Please remember to remove your recycling cart/bin from the curb once it has been serviced. If your recycling cart/bin is at the curb on your scheduled garbage day, it will be dumped with the garbage.

No plastic bags or glass.

Please leave your recyclables loose in the cart. Do not put in trash bags as these bags are not recyclable.

View Former Saint Zach Strief's

video on the Do's and Don'ts of recycling today.

This week's show will be at Peter Atkins Park (701 N. Tyler Street). The following four will be at Bogue Falaya Park … unless the park is too wet or under water ... then we'll pivot to the Trailhead.

Although free, please register at History and Mystery of CovLA.

"Exemplary High Performing” schools have their state’s highest high school graduation rates and the highest achieving students (the top 15%) in English and mathematics, measured by state assessments. This is the second time Saint Paul's School has received this distinction from the U.S. Department of Education.

During my congratulatory remarks, the students began chanting

"Slow Your Roll." Those kids ; )

In 1950 the children were posing by the City's new fire truck (in front of what today is the Firehouse Events Center on Theard Street). Per Mrs. Sharon Vergez Vercellotti, it was a 1949 Seagraves. Seagraves Fire Apparatus is the longest running fire truck manufacturer in America.

In the picture, left to right, are Shirley and John Braun. They lived upstairs in the fire house. Eight year old Sharon, Melinda Blanchard and Sharon's younger brother, Leon Vergez. Melinda lived across the street from the station.

Sharon and her brother lived on Topaz Street (now East 25th Avenue). Streets near C.J. Schoen were at one time named after jewels and minerals*. Today, Miss Sharon and her husband John live in that same childhood home about 1/2 block away. It was the home of her grandparents, Auguste and Berthe Mamer Vergez. They purchased the home in 1903 and planted the pecan trees after the hurricane of 1905. Mr. Vergez served with the Fire Department and was a carriage maker, wagon builder and blacksmith. He designed and built the first pumper-wagon for Jefferson Number 1 Fire Department in 1908. This pumper replaced some bucket brigades and was a significant step forward in technology of the day.

Miss Sharon's father, Henri Vergez, served as Fire Chief for 13 years and as a volunteer for 40 years. His shop was where Bigler Woodworks is located today.

Below, Miss Sharon stands in front of our most recently purchased new fire truck at the current Covington Fire Station #1. Sidenote: Today we really do have two fire stations, so there is a Fire Station #2.

*For more on street name changes or on the Vergez family, I refer you to Ron Barthet's Sanborn Maps of 1927 or his article on the Vergez Family.

Rooted in History, Focused on the Future