By T. Scott Boatright
As we head into 2024, it’s time to look ahead to do a New Year wishing for even better times ahead for Lincoln Parish.
Let’s start with a look at two local projects for our two largest parish governmental entities — the Ruston City Council and Lincoln Parish Police Jury.
For both, it’s all about progressing on big projects that will hopefully result in making major impacts on the parish in 2025.
So let’s hope Mother Nature will be kind to both as the Ruston City Council looks toward creating infrastructure and starting construction on a new Buc-ee’s Travel Center off of Tarbutton Road.
Plans are for the travel center to encompass 53,000 square feet, with 120 gas pumps. It is also expected to create a minimum of 200 full-time jobs with starting pay beginning at $16 per hour with full benefits including health insurance, three weeks of time paid off and company-matching 401-K retirement benefits.
That would be quite a significant impact with a hoped-for opening date of 2025.
The $7 million project to be built on land next to the current Northern Louisiana Medical Center will house the Lincoln parish health unit, health hut, and the humanitarian enterprises of Lincoln Parish, known as “the H.E.L.P agency.”
Architect Mike Walpole said recently that he expects plans to be finalized by February with a 12-14 month construction period beginning in early May with a targeted move-in date of the summer of 2025.
So here’s wishing Mother Nature is good to us in 2024 and allow those projects to keep pushing forward as fast as possible.
We also need to hope the “new” Lincoln Parish Police Jury can pull itself together after being majorly divided in 2023. United we stand is a manta both new and old jurors should be thinking about often as we move into 2024. Let’s hope new blood and thinking in the form of five new jurors helps that happen.
And let’s hope for good news for Simsboro after last summer’s shutdown of the Ardagh Glass Packaging — North America glass plant, located off the Industry exit on Interstate 20.
Another company moving into that now-empty plant would be quite a financial boon for Simsboro, which could use the added revenue putting that building back into use would bring.
Let’s also hope for turnarounds by our two college football programs — Louisiana Tech and Grambling State.
Both are trying to bounce back from bad seasons in 2023, but I have one specific wish for both that carries over to our parish high schools, too.
Let’s face it, the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals are slowly strangling mid-sized college athletic programs, with a trickle-down effect resulting in fewer scholarships for high school athletes heading to college.
Hopefully the end of COVID extensions will help with them some, but the NCAA needs to find a way to make things more equitable for everyone before colleges decide to move on entirely, which would likely only make matters even worse for colleges like Tech and Grambling.
And speaking of high school sports, why not follow Ruston’s first football championship in 30 years with a few more state titles in 2024.
The Ruston boys basketball team made a deep run last year and looks like it could be primed to do so again this year.
Lincoln Prep’s basketball team also made to the Top 28 last season, so let’s hope finally being able to play on its own school grounds this season after spending years as nomads brings a first state championship to the Panthers’ hoops program.
Choudrant’s baseball team found out that three-peats aren’t easy after making a run to the semifinals last season. But three out of four wouldn’t be bad, so here’s hoping for the Aggies’ first state baseball title under second-year coach Joel Antley.
And after cheering on the RHS football as they took state in 2023 — let’s hope for even more in 2024. If the Bearcats can overcome defensive losses this season the way they did on the other side of the ball last season, the chance at the first back-to-back state football championships for Ruston seems anything but impossible.
And that would be historic.
Most of all, here’s hoping for a wonderfully historic year for all of our Lincoln Parish residents. The Lincoln Parish Journal will be here to report whatever news you need to know on a timely and accurate basis.
But writing about good news is much more fun, so here’s hoping for an even better 2024.
