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RAYNE - During the May meeting of Arceneaux Post 77, American Legion, held Tuesday evening at the local Legion Home, Commander David Guidry reminded members of a number of upcoming special events.
Post 77 will host the 2017 annual Memorial Day program on Sunday, May 28, at 10:30 a.m. Special guests will include family members of veterans who have passed away during the past year, in addition to Gold Star family members. A guest speaker is also included on the morning’s agenda as announced by Chairman Ray Olinger. The general public is urged to attend.
The 2017 spring fundraiser, a pork jambalaya dinner, will be held Sunday, May 21, with ticket sales in full swing at the Legion Home or with local Legionnaires. The delicious jambalaya dinners will be served behind the Legion Home (Locust Street) between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $8 each. Proceeds will benefit the many programs Post 77 provides for the community and schools.
During Tuesday’s meeting, it was voted upon to re-elect the sitting slate of officers to another term. The new slate of officers will be installed during the July meeting scheduled on July 11 due to the July 4th holiday.
Also to be include during the evening will be the installation of the new Auxiliary officers of Unit 77 and officers for the newly re-organized Sons of the Legion. The joint event will be hosted by the Auxiliares with start time slated for 7 p.m. at the local Legion Home.
Also to be included during the Installation Banquet is the awarding of the Law Enforcement Officer and four 50-year membership awards.
Robert Comeaux gave the memorial report which included the death of long-time legionnaire Gil Cormier on May 1, 2017. He requested all legionnaires to attend the special services to be held at Gossen Funeral Home.
Sick call was also given including Andrus Fontenot, Lloyd Jeffers and Robley Moroux.
Discussion was heard of the annual Boys State Program which will include two Rayne HIgh students. They have already received their registration packets for the summer event slated June 25-July 1 on the campus of Northwestern State University. Local sponsors are Post 77, Rayne Lions Club, Woodmen of the World and Bank of Commerce. Each registration was in hand awaiting the security deposit to be paid by each of the participants.
A reminder was given to all in attendance to take advantage of the new VA Clinic now open in Lafayette. The new Lake Charles Clinic is set to open this summer.
Commander Simon reported of the recent weekend musical entertainment held at the Legion Home, in addition to a banquet held by the Acadiana Sportsman’s League held the previous weekend.
Legion school awards were ordered and a complete list of Post 77 legionnaires who will make presentations during the end of the school year award programs.
Following the maintenance report including projects and repairs recently completed at the Legion Home, Commander Simon accepted a donation from Lisa Soileaux on behalf of her family members who have served in the military. The funds will be used for the installtion for one of four ceiling fans and control switches in need of replacement at the Legion Home. Donations would be appreciated.
Ray Olinger gave the memership report as 164 of 184 locally in addition to on-line dues that he has not received as of date.
With no further business to come before the Post, the meeting was concluded and chicken and sausage gumbo meal was served by the Legion cooks.

CROWLEY – The Acadia Parish School Board is always thrilled to recognize good things in the schools. Monday (May 2) was another opportunity to do just that.
During its May regular session, the board welcomed Shirlene Bender, state HOSA advisor, to recognize the Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award to Cassie Ancelet of Rayne High.
“Each year, national HOSA asks each state advisor to choose one chapter advisor, one teacher in the entire state, as the Outstanding Chapter Advisor for HOSA, and that’s probably the toughest task I have, because all of the teachers I work with at HOSA are great teachers,” said Bender.
“This year, I realized there is one teacher that is long overdue. She started her chapter in HOSA with her students in 2010, shortly after I began my path in that, and she’s been going strong ever since. She’s the type of teacher that doesn’t ask to be recognized, she just does what needs to be done.”
HOSA is an international student organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Science Education (HSE) Division of ACTE. HOSA’s two-fold mission is to promote career opportunities in the health care industry and to enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people.
HOSA’s goal is to encourage all health science instructors and students to join and be actively involved in the HSE-HOSA Partnership. It was created in 1976 and has grown steadily, reaching over 200,000 members through 51 chartered HOSA Associations, including Louisiana HOSA, which oversees chapters like Rayne’s.
Rayne is one of only 26 chapters in the entire state this year.
After applauding Ancelet, the board turned the meeting over to several teams from Iota to be recognized.
First, Iota High School’s powerlifting team made a return visit to the board with even more successes to report.
“Last year, was my first season at Iota High School … we went on to be West Regional runners-up last year and we placed fourth with our boys in state; then went on to High School National Championships … and we won the co-ed national title and the boys won runner-up,” said Ray Aucoin, Iota’s powerlifting coach.
“This season … at Regionals, out of 17 teams, we placed second and were runners-up to Class 4A Abbeville, so we were regional runners-up again but a strong intent to win state.
“We lost two to on the way (to state) – due to injury and medical condition. So our goal was to do the best we could, and somehow with nine kids and the good Lord helping us, … our boys got state runners-up.”
One of the improvements this year was the addition of a full girls’ powerlifting team. When they looked to add one this year, according to Aucoin, 43 girls tried out for the team.
As the season progressed, Iota continued to grow and improve and, by the end, the teams were state runners-up with two individual state champions (Sabian Trahan and Justin Francois) on the boys’ side and one girl (Sadie Zaunbrecher) who placed third individually.
At regionals, one of Iota’s girls (Chloe Smith) also won an individual title and broke two 20-year-old records.
After the high school presentation, Iota Middle School’s softball and baseball teams were called up. Each finished runners-up in the state junior high championship.
The team finished 23-7 overall and 13-0 in Scott’s Acadiana Junior High Softball League.
The baseball team, meanwhile, comprised mostly of seventh graders, took a few lumps in the beginning, but eventually it would improve to 15-3 overall and 9-0 in the Acadiana League and out-score its opponents 176-55.
Principal Lee Ann Wall stressed that middle school-aged children from Egan and Evangeline elementary schools are invited to try out, making the team a collective effort.

