascension Chamber of Commerce.  These leaders who are now the Committee Members for the new program are Julie Bourgeois, Charlie Carmouche, Lynn Chance, April McKey, Jeff Miller, Donna Shaheen, Virginia Snedeker, and Aubert Waguespack. 

Audrey Boudreaux has been a volunteer since she was a child.
She said she could remember doing volunteer work back when she was 12 years old.
“I’ve been doing things like this for a long time,” said the executive director of Volunteer Ascension.
After seven years in the position, Boudreaux announced her decision to retire from the organization.
 

Why he’s in the news
Nate Branch, a native of Smoke Bend, returned home last week to visit area schools to offer words of encouragement to all ages.
Branch visited Donaldsonville Primary, Lowery Elementary and Lowery Intermediate, AmiKids, Donaldsonville High School, and St. Amant High School.
Branch also enjoyed a special luncheon at Cup and Saucer on Railroad Ave. on his first day. He spoke to members of the Donaldsonville Rotary Club, and entertained others who just happen to see him walking around town.
 

Sheriff Jeff Wiley announced that the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Scholarship Program  will award scholarships providing assistance to worthy Louisiana students in furthering their education and training with resources made available through the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Honorary Membership Program.  This annual drive, by mail-out only, gives each participating parish a portion of the proceeds to use in the program of its choice.
Sheriff Wiley will be awarding a $1000 scholarship to the recipient and a $500 scholarship to an alternate for the 2009-2010 school year.
 

The Council on Aging building in Donaldsonville recently reopened its doors in January since the staff and elders were displaced since Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike in Sept. 2008.
“The city council were very instrumental and patient with us during this long awaited process, and we thank them for it,” says Darlene Schexnayder, Executive Director of Council on Aging.
 

The Donaldsonville City Council met in its regular scheduled meeting to discuss a continued discussion from an earlier meeting this month.
Donaldsonville is home to a welcome center that sits on the corner of Railroad Ave. and Mississippi St. It has been closed for several months due to lack of personnel to run the facility, but the city still has a costly tab.

e-Learning, an internet home schooling alternative has opened in Donaldsonville.
The e-Learning foundation focuses on extracurricular activities, financial aid scholarships, and outreach to children with learning differences.
 

Donaldsonville, get ready for a new shopping experience! Stage, one of the nation’s leading family fashion stores, has announced it will open a new location in Donaldsonville this spring.

Three Sisters Mardi Gras Parade rolled in Donaldsonville, Tuesday, Feb. 16.