“Rayne is in a very stable and positive position financially,” said a local CPA in presenting the city audit during Monday night’s city council meeting.
Tiffany Thibodeaux, of Thibodeaux Accounting Co., LLC, explained that the low debt — only $500,000 in bonds — and $21 million in assets places the city on sound financial footing.
Thibodeaux said there were two findings reported for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2016.
“The first is that the city does not have a staff person who has the qualifications and training to apply general accepted accounting principals (GAAP) in recording the entity’s financial transactions or preparing the financial statements,” Thibodeaux said.
“This is a finding that they will likely always have primarily because the city does not have the funds to hire someone with these qualifications.”
She explained that the city has evaluated the cost versus benefits of establishing internal controls over the preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP and has determined that it is in the best interest to outsource this task to its independent auditors.
The second finding is a budget violation, Thibodeaux said.
“By law, total actual revenues should not be 5 percent or less of total budgeted revenues,” she said. “The total actual revenues in the Section 8 Fund failed to meet total budgeted revenues by 5 percent or more.
“In short, management did not properly amend the budget and actual revenues fell short of budgeted revenues by more than 5 percent in that fund.”
By closely monitoring budget to actual comparisons near year end, the city should be able to make required budget amendments and resolve this finding, Thibodeaux said.
For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2016, the city of Rayne’s government-wide revenues totaled $14.6 million. The government-wide program expenses totaled $41.5 million.
The assets purchased during the year totaled $873,949, the major purchases being equipment and improvements.
“The city’s assets totaled $20.9 million government-wide with deferred outflows of $1.3 million and the liabilities totaled $1.8 million,” she said. “The city of Rayne’s assets exceeded its liabilities at the close of the fiscal year by $14.1 million.
“The largest portion — 94 percent, or $15.3 million — of the net assets is investment in capital assets used to provide services to citizens.”
In other finance-related action, the council approved a resolution setting millage rates for fiscal 2017 on all property subject to taxation by the city
Millages were set at:
General Alimony 7.10 mills
Parks and Recreation 5.00 mills
“These are the same millage rates as last year,” said City Clerk Annette Cutrera. “In fact, these millage rates have bee the same since Oct. 11, 2004. They have not changes in 13 years.”
The council also approved a measure that would provide a credit card to be used by the mayor and/or the city clerk for the purchase of online items for the city.
“We’ve been using our own credit cards and getting reimbursed, but there have been some problems,” explained Mayor Charles “Chuck” Robichaux.
Dexter Harmon spoke against the measure, claiming that some credit card reimbursements paid the mayor in the past may not have been for city business.

RAYNE - Funeral services will be held on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 1:30 pm at Gossen Funeral Home Chapel for Martin William Dischler Sr., 89, who died Wednesday, May 10, at his son's home in Rayne.

Interment will be in the St. Joseph Cemetery #2, Mausoleum in Rayne.

Fr. Kevin Bordelon, Pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Rayne, will conduct the funeral services.

Survivors include son, Martin William Dischler Jr. and wife Belinda of Rayne; two daughters, Florette Dischler of Rayne, Jacqueline Dischler Broussard and husband Marc of Lafayette; seven grandchildren, Jan Dischler Trahan and husband Joey, Martin William "Billy" Dischler III and wife Tessa, Anthony Conrad "Tony" Dischler, Millicent Broussard Venable and husband Ryan, Mary Beth Broussard McElligott and husband Bill, Elliot Krielow, Anthony Krielow; 12 great-grandchildren, Joseph Trahan, Jack Martin Trahan, Jon-Thomas Trahan, Jacob Trahan, Madeline Dischler, Mary-Kathryn Dischler, Martin "William" Dischler IV, Lillian Venable, Kaitlyn Venable, Leyton Venable, Everett Dischler, Brooks Dischler, Greer McElligott; and a sister, Helen Dischler Robles of Mississippi.

He was preceded in death by wife, Marcella Comeaux Dischler; his parents, Anthony Conrad Dischler and Helena Zaunbrecher Dischler; and three sisters, Pauline Dischler Roy, Antonia Dischler Leger and Mona Dischler Gossen.

Mr. Dischler was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and was adored by his grandchildren, great-grandchildren who called him "Granddaddy." He was a dedicated farmer until he was 84 years of age.

Pallbearers will be Elliot Krielow, Anthony Krielow, Martin William "Billy" Dischler III, Anthony "Tony" Dischler, Joseph Trahan, Jack Trahan and Jon-Thomas Trahan.

The family requests that visitation be observed in Gossen Funeral Home in Rayne on Thursday, May 11, from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm.

Friends may view the obituary and guestbook online at www.gossenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Gossen Funeral Home, Inc. of Rayne, (337) 334-3141.